Climate Change And Smog In Los Angeles

Global climate change is more than just raising the concentration of GHG’s in the atmosphere, it’s a serious health threat. Dr. Howard Koh, of the Harvard T.H Chan School of Public Health, has stated that global warming is a threat to human health because of an increase in respiratory and allergy aggravation,

Identify a broad range of current environmental health problems likely to be exacerbated by climate change. How might existing public health practices be altered to anticipate these effects of climate change? What other key sectors (beyond health) should be engaged?

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

Most of us consider drought as a period of dry and hot weather with too little or no rain, and while any or all of these conditions might be existent during drought, the definition of drought is more complex and subtle. According to the United States Geological Survey, California Water Science Center (as cited in Congressional Digest, 2015, p. 2):

Michael Pollan describes the effects of climate change and the different things that people can do to help correct this problem in his essay entitled "Why Bother?" He believes that even the simplest changes can create a huge difference. One of the things the he says will help is taking one day out of the week to use as little technology as possible. Things to not use include cars/motor vehicles, cellphones, electricity, and more. Just taking one day away from these things will help reduce pollution. Another thing he says would help a lot is planting a garden. Planting a garden will provide people with their own home grown food which reduces the need for food shipments and commercial growing. This reduced the pollution caused by the vehicle

We can involve climate change in our daily activities, like living in energy-efficient homes and energy-efficient places, Minimizing polluting transportation and eating less meat. According to Professor Jonathan Taylor, Southern California is one of the energy-efficient places in the U.S. Living in energy-efficient places would lead to less carbon emissions and minimizing transportation which does not cause a lot of pollution. Pollution leads to climate change. Buses and cars are major causes of pollution. Walking and cycling are healthier, does not cause pollution and good for your health. We should eat less meat because it leads to less greenhouse emissions (Taylor, 25th February).

Air pollution is really bad for the environment. Some companies operating in Southern California are spending millions of dollars to help reduce air pollution. According to a report by the American Lung Association. “Los Angeles, Riverside and Long Beach still remain the worst place

“Factories produce tons of emissions each day, but much of the emissions stay in the city and produce smog” (Global Warming 101). Smog is a combination of atmospheric pollutants and fog. This can cause health issues and if concentrated enough can kill people. “Carbon dioxide can also last for over a century before it dissipates” (Global Warming 101). With more pollutants being emitted into the atmosphere, global warming may never be slowed.

Being one of the biggest social issues in Los Angeles, Air pollution has two main reasons: vehicle traffic and population growth. Actually, it is in a such crucial level that scientists indicate that air pollution in Los Angeles may endanger peoples lives. Scientific researches show that the air pollution causes cancer and have an impact on pregnant woman. Advertisements shows us some solutions like making public transportation common and sustainable housing. With the growing population of Los Angeles, something has to be done . Otherwise it is going to be impossible to deal with the air pollution. Population growth in Los

According to scientific studies, climate change could be a responsible factor behind the formation of more ozone smog, and increased production of allergenic pollen (Drought Increases Air Pollution… (n.d.) The health of many people is susceptible to irritation of respiratory system from coming in contact with this polluted air from smog, pollen pollution, and wildfire smoke (NRDC: Climate Change Threatens ....... (n.d.). Anybody can be affected by breathing ozone, but certain age group and disease condition make them more vulnerable. Outdoor workers and even people exercising outside, vulnerable age groups such as children, teens, and older individuals, people with existing respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, are more prone to outdoor ozone ”(Ozone Pollution - American Lung…n.d.). Health risk could range from mild "shortness of breath, wheezing and coughing; asthma attacks;"certain individuals might be prone to lung infections; their lungs could be inflamed (Ozone Pollution - American Lung…n.d.). People diagnosed with asthma, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease might face more infections and in need of more care (Ozone Pollution - American Lung…n.d.). According to Natural Resources Defense Council, an approximated "881,500 kids and 2,294,800 adults" are asthma victim per year (Climate Change Threatens Health....n.d.).

Title: Interactive Map of San Francisco Shows Potential Health Impacts of Climate Change AND Climate change: Future Bay Area weather will be more like San Diego’s

In recent years, California’s Central Valley has gone from being America’s breadbasket to a near-dystopian wasteland—a landscape beset with air pollution with strikingly diverse causes. Five of the ten most polluted American cities can be found in this region (Wheeler, Morris and Gordon). This is not surprising given the host of actual and potential causes of air pollution problem in the heart of California. Ground level ozone is a major type of pollution in the Valley that primarily causes summertime “smog,” produced through the photochemical or sunlight-induced reactions between volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and oxides of nitrogen (NOx) (San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District 3). The other type of pollution, particulate matter (PM), refers to small solid or liquid particles that form in the atmosphere through gases or photochemical reactions. While the causes of air pollution in the Central Valley are undoubtedly manifold, the region’s agricultural practices still count as the most substantial factors for this environmental problem; in any case, the Valley’s unique meteorological and topographical conditions exacerbate the level of air pollution.

I read an article published on CNN titled "Climate change could leave Californians with 'weather whiplash". In the article, it explains how California is known for its nice and soothing environment but with the enjoyable weather comes major shifts in its climate causing the weather patterns to be weak between drought and flood. The climate patterns have significant impacts on society and human life, causing extremely climate conditions only making mitigation and adaptation that much worse. According to UCLA Center for Climate Science, the dramatic swings from wet to dry will be twice as likely every 25 years, by 2100.

1 Vehicle exhaust is the number one pollution 2 Heavy metal nitrates and plastic are responsible for pollution 3 Pollution is caused by gasses and toxins released by industries 4 Pollution is majorly caused by waste 5 In 2010 Americans produced about 250 million tons of garbage 6 Air pollution kills 2 million people each year 7 Noise pollution happens when noise levels get to high 8 Only about 34% of garbage is recycled 9 For every 1 million tons of oil shipped about 1 ton is spilled 10 Almost 1 third of san franciscos air pollution come from china

In our central valley they have done research with kids of Fresno from their birth to teenage hood tracking their health and environmental exposures. Air pollution causes 1,300 premature deaths as well as asthma attacks. The climate change also affects the pollution. In our San Joaquin Valley, hot weather, and boarding mountains traps air pollution. California has study our San Joaquin Valley would reduce health cost by $416 by 2035. San Joaquin valley is the most productive agricultural region in the country. Heavy duty-diesel trucks constantly come in and out of the Valley. Therefore, that leads to 14 tons of the greenhouse gas Ozone daily. Animal feed spews a whopping 25 tons of Ozone to form. Pollution streams down from the Bay Area and the Sierra Nevada Mountains to the east trap even more air in our valley. The pollution creates a thick greyish-brown smog hanging over the