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Pollution

How Pollution is Hindering the Earth and What Are the Possible Solutions
Jesus Sotelo
University of Texas at El Paso

Pollution

Abstract
Today the world faces a big problem caused by mankind. It used to be war the
main problem in humanity caused by men, now its pollution. With people driving around
cars, factories producing and contaminating the air, and the dumping of trash in the
oceans and rivers serve as the main cause for the following: levels of carbon dioxide
raising in the earths atmosphere and pollution in the earths waters provoking the
deterioration of earths habitability little by little. As of today theres places like Mexico
City where the sky is barely seen blue due to the high levels of smog caused by carbon
dioxide released by factories and vehicles. This can cause a lot of problems, ranging
from global warming to fatal respiratory problems. Pollution is also present in water
bodies across the planet. Such problem also hinders the planet. Currently there are
solutions being implemented, or at least attempted to end this crisis. This reviews
purpose is to address what the problem is with pollution, the possible solutions that exist
today, the facts behind it, and the cause and effect in case these solutions arent put into
action.
Pollution
Since the invention of machines and motor vehicles things in our daily lives have
become much easier. In the case of automobiles, what it used to took hours to get to,
now it only takes a few minutes driving. However, the end of a problem sometimes
might lead to another. In this case air pollution. Air pollution has become a serious issue
nowadays, due to the contaminated gases that these machines release. This is also a
primary reason for global warming, since these gases get locked up in the atmosphere,
destroying one of the main layers of the atmosphere, provoking temperatures to rise
and the glaciers melting at an exponential rate. Theres also a problem with trash and
industrial waste polluting the oceans, rivers, and other bodies of water. This puts at risk
the life of not only the marine life and other life-forms that live in water, but human life
and terrestrial animals because of the fact that we need water to survive. Today there
are numerous associations and individual people whose main focus is to decrease
pollution as much as possible. It is now understood that pollution in the planet is a
serious matter, and that there are methods that can help reduce it and also that the
effect of it could be catastrophic if such solutions arent implemented. This leads to
formulating the following questions that will serve as a guide for a better understanding
of this issue:
1. What methods to reduce pollution exist today?

2. What are the facts behind the solutions for pollution?

3. What will happen if these solutions arent implemented?
4. Who can be able to implement these solutions to reduce pollution?

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What methods to reduce pollution exist today?

One of the most efficient methods to reduce pollution according to analysts is
minimizing the use of vehicles, machines, and artifacts that release high levels of
carbon dioxide, and these gases travel up to the earths atmosphere causing a
greenhouse effect (gases in the atmosphere causing radiation from the planet to heat
up the earths surface). Recycling, placing trash in proper places, riding a bike to
school/work, using public transportation, like the subway and the bus, and using hybrid
vehicles are some alternatives that the people can take advantage of to minimize
pollution.
Pollution is not only in the air. Theres also tons of trash that make the earth a
contaminated place, especially the oceans and bodies of water. Recently a 19-year-old
with the name of Boyan Slat developed an ocean cleaning array that will be able to
remove about 7,250,000 tons of plastic trash from the worlds oceans. Oil spills in the
ocean are a problem too, and one of the solutions that national guard has used in the
past was simply burning the oil of out the ocean. These spills have also been cleaned
with hair and mushrooms, and bacteria (this method is known as bioremediation) that
eats up the oil. It sounds crazy but those methods worked in the past.

What are the facts behind the solutions for pollution?

The first solution involved minimizing the use of anything that released carbon
dioxide, mostly focusing in motor vehicles. However, the facts behind these alternatives
show that some of them arent too accessible to many of the population. For example,
hybrid vehicles that work on electricity or other type of energy tend to have a high cost,
thus incrementing the number of people operating motor vehicles than operating hybrid
vehicles. In the case of recycling, is something with less issues, but it comes with a
catch, as it costs more to recycle waste than to take advantage of its product, meaning
that it is a profit loss to a city supporting recycling projects.
Over 7.5 million tons of all kinds of garbage are dumped into the ocean each
year, making bodies of water extremely polluted. This trash is not only affecting the
cleanness of the water, but is making life hard for animals that live in/near the water,
mainly birds, and marine life. The solutions mentioned previously have shown to be
effective. The first one includes a set of anchored network of floating booms and
processing platforms that could be dispatched to garbage patches around the world.
Instead of moving through the ocean, the array would span the radius of a garbage
patch, acting as a giant funnel. The angle of the booms would force plastic in the
direction of the platforms, where it would be separated from plankton, filtered and stored
for recycling. One of the other methods included mushrooms and human hair to remove

Pollution

the oil from the sea. This works by placing mats of hair and mushrooms in the
contaminated coast, then these mats will act as sponges, absorbing the oil. In the other
hand, bioremediation, or oil-eating bacteria are dumped in the polluted parts of the
ocean, then a mixture of sulfate or nitrate fertilizers is added in order for the bacteria to
multiply, thus expanding the cleaning range.

