Air Pollution in Los Angeles Essay

Bakersfield California is a fun place for people to go on vacation. There is Beach Park, located near the city that has playing fields, bike paths, skate parks, and barbeque pits. There are lakes to go water skiing and boating, also Kern River County Park that has 50 campsites for a family to bring their children to enjoy a nice outdoor vacation. Restaurants, that force you to try new things and have the experience of eating in an older restaurant building. However, what most people don’t know is that Bakersfield, California is the most polluted places in the United States. In this paper, I will go over the pollution problems, geographic factors, climate conditions, and social activities that contribute to the buildup of air pollution in Bakersfield, California.

In the 1940's California was supporting a population of seven million people and contained 2.8 million registered vehicles. Within the next twenty years the population more than doubled to reach 16 million while the number of registered vehicles all but tripled increasing to eight million. This has been a common trend in California's documented history from the early twentieth century to today. There have been many historical and environmental factors that have assisted in contributing to increases such as these in California. One such factor was World War II, from the late 1930's to 1945, which triggered a boom in the population of California and the beginning of the urban sprawl. Increases in

Since human’s activity, pollution becomes a big problem in the world. There are a lot of part of pollutions include water pollution, light pollution and air pollution. Air pollution is happened in our life. The United States is also a victim of air pollution. In 1943, Los Angeles photochemical smog event occurred. The whole of Los Angeles was covered with smoke. There are about 400 people died and a lot of fruits in orchards began to wither.

The Central Valley is one of the many sites of where air pollution is most greatly produced. This is due to the vast majority of electricity, fuels, and transportation that people in the Central Valley utilize along with the amount of agriculture that is produced here. Many people go through their daily activities without thinking about how they are harming not only the environment but also the health and well being of humans. The cause of air pollution is not only due to natural events like volcanoes and wildfires but is mostly contributed to human activities. These include use of gases, the burning of wood, power generation, driving, the use of household and farming chemicals, and more! (Lad, 2016) Air pollution is interconnected with many health effects like upper respiratory infections and chronic respiratory diseases like asthma. (cdc.gov, 2016) However, there are many mitigation strategies that are being implemented to help address the health effects of air pollution.

Air pollution is air with a lot of chemicals in it that makes it hard for us to breathe. We breathe 2 gallons of air per minute which makes it 3400 gallons of air each day. Above 50,000 people die in America due to air pollution. 80% of our lung disease are caused by the pollution of the cars. Indoor air pollution is 2-5 times worse than the air outdoors. Ways to reduce air pollution is by wearing mask continually to save ourselves from air pollution. Electric vehicles produce less air pollution because they don’t produce gas. Another way to reduce it is that ensure new vehicles had to be fitted with catalytic converters. With these changes it also reduces ozone pollution. Ozone air irritant your eyes, nose and throat. By making these changes it would be easier for everybody to breathe.

The stationary sources are such as industrial facilities and oil refineries while the transportation agents include trucks and cars. In comparison to other cities in U.S, those in California have too many cars. For instance, Los Angeles has too many vehicles exceeding the carrying capacity of the area which plays a role in the horrible air pollution of Southern California. The burning of fossil fuels from the industrial facilities and exhaust pipes of the vehicles lead to the formation of a ground level ozone. Over a period, the deteriorating of the air quality in California has resulted in greater health risks among residents.

When the air becomes polluted, it is because air pollutants have contaminated it. Burlington, New Jersey where I live is not exception to air pollution. These pollutants are emitted into the air from the car we drive, the factories that manufactured food we eat, clothes we wear, etc. The air also gets polluted from the activities we are involved with in our homes, including the various kinds of products we used at home, like air conditioners, heaters, etc (“NJDEP”, n.d.).

