Paul Vo
Chandler High School
Dec 13, 2011
Air pollution is most commonly associated with acidic precipitation, smog, and
the depletion of our ozone layer. Acid rain is one of the biggest air quality problems that
upstate New York deals with, especially the Adirondack Mountains. The main cause of
acidic rain is the emissions of gases like SO2 and NOx. These emissions are given off
into the environment mostly from the burning of fossil fuels, either in vehicles or in
industrial buildings. The best way that you can combat such a problem would be to find
alternative ways to obtain energy, or by finding alternative fuels that can be combusted,
yet give off less harmful emissions. The concept of alternative fuels has been around for
many years. There have been numerous efforts to find different fuels that can be burnt
instead of gasoline, which produces many environmentally harmful emissions. These
alternative fuels include alcohols, electricity, natural gas, and propane. In general, these
alternative fuels, or “clean fuels,” reduce the level of emissions that cause the harmful
affects in our ozone.
In the early 1970’s, hardly anyone was remotely interested or concerned about the
developing or using alternative energy sources. Fossil fuels were always available and
they were fairly cheap to purchase. Oil, coal and natural gas were always the choice for
energy. Back then fossil fuels were easy to find, and very easy to use for out everyday
use of fuel. Prices were cheap enough for people to buy and use and the fossil fuels were
easy to obtain. Nobody thought that fossil fuels were ever going to run out and that we
were able to use fossil fuels for a long time.
Paul Vo
Chandler High School
Dec 13, 2011
In 1973 the Organization for Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) imposed an
embargo act upon the transportation of oil into the United States. This caused the prices
to skyrocket and opened the eyes to Americans that there should be alternative sources to
be used. However, the embargo act only lasted one year but had the effect on the US
economy that lasted more than a decade. Fossil fuels were getting limited and the price of
the fossil fuels was getting much higher. Many people complained on the rise of gas
prices and other fuels. Society has realized that they must find a cheaper alternative
source of fuel to use in our everyday lives.
After environmental scientists noticed a rise in the smog level caused by
automobile pollution from the burning of fossil fuels, and a rise in the global temperature
was to be caused by this same factor, this led them to believe that that the burning of
fossil fuels by humans was a main effect for global warming. This raised many concerns
and caused alternative energy sources to be used. Since the burning of fossil fuels was
causing so many problems, scientists were trying many ways to find other sources of
fuels. By solar power panels or alcohol, propane, etc. The only problem was the other
sources of fuel were a lot hard to use to convert to energy. Some are easy to obtain and
some were just hard to convert to energy.
Paul Vo
Chandler High School
Dec 13, 2011
In a way the only answer to save this planet is to lower our uses of fossil fuels and
use alternative fuel sources. One-day fossil fuels will run out and we will be doom. One
day global warming will destroy our planet and we will be doomed. The more our
technology develops and helps make our world a better environment through alternative
sources of fuel, our world will be saved. It must be cost efficient and it must work well
enough to supply to our everyday needs. In general, these alternative fuels, or “clean
fuels,” reduce the level of emissions that cause the harmful affects in our ozone.