THE WORLDS DRASTIC DECLINE

Brian HigginsEnglish 2010

Table of Contents

Introduction (slides 3-4) History (slides 5-10) Present Day (slides 11-17) Future (slides 18-19) Conclusion (slide 20) Works Cited (slides 21-22)

Introduction

The Health of Millions of people all around the world is

suffering. According to Matt Hoffman from WebMd, it's

because of the way many people eat. Eating food filled with

hormones, pesticides, and fillers containing beaks and other

unbelievable things are causing increased health problems

and decreased life expectancy(Hoffman #7). Some people

say its because of all the disease and the average standard

of living in America (Mchaney #11).

Introduction According to Sarah Mchaney with PBS, the reason America’s health is

declining is because as we have fallen from the list of richest countries

and many people cannot afford healthcare. The rate of Drug use in the

United States is at an all time high. According to statistics, she says

the we are the least safe on the road (Mchaney #9).

These are definitely some of the reasons why our health, as a whole,

has declined in the last fifty years. But I would dare say that pollution

is the largest contributing factor to the declining health of US citizens.

Who or what is creating the largest amount of pollution? What can

we do to change or make pollution less of a problem? What is the

pollution level now and where is the pollution level going?

History• Although it is impossible to tell

exactly when pollution started it is accurate to say that when civilization started, so did pollution. All civilization needs fire, water, food, shelter and ways of getting rid of waste.

• Fires create particulate matter, carbon dioxide, water vapor, and in some cases carbon monoxide.

• Not all but many civilizations got rid of their waste through rivers (Water and Air Pollution #1).

History All things about a fire can

potentially kill people. Particulate matter in high

amounts can stop the exchange of oxygen getting into the blood and can suffocate you.

Carbon dioxide is good for plants, but in high amounts can suffocate humans and animals.

Carbon monoxide replaces oxygen in your blood and in high amounts can suffocate you as well (Long Term Effects of Carbon Monoxide Poisoning #16).

History Polluting water is equally as

dangerous. A lot of water becomes undrinkable and if pollution gets bad enough it starts to kill wildlife. This effects the food supply and can potentially be dangerous to humans as well.

In the 1300s Kind Edward threatened heavy consequences among the people of London if they would not stop burning sea coal (Long Term Effects of Carbon Monoxide Poisoning #2).

In the late 1800s and the early part of the nineteenth century I would say pollution took a step into high gear with the beginnings of the industrial revolution.

History The growth of factories, assembly lines, manufacturing

companies, etc. skyrocketed the amount of the fossil fuel coal we were using.

I n 1948, 14,000 people died from inhaling dangerous amounts of zinc . An inversion held down the pollutants into the breathing toxic levels of the zinc ( History of Pollution #2).

Since then there have been laws created to help limit pollution. One being the clean air act.

History

The clean air act was passed in 1970. The act was passed for the preservation of human life. It is a federal law passed to regulate pollution and protect us from particulates in our breathing air. The act is regulated by the EPA( environmental protection agency) making sure that nothing hazardous goes into the air. They do this by mandatory inspection of certain industrial warehouses (Clean Air Act#4).

Since the clean air act was passed in 1970 the amount of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, and lead has gone significantly down. Since each state is required to monitor the amount of the elements are to be released into the air (Clean Air Act #4).

The likely hood of acid rain has gone way down and we are causing less damage to the ozone layer (Clean Air Act #4).

History The clean water act was passed in 1948 to regulate what people,

industries, etc. put into the water. The CWA made it illegal to dump anything into any water except by permit. Many oil spills or chemical spills that have made it into the oceans have caused hundred of thousands of fish and animal life to die (Clean Water Act #5).

In Hong Kong, thousands of fish were found along the sides of the river. Researchers found that extremely high amounts of Ammonia were found in the water. 110 tons of fish were removed from the river (Gough, #6).

PresentThe Need to raise awareness and concern to decrease pollution is at an all time high. Levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have increased from 286 parts per million of carbon dioxide in the last 40 years raising it to a total of a bout 386.3 ppm. For the first time in history there is evidence of greenhouse gases (CFC-11 and CFC-12), which were not present at all in the 1970’s (Clean Air Act, #4).

Present• Studies show that the eastern side of the United States has

the highest rates of mostly untested, dangerous, toxic chemicals. Most of this pollution is because the locations of the schools are near industrial warehouses. A lot of the toxic chemical being expelled from the warehouses have never been studied on their affects on children or adults (Evan, #7).

Present

In Las Angeles, California smog has become a concern not only for visibility for drivers, but crops are being damaged and rates of lung cancer are going up.