What will happen if these solutions arent implemented?

If we dont reduce the usage of machines that release carbon dioxide, the
consequences will be bad. As we see in some cities across the world, their skies are full
of smog due to the factories and vehicles contaminating. Places like China where their
economy depends a lot on manufacturing obviously have the most contaminated sky in
the world. Having such high levels of pollution in the sky can lead to respiratory
problems such as asthma. According to Gerald Markowitz, author of Deceit and Denial:
The Deadly Politics of Industrial Pollution, air pollution also lowers the proper
functionality of ones lungs, which can also lead to cancer, also it damages the immune
system leaving people vulnerable to disease. Global warming is another problem that
comes in hand with polluted air, as high levels of greenhouse gases cause radiation
from the planets atmosphere to warm the earths surface to a temperature above
normal, resulting in the melting of glaciers that will eventually cause the sea level to
raise and putting in danger coast cities like San Francisco.
The following graph shows some of the most polluted cities across the globe:

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Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5072642.stm
Having the oceans and bodies of water contaminated leads to many problems.
One of these problems will be that oil spills, if not cleaned, will hurt marine animals,
endangering them to extinct. In the case of rivers and other similar bodies of water, due
to the pollution, water from these places will be extremely hazardous to drink and
leading to a decrease of potable water across the planet. Contamination in rivers can
also lead to disaster. The Cuyahoga River in Cleveland, Ohio has caught in fire multiple
times since 1868 due to all of the industrial waste dumped in it, which contains a high
percentage of flammable materials.

Who can be able to implement these solutions to reduce pollution?

More than anybody, it is up to the people to start taking the initiative to at least
make an attempt to reduce the use of vehicles that release Co2 (carbon dioxide).
However, since the air is also contaminated by the fumes of factories that produce a lot
of products we buy, it will be up to the people in charge of those large corporations
whose product production pollutes the environment. The government can also play a
big role in this situation. Recently in Beijing, China, they put restrictions on factory
production and car use. Five million cars were forced to drive on alternating days so that the
citys usually smoggy skies would be clear blue.
Below, two pictures before and after Beijing put the restrictions to vehicles and factories causing
pollution:

Before restrictions

After restrictions

Pollution

Source for both images: http://www.boredpanda.com/blue-skies-military-parade-no-cars-beijing/

In order to put those cleaning methods into action, it requires the right people to
do it. Mainly people with power/money, or organizations with sufficient resources. For
example, the natural resource defense council (the NRDC), this organization has been
around for over 40 years making numerous efforts to protect the environment. As of
today the NRDC is composed of over 2 million members, out of which 500 of them are
lawyers, scientists and other professionals. Implementing cleaning methods such as the
one originated by 19-year-old which involves a funnel-like cleaning effect produced by a
network of platforms, depend on financial support. Sometimes someone comes up with
an idea to solve a problem but theyre not able to get it to work due to lack of funding,
thats when those people with either influence or with available funds come into play as
some of them provide those type of projects with the resources they require.

Conclusion/Synthesis
This review shows two parts to this major issue, one focusing on air pollution and
the other on the polluted oceans and other bodies of water. The review also provides
the reader with information that improves their knowledge regarding the dangers and
solutions of pollution. Readers will see that having high levels of contaminated air can
lead to all kinds of trouble, global warming being the main one besides getting sick due
to the polluted air. As seen in this review, its safe to say that in the near future if the
solutions proposed by experts are implemented, the worlds air will be more breathable
than today and that global warming will just be a crisis from the past. Pollution in the
earths water also matters. It threatens marine life and the drinkability of potable water,
and like any other problem, theres people working on different methods to solve such
problem. It can be concluded that it is more than evident that our planet is being

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affected negatively by pollution. It is one of the many major issues that exist today,
probably the most important as it puts the life condition of our planet at risk. That means
that without a habitable planet, then there will not be anything else that will matter at the
end of the day.

References
Black, Richard (2006, June 19). Finding Green in the Concrete Jungle. Retrieved from:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5072642.stm
Danius, D. (2015, September 7). Beijing Bans 2.5 Million Cars , Residents See Blue Skies For
First Time In Ages. Retrieved from: http://www.boredpanda.com/blue-skies-military-parade-nocars-beijing/
McNutt, Rebecca (2014). Smog City. Toronto, Ontario: Gasmask Books
Harris, Gardiner (2015, May 29). Holding Your Breath in India. Retrieved from:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/31/opinion/sunday/holding-your-breath-in-india.html
Schabner, Dean (2015, October 18). Is Recycling Worth the Trouble, Cost?. Retrieved from:
http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=91824&page=1
Tarbuck & Lutgens (2010, January 15). Earth Science. Indiana, United States: Prentice Hall