A Little Bit of Background Information
Have you ever wondered how every little thing you do affects the environment that surrounds us? Here is a perfect example: in the United States, the average water consumption per person per day is approximately 31.41 gallons a day. This figure would equate to about 11,465.06 gallons a year for everybody who has direct access to a water source. Note that in the U.S., it has been documented that literally 100% of the population has at least some access to fresh water somewhere nearby (Rosegrant, 2002). Now imagine that figure would look like when you multiply it by the hundreds of millions of people who live in just this country alone. The point is, even the little things that seem so harmless and inconsequential actually are quite the opposite once you realize that there are millions of people who do the same thing all the time.
A Big Problem
It was worth giving an example of a small way that our waste and negligence adversely affects the world around us (environmentally speaking of course). The fact of the matter is that there are things that we as humans are doing each and every day that are harmful to the environment. While it may sound rather generic, I strongly believe that one of the worst things we are doing to this environment is burning fossil fuels and emitting harmful chemicals into the atmosphere. Basically, we are talking about air pollution here. One prime reason as to why air pollution truly is one of the biggest and most concerning problems right now is because it is not solely based in the United States, this is a global problem.
Human Causes of Air Pollution
There are many activities that we as humans do on a daily basis that are a direct cause of air pollution. One commonly known way that we constantly pollute the air is by constantly dumping toxic and chemical wastes into the atmosphere. Big businesses such as Kodak are dumping tons of harmful chemicals into the air through those large smokestacks that have become something of a trademark in the big industrial cities (like New York City or Los Angeles). This large dirty culprit of air pollution originated around the time of the Industrial Revolution. In fact, the carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere has increased by nearly 30% since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution (Charleson & Orians, 1992). Another prime example of how us humans are drastically harming our environment is by openly burning items that should not be burned. Some examples of this would be old rubber tires and plastic materials. Exhaust from all sorts of automobiles is another example. A harmful gas known as carbon monoxide is released from those disgusting exhaust pipes constantly. The chemical is so dangerous and powerful at the same time that people are discouraged from doing things such as leaving their cars on while in the garage or burning a gas grill in a closed room. The gaseous chemicals that are emitted from these machines (i.e. cars, trucks, tractors, buses, airplanes, boats, motorcycles, etc.) are all released into the open air. Once released into the air, these chemicals rise and disseminate way up into the atmosphere. Even forest fires are extremely harmful to the environment. Once again, the reason that this is so bad for our environment is because the smoke from the fire disrupts the carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. Simply put, anything that causes harmful chemicals to be released into the atmosphere will bring adverse effects to the state of our environment.
How Air Pollution Affects the Environment
As I began to describe earlier, there is a reason as to how burning these fossil fuels negatively affects the environment. Increased amounts of any of these chemicals (carbon monoxide, methane, etc.) plays a role in affecting certain things called the biogeochemical cycles. The biogeochemical cycles are imperative for our survival on this Earth. There are many different biogeochemical cycles that exist, and most of them (if not all of them) are negatively affected by these forms of air pollution. One primary example of a biogeochemical cycle that is adversely affected by air pollution is the carbon cycle. “Life on earth is based on carbon”, says Vitousek, Mooney, Lubchenco, and Melillo. According to Vitousek and Mooney (1997), “the carbon dioxide (or CO2) in the atmosphere is the primary resource for photosynthesis. Humanity adds carbon dioxide to the atmosphere by mining and burning fossil fuels, and by converting forests and grasslands to agricultural and other low-biomass ecosystems.” The end result of these activities is that organic carbon from rocks, organisms, and soils is released into the atmosphere (which marks a physical change resulting from air pollution affecting the carbon cycle). This particular article goes on to say that, according to exclusive studies conducted by Roger Revelle and Charles Keeling, the amount of atmospheric carbon dioxide has increased from 315 ppm to 362 ppm since the year 1951 to present-day. (Vitousek & Mooney, 1997) Furthermore, a study conducted by Blacksmith Institute yielded consistent results with Vitousek and Mooney’s findings. According to Sim (2010) in 2008, BI reported that indoor air pollution and urban air quality are two of the world’s worst pollution problems in the world. A separate article seems to agree with Vitousek and Mooney that the carbon cycle has been disrupted more and more by the increased level of toxins and chemicals that have been released into the atmosphere over the years. However, he cites that it is from a different source. According to Crutzen and Andreae, “biomass burning is widespread, especially in the tropics. Biomass containing 2-5 pentagrams (or 10^15 grams) of carbon is burned annually. This produces huge amounts of gases and aerosol particles which play important roles in atmospheric chemistry.” What he is saying here is that emissions of carbon monoxide and methane (through biomass burning) affect the oxygen efficiency of the atmosphere. Another statement that I found rather interesting pertaining to the effects of air pollution came from a reading by Burk and Shulman. According to Burk and Shulman (1995), “Mathematical models of the climate suggest that when CO2 doubles, the world will warm up somewhere between 1 and 5 degrees Celsius by 2100 A.D. unless other factors counteract or amplify the carbon dioxide – induced change.” Here, the burning of fossil fuels takes on an even bigger role where it is not only changing the environment around us physically (such as polluted ice in Antarctica that could be coming from New York City, or the decline in certain species due to humans taking more land for themselves) but air pollution even has the ability to change the climate. Burk and Shulman also bring up a valid point in that this problem of air pollution is an example of systematic long-term global change in our environment. The problem of air pollution truly is an example of persistent global change because it has been happening for years and it does not show any sign of slowing down and because it is not only affecting us locally, but on a global scale as well.
Conclusion
The studies that have been conducted and the findings that they have all yielded have validated the fact that air pollution is truly affecting the carbon cycle. Burning of fossil fuels is just one of the many examples of how we humans ruin our environment each and every day with most of us not even consciously realizing it. So whether you leave a light on in your room when nobody is in there, leaving the water on in the sink unnecessarily, or driving to work, just realize that every little thing is affecting our environment.
References
**Note that all citations and bibliographies are done in APA format**
Berk, R.A. & Shulman, D. (1995). Public Perceptions of Global Warming. Climatic Change, 1-33.
Crutzen J. Paul & Meinrat O. Andrae. (1990). Biomass Burning in the Tropics: Impact on Atmospheric Chemistry and Biogeochemical Cycles. Science. 1669-1678.
Sim, Magdalene. (2010). 12 Cases of Cleanup and Success. Blacksmith Institute. 1-2.
Vitousek, M. Peter, Mooney, A. Harold, Lubcehco, Jane & Melillo, M. Jerry. (1997). Human Domination of Earth’s Ecosystems. Science vol. 277-25.
Charleson, R.J., Orians, G.H., Wolfe, G.V., & Butcher, S.S. 1992. Human Modifications of Global Biogeochemical Cycles. Academic Press, New York, NY. 353-361.
Rosegrant, W. Mark, Cai, Ximing & Cline, A. Sarah. (2002). Biogeochemical Cycles. International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).