In Las Angeles its estimated that 1600 tons of hydrocarbons are released into the air daily. This has damaging effects on the ozone as well as the breathing air for humans and animals (Mader, #12)

Present Interesting facts About 14 billion pounds

of waste is dumped into the ocean each year killing over 100,ooo animals.

People living in higher polluted areas have a much greater chance of dying from lung cancer.

5,000 people die daily from polluted water (Aurora, #11).

Present

Bejing is another highly polluted place which gets something known as smog. Smog is a combination of particulate matter, carbon dioxide and water vapor. Smog not only makes it harder to see but it can cause asthma attacks. Breathing smog in during a day is equivalent to smoking 21 cigarettes(Okudera #14).

Present Interesting Facts

China is the most polluted country in the world followed by the United States. Pollution is so bad in China it changes the weather sometimes producing acid rain (Okudera, #12).

Scientist have found that due to the millions of tons of hydrocarbon being released into the air, the pH of the ocean is changing and making it more acidic.

One NASA launch produces up to 28 tons of carbon dioxide and 23 tons of particulate matter (Aurora #11)

Present

In June of 2013, the President made an announcement about his plan for the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate and set standards for carbon pollution at powerplants (Mader, #10).

How can we help? Carpooling is an easy way to save gas and lower emissions

instead of using two cars. Riding your bike whenever possible instead of using a car. If you smoke, it would be best to quit smoking. Every little

bit helps. Don’t lite fire’s unless you absolutely have to. They

release a lot of carbon dioxide into the air.

Future

The projection below is a table showing the average temperatures in the last 100,000 years. This graph projects that within the next 20 years the earths temperature will increase 9 degrees (Romm, #15).

Future If we don’t seriously start making big changes in the battle against pollution, scientists say we are on the right track for extinction

Once carbon dioxide levels get high enough people will start to suffocate and die.

Ocean waters will continue to get more acidic and start killing more sea life.

Water will be so polluted it will not be drinkable.

The Earth will become an unlivable environment .

ConclusionWe are on a steady pace to the extinction of our

planet. We have many different programs that are making a small difference but it isn’t enough. Still to this day 14 million tons of pollution is being expelled into our ocean yearly (Aurora, #11). Carbon dioxide levels continue to increase, which is slowly making our oceans more acidic and eventually leading to an unlivable environment for our sea life and eventually the Human race.

Citing1. “Water and Air Pollution.” The History Channel. The History Channel,

n.d.web. Oct 15 2013, 10:37.2. "History of Air Pollution." EPA. Environmental Protection Agency, n.d.

Web. 15 Oct. 2013.3. "Air Pollution and the Clean Air Act." EPA. Environmental Protection

Agency, n.d. Web. 16. Oct. 2013.4. “Summary of the Clean Air Act.” EPA. Environmental Protection

Agency ,Aug.14,2013 Web. 16 Oct. 2013.5. “Summary of the Clean Water Act.” EPA. Environmental Protection

Agency, July 26, 2013Web. 16 Oct. 2013.6. Gough, Neil. "Pollutants From Plant Killed Fish in China." New York

times. New York times, 4 Sept. 2013. Web. 16 Oct. 2013.7. Evans, David. "The Smokestack Effect: Toxic Air and America's

Schools." USA TODAY Special Report – The Smokestack Effect – Interactive Graphics and Video. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Oct. 2013.

8. World, Matthew Hoffman. MDWebMD Feature Provided in Collaboration with Healthy Child Healthy. "Understanding Food Safety: Pesticides, Hormones, and Antibiotics in Food." WebMD. WebMD, n.d. Web. 22 Oct. 2013.

WORKS CITED

9. Mchaney, Sarah. "Americans Far Less Healthy, Die Younger Than Global Peers, Study Finds." PBS News Hour. Pbs, 9 Jan. 2013. Web. 22 Oct. 201

10. Mader, Paul. "Effects of Present-Day Fuels on Air Pollution." Industrial & Engineering Chemistry (ACS Publications). N.p., Sept. 1956. Web. 23 Oct. 2013.

11. Aurora, Rajon. "Do You Know?" Interesting Facts About Pollution N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Oct. 2013.

12. Okudera, Atsushi. "Survey: Breathing Bad Air in Beijing like Smoking 21 Cigarettes." AJW The Asahi Shimbun, 3 Feb. 2013. Web. 23 Oct. 2013.

13."Stopping Global Warming." Environment America. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Oct. 2013.

14. "Long Term Effects of Carbon Monoxide Poisoning." Silent Shadow. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Oct. 2013.

15. Romm, Joe. "Must-Have High-Resolution Charts: Carbon Pollution Set To End Era Of Stable Climate." ThinkProgress RSS. N.p., 18 Mar. 2013. Web. 03 Dec. 2013.