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Air pollution essay cities
Essay on air pollution in urban areas
Air pollution essay cities
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Air pollution concentrations have been rapidly increasing in the major urban areas of Brazil caused mainly by the increasing use of vehicles. Policies to control car emissions in Brazil have relied basically on mandatory emission standards and subsidies for specific cleaner technology resulting in substantial decrease of car emission rates. Nevertheless, taxes on car sales, differentiated by vehicles' size and fuel, have also influenced car emission patterns. This paper analyses the compliance trend of the Brazilian fleet with environmental standards between 1992 and 1997. We find that larger automobiles had the fastest compliance schedule while popular models adjusted very slowly. Also gasoline-fuelled models had a faster adjustment pattern than ethanol cars. Additionally, we analyse the current relationship between pollution emissions and car characteristics in order to orient policy formulation. We find a positive relationship between emissions rates and horse power, concluding that although the current value-added sale car tax is not environmental harmful, a tax differentiating clean from dirty models, within each tax bracket, could create substantial incentives for emission control in the future. Urban air pollution is a serious environmental problem in developed as well as in most developing countries. In the case of Brazil, air pollution concentrations have been rapidly increasing in the major urban areas over the last decades. As elsewhere, this expansion has been caused mainly by the increasing use of vehicles. Today, emissions from vehicles are the major source of air pollution in Brazil's largest cities. In 1997 in São Paulo, for example, private cars were responsible for approximately 75% of carbon monoxide (CO), 73% of hydrocarbons (HC), 23% of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and 10% particulate matter (PM) Costs associated with high air pollution concentrations in large cities are known to be important. Human health costs predominate, and range from eye irritations to respiratory problems and increasing cancer rates, all of which induce direct and indirect costs to society2. They also estimate the health costs associated with concentration levels in excess of air pollution standards, finding a loss of approximately US$ 700 million per year in the early 1990s. Even when consumers can perceive individual emission damage, they are unable to reduce alone the aggregate social emission costs. Consequently, their preferences will usually not consider fuel and car cleanliness. In the presence of this negative externality, environmental regulation is required. If we were able to measure emissions by individual cars, the first best incentive option for car emission control would be the imposition of a Pigovian tax on each source according to its marginal contribution to air pollution damages.
Increasing environmental awareness, coupled with a responsible American government and improved technology, have all contributed to the comeback of low-and zero-emissions vehicles in the US. It remains to be seen whether the automakers and oil companies will once again work to halt this progress, or embrace it as the technology of a more responsible future.
Ever since the Environmental Protection Agency otherwise known as the EPA, and the Clean Air Act were enacted into law in 1970 the American Auto Industry has been inundated with many environmental challenges such as brake debris/tire particles, paint and coating, auto shredding residue, battery content, smog, and gasoline. For the first time in 14 years, cost reduction ranked 32% compared to environmental issues such as emissions and fuel economy which ranked 53% in consumer reports.
The U.S. has approximately 119,000 companies involved in the environmental technologies and services industry, which is a $782 billion market. Also, firms must offset new or additional emissions with emission reductions by a 5-to-1 ratio. This means any firm who increases their emissions output in one area by one ton must reduce their emissions output in another area by 5 tons (McKee, 1991). Finally, new emissions producing companies will have to start up with state-of-the-art equipment.
[11]Reviewing Existing And Proposed Emissions Trading Systems. (2010, Nov). Retrieved May 18, 2014, from International Energy Agency: http://www.iea.org/publications/freepublications/publication/ets_paper2010.pdf
When we think of air pollution we think of the refineries in our cities and the exhaust coming from our cars mostly. In reality there are many more pollutants that we don't think about every day. The six most common air pollutants are; “Carbon monoxide, Nitrogen oxides, Sulphur oxides, Particulate matter, Volatile organic compounds, and Ground-level ozone (nitrogen oxide and Volatile organic compounds reaction)”(David Suzuki Foundation). The fact is people are dying from air pollution and we are doing nothing to make it better, in fact air pollution is getting worse.
During the late 1900’s, fuel efficiency was given very little thought by automakers. Instead, they competed with each other by coming out with larger and more powerful vehicles each year, and by doing so they sacrificed fuel efficiency, because each new vehicle that they built got fewer miles per gallon. Americans craved bigger and more powerful cars, so to comply with the car buyers, that is what the automakers built (Surowiecki 25). However, “polls show that, given an option, some three-quarters of them vote for dramatic increases in fuel-economy standards” (Surowiecki 25).
Pollution is a major problem for all of us. People need to recognize this situation so we can start making a difference to this problem. In order to start making a difference, the federal government should increase gasoline tax by one dollar a gallon. Fifty percent of this dollar will go towards public transportation, since passenger cars and trucks are a major contribution towards air pollution, according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, E.P.A (10/4, http://www.epa.gov/autoemissions/emsns.html). Due to the expected increase after this is put forth, the remaining fifty percent of the dollar will go towards safety on these transits. When public transportation increases, air pollution will decrease, which will lessen the harmful health risks towards the environment.
Vehicles are responsible for up to eighty percent of air pollution in Mexico. There are close to four million automobiles, buses, and trucks in the city, the average of which is ten years old, and thus in poor repair with ineffective emission controls. Emissions are increased by the excessive traffic compressed into narrow streets with few parking spaces, requiring low-speed cruising (Collins, 125). Even new engines oft...
Relevance: Air pollution is something that everyone should be concern, especially if we’re advancing a lot in technology, especially in vehicles and the importance of our air or the environment.
Air pollution is caused by many things such as car fumes, burning of fossil fuels,
Air pollution is a type of pollution that can severely damage our environment as well as the earth’s atmosphere. Air pollution occurs all the time when the air contains many substances ...
Car pollutants cause immediate and long-term effects on the environment. Car exhausts emit a wide range of gases and solid matter, causing global warming, acid rain, and harming the environment and human health. Engine noise and fuel spills also cause pollution. Cars, trucks and other forms of transportation are the single largest contributor to air pollution in the United States, but car owners can reduce their vehicle's effects on the environment. Car pollution is one of the major causes of global warming. Cars and trucks emit carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, which contribute one-fifth of the United States' total global warming pollution. Greenhouse gases trap heat in the atmosphere, which causes worldwide temperatures to rise.
Air Pollution is when a poisonous or a harmful substance is released in the air. There are many form of pollution but air is one of them, it only occurs when dust, harmful gases or smoke enters into the atmosphere and makes it hard for species like plants, animals and humans to live in a difficult situation because of the dirty air.Air Pollution is classified in two sections, invisible air pollution and visible air pollution.. Hence any substance that makes it difficult for the living things that need the atmosphere is air pollution.Humans have been undergoing air pollution ever since the industrial revolution.In order to understand the causes of Air pollution, it is divided into divisions. Primary air pollutants and secondary air pollutants:
Many cities are currently affected by air pollution and Hong Kong is one example. Hong Kong’s air pollution level often exceeds the recommended air pollution level put out by the World Health Organization, and Hong Kong’s pollution index was at “very high” meaning that it exceeded 101, for 34% of the time (Hunt, 2011). Another example, when Hong Kong excee...
Every other day a new industries are being set up, new vehicles on roads and trees are being cut to make way for new homes. All of them, indirect way lead to increase in CO2 leads to melting of polar ice caps which increase the sea level and pose danger for the people living near coastal areas. Pollution can have an impact in our health not only affects people with impaired respiratory system such as asthmatics, but very healthy adults and children too. Exposure to pollution for 6 to 7 hours, even at relatively low concentrations, reduces lung function and induces respiratory inflammation and, healthy people during periods of moderate