Most times, when Californians drive through the freeways around Downtown Los Angeles, instead of seeing the clear blue sky, dark gray masses of CO2 emissions fill the air. From the time of the Industrial Revolution till now, the levels of pollution in the world, including California has been dramatically rising. Air pollution results in alarming consequences to both the environment and the people. Professors Bradley Bereitschaft and Keith Debbage explored relationships of air pollution and its effects in U.S Metropolitan areas. Their studies have shown that emissions of air pollutants, such as CO2, affect human health and are responsible for over one million premature deaths. They also talk about greenhouse gasses, such as CO2 that are a major

If the public transportation improves, more and more people would take buses instead of driving. Then there would be less CO2 for our environment. Mohammad-Beigi, Nouri and Liaghati (2015) claim that the population in large cities is growing very fast, which means that transportation needs also increase really fast which leads to environmental problems. Therefore, in order to solve the problem, improving public transportation is a good solution. This study shows that driving cars really causes air pollution and it is harm for our environment. Phoenix is the largest city in Arizona, so the population growth in Phoenix will lead to the same problem that the three author mentioned. Improving public transportation will be helpful in decreasing the number of drivers and therefore reducing toxic emission. According to the PR Newswire Europe Improving public transportation in Brasilia (2009) claim public transportation is good because buses are more orderly, and they are safer and have less impact on the environment. It also shows that public transportation can help to reduce air pollution. Phoenix is an urban city like Brasilia, so it has a similar situation. Improving public transportation would be a good solution because it will lead to less driving. Then we will reduce exhaust gas

Los Angeles has an historically lead the nation in the worst air quality. Such a reputation is not only due to an increase rise in urbanization, but also a process called inversion, which is an atmospheric

Transportation is the largest source of air pollution in the United States. Air pollution kills globally more than any diseases. In 2013, transportation contributed more than half of the carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides, and almost a quarter of the hydrocarbons emitted into our air. We can reduce transportation, air pollution is different ways. By keeping our vehicle in well-tuned and tires inflated properly to reduce exhaust emissions. Also, avoid idling because it contains more pollute and combines errand into one trip. Air pollution can directly cause respiratory disease or exacerbate existing conditions in susceptible populations, such as children or the elderly and animal.

For years leading up to the 1940s, pollution in the city steadily grew along with the increase in people and cars. Los Angeles became a prime location for lingering pollution due to its geographic position. Because it sat in a valley between the mountains and ocean and because of its always relatively low winds, the particles and emissions could not be blown and dissipated into the atmosphere, creating a blanket of smog that slowly engulfed the city. Although air pollution control programs had been implemented before, they had been unsuccessful. The first significant action was taken in the fall of 1943. (“Key events in,” 2011)

Nationally, in May 2011, Los Angeles was rated the second most polluted city out of 24 cities (citymayors.com), due to the ozone and air pollution, and many citizens suffer asthma and other health hazardous problems because of the pollution. Also, mnn.com states that LA Long Beach Riverside was “ranked #3 in long term particle pollution, #1 in ozone pollution and #4 in short term particle pollution”. The problem may be arising from the vast usage of cars, coal fired power plants which consumes more energy and electricity etc. According to sciencedaily.com, Dr. Weaver mentions that “Air pollution shortens lifespan, it lands our children and elderly in emergency rooms, and it can make children and teens more vulnerable to lung disease for the rest of their lives.” We need to stop this environmental threat.

To a great degree the eminent problem is the air pollution we breathe. Who can help amend the air we breathe. In order to improve the quality of the air, people have to be aware of the specific mode of pollution and the effect of it. The traffic-pollution causes affliction and distress to individuals. The reason for this tragedy is due in part by every one of us. High concentration of vehicle exhausts is the main source of air pollution in urban areas. Neighborhoods in proximity to heavy traffic areas can negatively impact a community’s health conditions and outcomes. Those people that are disproportionately exposed to great levels of exhaust fumes are those who have a low socioeconomic and educational status and are part of race/ethnicity

Earth is the only place in the universe that can support human life. It is very important that we realize this fact and take very good care of it. Various human activities cause the destruction of earth. Human beings can live a few days without food and water however humans can last only a few seconds without oxygen. Various human activities lead to the aggravation of the quality of air. Gases produced by human activities mainly due to exploitation of resources and industrialization cause air pollution. Green house gases mainly chlorofluorocarbons; carbon