Is It Real?

 

Have you seen the Hollywood sign in Los Angeles lately? Probably not. On hot, humid days the Hollywood sign is a distant dream. That thick yellow-brown smog that hovers over the city seems to indicate that there are difficulties in keeping air pollution below prescribed limits.

 

Since the advent of industrialization, the atmosphere – the very air we breathe – has steadily changed into something toxic to our lungs. The number of cases of asthma, lung cancer and other respiratory illnesses has increased with it.

 

But it’s not only our respiratory health that we need to be concerned about. Pollution doesn’t just hang around in the air; it’s in our drinking water and the soil in which we grow our food.

 

 

Is It Serious?

 

I don’t know. Let me check the local bureau of air monitoring to see if I need to wear a mask today, or if people with heart disease or the elderly should be caught roaming in their own backyards. The fact that states have set up these bureaus is a staggering and unfortunate sign of our times.

 

The effects that pollution has on our air, soil and water supplies are equally disastrous not only to our health but also to the health of individual ecosystems:

 

  • 4,500 people die in Tehran, Iran, each year due to runaway pollution problems, while the World Bank reports close to 750,000 people die in China each year as a result of health complications stemming from pollution.

  • Over 40% of North American fish are threatened by human-induced pollution.

  • Surface runoff accounts for a vast majority of water pollution when the pesticides and herbicides used to control agriculture fall into our drinking water.

  • In Germany, they’ve even created a new word to describe acid rain: Waldsterben, meaning, “forest death.” This reflects the horrible impact rainwater infused with sulfuric and nitric acids (from industry and cars) have on forests.

  • In China, 150 million square miles of its cultivated land has been polluted resulting in no less than 12 million tons of contaminated rice per year, thus a $2.57 billion loss.

 

Can We Stop It?

 

You bet your last breathe of fresh air we can stop it. And some people are trying by passing and enforcing environmental laws implemented to protect the air, soil and water we depend on. The following laws make up the basis for the United States’ stance on environmental issues:

 

  • National Environmental Policy Act, 1969.

  • The Clean Air Act, 1970.

  • The Safe Drinking Water Act, 1974.

  • Toxic Substances Control Act, 1976

  • The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, 1976.

  • The Clean Water Act, 1977.

  • Oil Pollution Act, 1990.

  • The Pollution Prevention Act, 1990.

 

Despite these laws, why is the environment still in the shape that it’s in? Three words: lack of accountability. It’s as if our legislators, many backed by big business, feel that passing a few laws will keep the people at bay, but we need active watchdogs to see that these laws are enforced.

 

 

Consequences of Not Acting?

 

There was a time, maybe one hundred years ago, when the sky was not blue. Your grandparents and great-grandparents, the ones who lived in or near major urban areas like New York City, Boston and Chicago, suffered from coughing fits daily, not to mention burning eyes and itching throats. It was a time when water supplies were mixed with sewage and waste, and there were absolutely no controls over food safety.

 

Today, hundreds of major urban areas have sprung up around the nation – Birmingham, Alabama; Louisville, Kentucky; Los Angeles, California – once remote towns are now home to millions of people and quite large business centers. Should pollution laws be weakened or not re-enacted or current regulations be relaxed, many more people could be affected than were at the turn of the 20th century. Possible consequences include:

 

  • “Red Tides,” which are toxic algal blooms, may occur more frequently or over greater areas than they now do.

  • Raw sewage overflows, which can occur when facilities are forced to discharge their excess directly into rivers or the ocean, may become more frequent.

  • Pollution has been found to directly contribute to global warming and those effects.

  • Without regulation on pesticides and herbicides, the soil will continue to deteriorate, its vital minerals and metals leached away, leaving it a barren, un-farmable slab of dead land.

  • Economic impacts from pollution would be devastating as everyone knows it costs more to clean up a mess than to create one.

 

Currently, China, United States, Russia, Mexico and Japan are the world’s leaders in air pollution emissions, with the U.S. and Canada being tops in the ranking of emission per capita. But many developing countries, in their haste to “catch up,” are quickly becoming growing threats to air, water and soil, too. Pollution is not a local issue, it’s global in every way. As the air is polluted, the soil and water easily become polluted as well since rivers and weather patterns do not recognize national borders.

 

Constant vigilance and support for those organizations that monitor environmental conditions and legislative action is needed at the grassroots level. It is very obvious that those we elect cannot be trusted to carry out our environmental demands; therefore, the citizens themselves (and that means you and me) should be the government’s watchdogs to ensure progress towards improving the quality of the environment.