Pollution In America Essay

632 Words2 Pages

Pollution is not seen as very big problem in many places in the United States because the worst of it is not in our back yard. This has to do with the fact that we are not a developing country, but even more to do with the fact that we export our pollutants such as trash and make it someone else’s problem. There are places in the United States and in developing country where pollution is a major problem and it has greatly to do with poverty. It is seen that, “the greater the concentration of Hispanics, Asians, African Americans or poor residents in an area, the more likely that potentially dangerous compounds such as vanadium, nitrates and zinc are in the mix of fine particles they breathe” (Katz, 2012). There are many reasons why certain races live in areas with higher pollution and poverty is the basis of the reason.

Areas of poverty are usually where companies are located and it is these large companies that contribute dramatically to the pollution in the area. Harmful companies get away with being built in poverty areas because they are comprised of people who …show more content…

Ethics asks you to do what you can, not what you cannot. People who have the resources to clean up their area are more able to accomplish this task than people in poverty because they do not have the resources or money to control pollution. “Poverty and pollution seem to operate in a vicious cycle that, so far, has been hard to break. Even in the developed nations, the gap between the rich and the poor is evident in their respective social and environmental conditions” (Advameg, Inc., 2016). Areas with wealthy people tend to have better means of trash pickup such as street sweepers in residential areas and individuals who live in poorer areas do not have access to this luxury so their trash accumulates on the streets. This viscous cycle of pollution that is linked to poverty would continue if the precautionary principle was

Open Document