Essay On Environmental Degradation In Southern California

There are many forms of public transportation such as: buses, trains, airplanes, trolleys, subways, and many more. Today these transits are not as widely used as they need to be in some areas, in my opinion. Of course they are the preferred method of travel inside urban areas; the American Public Transportation Association shows this data when they listed in 1999 the top thirty-five largest transit agencies. As seen, they are all major or larger metropolitan areas such as: New York, NY, Los Angeles, CA, and Chicago, IL (10/3, http://www.apta.com/stats/modesumm/35mbag.html). Rural areas need these wonderful services just as often too. People in these settings drive farther to reach their destinations so therefore they drive just as much as in major cities but have more driving time. So therefore air pollution needs to be taken care of everywhere, not just in metropolitan areas.

There are various types of air pollution contributors in California such as fire generated pollutants and vehicle traffic, which add particulate matter and carbon monoxide into the air we breathe. According to an article by Union of Concerned Scientists (Cars, trucks, and air pollution, 2014) particulate matter is made up of fine particles soot and metal that can pose serious threats to human health when deep in the lungs. Other pollutants emitted from vehicles are: nitrogen oxide which lowers the body’s defense system against respiratory infections such as pneumonia, carbon monoxide which blocks oxygen from reaching vital organs, sulfur dioxide which is emitted by both power plants and vehicles affect children and asthmatics, and hazardous air pollutants (toxics) which are chemicals that are linked to cancer, birth defects and other illnesses (Union of Concerned Scientists, 2014).

A copious amount of health problems can occur directly and indirectly due to pollution that could chronically impact a person, further

In the areas nearby vehicles are considered “safer” for the environment and for the level of pollution but, the level still rises from the vehicles and the human activity (“Air Quality”). Most pollutions are severe enough to cause harm to the people and the environment. Wildfires are a big concern to the air pollution in the Mojave Desert, the fires are a big threat to the Cajon Pass, a train station in Los Angeles, California (Nolan). Wildfires are the leading cause of air pollution during the dry season, May through October. The seasons now are months longer than the average season, from the dry seasons that come after the wet one (“Quality Management”). With changing weather, the fire conditions will then be determined how the desert will be affected during that particular season. The main contributor that causes wildfires to affect the air pollution a great amount is combustion, the process of burning something (“Air Quality Management”). The main effect from wildfires is from the smoke that impacts the air. With the surrounding areas of the Mojave

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.

Louis. When living in a hard up income area there is always a tightly packed space between older automobiles, busses, and trucks. This destroyed the ozone, which would bring about cardiovascular problems such as asthma attacks. In the article Gammon states that "In Southern California communities , exposure through air pollution and traffic emissions stunts children's lung growth ,according to USC research " This hints that if a child happens to live nearby or is nearby a polluted area he or she is unprotected and is exposed to having

The San Joaquin Valley is such a large agricultural and industrial area that it has many contributing sources to air pollution. According to the San Joaquin Valley air pollution control district what causes air pollution or ozone precursor emissions are broken down into two categories which are stationary and mobile. Stationary are broken into two main sources point and area. The San Joaquin Valley air pollution control district says point sources are large, identifiable sources while area sources are sources that individually emit smaller amounts of pollutants. For point sources these areas can be food production plants or large farming operations such as dairies. According to UC Davis agriculture

There are different components that are contributing to the levels of air pollution in the San Joaquin Valley in California. Those components are the main reason for the air to be polluted and causing harm to the residents of the valley. The San Joaquin Valley is known very well for its agriculture. This according to an article called “Move Over, Los Angeles” By Marylin Berlin Snell talks about the main point of how serious the air quality has been and how it has been becoming worse than the city of Los Angeles. The southern part of the great central valley has now been covered in a brown murky layer of mist being at its worse air quality. The Valley has a “combination of pesticide spraying, heavy duty-diesel equipment, dust stirred up during

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

Often while driving through the valley you may start to smell a particular difference in the air, and not in a good way. Perhaps you didn’t know that San Joaquin Valley is one of two districts in the county to be classified by Enviornmental Protection Agency (EPA) as “extreme nonattainment” ("The Air District’s Mission"), which means it is considered to have the worst air quality; worse than the National Ambient Air Quality Standards as defined in the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1970 ("Google"). Also, San Joaquin County is one of the nine areas in the country to be designated as a “serious nonattainment” area for particulate matter ("The Air District’s Mission"). Although the air quality is not great here in the valley since

Stationary and mobile sources contribute to the ozone precursor emission sources, while human and natural sources contribute to particulate material sources. Stationary sources are also known as point sources of pollution because they emit large amount of pollution from a single locations, and include power plants, industrial facilities, and factories. Smaller stationary sources are called areas sources, and they include agricultural burning, house paints, pesticides, and gas stations. Mobile sources, which account for more than half of all air pollution, include vehicles, motorcycles, construction equipment, trains, farm tractors, aircrafts, and utility equipment. Human sources of pollution include agricultural operations, combustion of wood or fossil fuels, and industrial processes. Finally, natural sources of pollution include wildfires and windblown dust. Wildfires in the surrounding mountain ranges have also had significant effects on the air quality in Central Valley, as the smoke exposes people to higher amounts of particulate matter. A study conducted during the 2008 outbreak of wildfires in northern and central California found that concentrations of particulate matter are not only higher, but also more toxic during wildfires compared to normal air from the same region during a comparable

The production of services and goods is the leading source of air pollution in the United States, according to the website, Cleaner and Greener, because of the en-ergy it takes for the production and delivery of those goods and services. In DFW however the leading cause of air pollution is

The pollutants that were controlled were carbon monoxide(CO), volatile organic compounds(VOC), and oxides of nitrogen(NOx), where the NOx standard was 3.1 grams per mile (EPA). These three pollutants can cause a wide variety of health issues, some of which include your brain not getting enough oxygen, damage to the respiratory system, damage of lung function, cardiovascular problems, and cancer (“Types of Air Pollution Caused by Cars”). Over the next couple decades’ car emission control became stricter and standards tightened and evolved to .07 grams per mile of NOx in 2009 which is a 77% decrease from its previous standard of .3 in 1999. Alongside federal actions, California has been leading the global fight against climate change.

Air, is one of the most substantial source to mankind and our planet. While it exists, so does everything else along. However, in today’s epidemic, there has been certain factors that have increased in understanding whether the air we breathe today is healthy or not? Is it doing more harm than we thought? In other words, the health risks against air pollution have risen in the past few decades; all from what you may ask? Well, it could be for various factors and evaluations; either environmental or materialistic. Pollution is a major public health crisis in the world. (Friis, 2012). This is one of the conflicts that contribute to various aspects of an individual’s life, whether they may realize it or not. In this paper will include the sources that cause pollution with the effects it cause as well as policies on the regulation of air pollution.

Automobiles are undeniable the greatest source of pollution. The noise pollution created by cars is immense. Another polluting effect of cars is the heat it creates. This heat makes it unpleasant to be near the car while its running. And of course the most famous