English 201
May 4, 2009
Fitting into the Global Public Argument
For the most part, there are many dangers, disasters, and problems in the world today. The main problem that my organization, the 4-H Club, and I believe is dangerous is pollution. Pollution has been around for decades and still has a major negative impact on the environment. Several people, like corporate leaders, government officials, environmentalists, and the general public, have debated about the problems that pollution causes and what should be done to reduce or stop pollution. Well, I’m going to write about the different types of pollution, some of the different debates about pollution, a couple of solutions that may help reduce some pollution, and the debate about if these solutions are effective or ineffective.
Three main types of pollution exist, which are air, water, and land pollution. Air pollution primarily comes from car emissions, industrial factories and power plants, burning trash, and deforestation. All of these things have helped air pollution rise to deadly levels and cause health problems, such as asthma, bronchitis, and pneumonia. Another type of pollution is water pollution and several pollutants that cause water pollution are industrial pollution, people dumping trash into rivers and oceans, agricultural herbicide and pesticide runoff, radioactive waste, sewage, oil spills, etc. Also, water pollution can kill people, wildlife, and plants and can carry deadly diseases, like cholera, diarrhea, and trachoma. The final type of pollution is land pollution, which is caused by putting trash into landfills, industries burying industrial waste, acid rain, pesticide pollution, etc. Land pollution can pollute the soil to the point that people can not live in an area, have to evacuate their homes and go live somewhere else, can kill plants and animals, and can eventually seep into water sources and cause more pollution.
Now there are several debates about pollution, but I only chose a few that pertain to questions, like are air and water pollution serious problems and are corporations polluting the environment. For starters, there is the debate about whether or not air pollution threatens human health. My organization, the 4-H Club, and several environmentalists believe that air pollution is a serious risk to human health. Air pollution can increase respiratory symptoms in healthy people, may alter the immune system, irritates the lungs thereby increasing peoples risk for respiratory infections, interferes the ability of the blood to carry oxygen to tissues and organs in the body, impaired mental performance, headaches, nausea, fatigue, dizziness, etc. Also, the most severe effects that air pollution causes are chronic heart and lung disease, a coma, and death. All of these health problems can be reduced, but the only way this will happen is if the government and industries find a better way to reduce or stop pollution. On the other hand, the EPA, which is the Environmental Protection Agency, and other industries think that the air quality has improved over the last couple of years. The EPA states that toxic air pollutants have dropped considerably and that the air quality will keep improving. Also, the EPA, along with other government agencies, wants to continue to improve the air quality in the United States.
Another debate is about if corporations are causing pollution or reducing pollution. Several environmentalists and my organization, the 4-H Club, believe that corporations are causing pollution. Corporations have been around for a long time, but now the corporations have gained more power and are spread through out the world causing pollution that damages the environment. People see pollution almost every day, so it is not like no one on earth does not know about pollution. The local and global media also mentions the different forms of pollution, like oil spills, mercury poisoning, chemical explosions, etc. These corporations are polluting the air, water, and soil to the extent that it is affecting plants, animals, and people’s health. A lot of animals, plants, and even people have died from too much exposure to pollution. This needs to stop and corporations have to do a better job of disposing harmful chemicals and pollutants. However, several businesses and corporations think that they have made a lot of progress reducing pollution and conserving resources. All of these big businesses and corporations state that they use fewer materials and create technology that minimizes pollution.
Pollution is a major problem, but there are a few things the people can do to help reduce it. The simplest thing people can do is to recycle. Almost anything can be recycled. For example, people can recycle paper, plastic, glass, metal, batteries, motor oil, appliances, cell phones, laptops/computers, etc. People just have to find a recycling center close to where they live, sort out the recyclable items at the recycling center, and that is it. Another thing that people can do is reuse items or give old items away to places like Goodwill. People can also plant a tree like my organization, the 4-H Club, is doing. My organization, the 4-H Club, is doing a project called the 4-H Million Trees Project. The goal of this project is to get 4-H members and volunteers from across the United States and Canada to plant one million trees to help reduce air pollution. Other groups and organizations can join this cause and become members of the Arbor Day Foundation within four years. Several 4-H clubs and other organizations will also get twelve trees to plant, one dollar each tree, throughout these four years. Another great thing about planting trees is that the shade from trees helps cool buildings, which reduces the use of electricity, trees absorb runoff, and new trees make up for trees lost to deforestation. Also another thing people might want to do is walk, ride a bike, take public transportation, or carpool to help reduce pollution.
All of these solutions are great, but one solution is really being debated, which is recycling. The debate is mainly about if recycling is effective or ineffective. Of course, my organization, the 4-H Club, and environmentalists strongly believe that recycling is effective. Recycling reduces dependency on increasingly expensive landfills, recycling programs have saved cities millions of dollars, and efficient recycling programs can reduce waste and pollution. However, several industries believe that recycling programs are unprofitable and unnecessary, recycling can waste resources, and that recycling does not reduce waste.
Overall, all topics, including the topics I have mentioned, will be debated. People can choose going to a landfill or going to a recycling center because it is their choice to make. However, something has to be to either reduce pollution or stop it all together. Different animals are going extinct because pollution is causing global warming, which affects animal’s habitats, and pollution destroys animal’s food sources, like plants and smaller animals. Our planet, in essence, is slowly dieing and this is all happening because of the major impact that we all have on the planet. This is not just caused by pollution, but also by overpopulation, habitat destruction, consuming too many resources, expanding cities, etc. Right now people need to make a change to help save the planet because if we don’t do something soon, several future generations will not have a future to live for.
Works Cited
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4-H Million Trees. March 2008. University of Illinois Extension. 19 April 2009
