Air Pollution

Essay by dblamp100Junior High, 9th gradeA+, May 2006

download word file, 1 pages 2.6

Air pollution is everywhere. Pollution is the unwanted introduction of substances that harm or destroy the atmosphere and our environment. Air pollution is destroying the ozone that protects us from the harmful rays of the sun. Air pollution comes from natural as well as human actions. The burning of fossil fuels like natural gas, coal, and oil produce carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, and particulates. Air pollution can also come from natural causes. A volcanic eruption can darken the sky for miles around the active site. Smog occurs because of temperature inversions. Smog usually happens in big cities when there are lots of cars and trucks. On days when the ozone level is high it is recommended that people stay indoors.

Global warming is a theory that Earth in slowly getting warmer. Scientists predict that the atmosphere will heat up by 1.4 to 5.8 degrees Celsius over the next 100 years.

Global warming has affected our planet in many different ways. It has increased our average global temperatures, our ice caps are slowly depleting, and that is raising the levels of the oceans.

In the past years, the United States Government put the Clean Air Act into affect. The Clean Air Act says that the air is to contain no more than specified levels of particulate matter, lead, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, volatile organic compounds, ozone, and other toxic substances. The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) is enforcing this law very strictly for refineries and power plants. The United States produces 35% of the world's green house gasses. Russia is the worlds second larges producer, 17% of the gasses comes from Russia.

Air Pollution is bad and the problem needs to be fixed. If we do not try to fix or reduce the pollution we could...