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86200
Mrs. Lindstrom, Period 3
AP English 11 Ethics Essay
22 November 2010
Air Pollution
Picture this, thick pitch-black smog floating stagnant over the entire world because of the
everyday “necessities” of today. Houses will need to have their own air supply and everybody
will look like aliens wearing gas masks replacing one of the body’s main functions, filtering the
polluted air. Soon, astronauts looking down on the Earth, will see a black sheet covering the once
green Earth because of these “necessities.” Air is what fuels the human body with oxygen, if
other toxins are injected into this sanctified air, the public health diminishes.
Air pollution has both long and short-term effects on human health. Some short-term
effects are irritation to the eyes, nose, and throat; pneumonia; bronchitis; along with aggravating
many other diseases that one may already have. Thick black smog is proven to have deadly longterm effects on humans such as lung cancer and heart disease. Air pollution can also damage the
brain, nerves, liver, and kidneys. Air pollution affects your body because most of the toxins in
the polluted air is carbon dioxide. When the human body breathes, the body takes oxygen to the
lungs to be filtered into sacs called alveoli. The alveoli then transfer the air into the blood stream
while simultaneously extracting carbon dioxide from the blood stream causing the body to
exhale carbon dioxide. What happens if the air is polluted? If the air is polluted, most of the air is
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carbon dioxide causing the body to inhale what it would normally expel, causing a lack of
oxygen running through the body.
Air pollution not only affects humans it affects the whole ecosystem. CFC’s are
deteriorating the Earth’s ozone layer. The ozone layer is the single most important essential to
having life on earth. It protects the sun’s harmful rays from entering the Earth and incinerating
all of the living organisms on the surface of the Earth. The lack of an ozone layer has led to the
current problem of global warming. The ice caps are beginning to melt, raising the ocean levels
approximately two feet in the next century. Even though two feet does not sound like a large
change, it will reduce 10,000 square miles of land in the United States. The Oceans are also
increasing in temperature causing larger hurricanes to rip across land. Air pollution leads to
many other problems, perhaps more relentless than the initial tribulations that could occur to the
public health. Due to the snowball effect, air pollution needs to be lowered soon before the Earth
is depleted of its ozone and global warming spikes to new heights.
To stop the world from reaching global warming, the ordinary person can make changes
to their every-day habits to make a positive difference. The first action a person can take is to
save paper. If everybody saves their paper, the amount of carbon dioxide released into the air is
reduced because less paper is burned, keeping the air cleaner. Overall saving paper will save
energy from recycling the paper. Saving energy is the second action that can be made. Energy is
created and when it is created many different toxins are released into the air. People can save
energy by upgrading their appliances to the Energy Star rating. The most important action that
can be made is reducing the use of gasoline in vehicles. One way to do this is simply make sure
that the tires are aligned and inflated to the proper PSI. Another action that can be made to
reduce gasoline is to go into fast food restaurants to avoid waiting in line for the drive through.
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Checking the vehicles engine will also help save gas because if it is malfunctioning it may be
using more gas than needed. The easiest way to save gas is to find somebody to carpool with.
In conclusion, it is simple to reduce the rate of air pollution and the scientists will do
their job and find a way to extract the carbon dioxide from the air. If the air pollution is lowered,
then public health will increase due to the fact that the air that the public would be inhaling
would be cleaner.