Silent Stalker
Bill mows the lawn outside of his new house in 100„aF weather, having to take rests every few minutes to cool down. He has been forced to move from his life-long house in South Carolina because the rising ocean has flooded his hometown. Bill hears the emergency weather siren and heads into his house. He lives in a world where weather changes drastically day to day. Until a few years ago, Johnny played baseball with the rest of the neighborhood everyday. Lately, Johnny has been sitting around the house because his newly acquired asthma will not allow him to breath in the highly polluted air. A favorite activity of Greg was to go to the lake on weekends. He would go fishing, hiking, or just sit back and soak in the beauty of nature. One weekend on his way up to the lake he noticed that many of the trees and plants have died. On his arrival to the lake, Greg saw hundreds of dead fish on the shore. These three stories are fictional, however they are what the world will be like if pollution continues to be pumped into our air. Major causes of the pollution include transportation engines and power plants (¡§Air Pollution¡¨ n.pag.). The product of air and fossil fuel after combustion is a waste product that hurts the environment and the people: therefore; the nation should mandate tougher regulations. The largest contributors to the United States¡¦ pollution problem are power plants where coal is used. Coal burning power plants cause 57% of the Unites States¡¦ air pollution. In spite of this enormous percentage, coal-burning pollution has risen 13% in the past decade. New England seems to be one of the worst areas of the nation for coal pollution, however much of the smog is blown over from the Mid-West by wind. ¡§The Mid-West has older, larger, and dirtier plants than most of the rest of the United States¡¨(Reese n.pag.). A main reason for the Mid-Western power plants putting out so much pollution is that the old power plants were ¡§grand fathered¡¨, so they don¡¦t have to comply with new air regulations (Reese n.pag.). Power plants and automobiles give off many pollutants, which have negative effects on the environment and on humans. When fossil fuel is burned, carbon dioxide is released as a byproduct. Carbon dioxide is the main culprit in global warming. Automobiles in the United States produced 25% of the carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. Sulfur dioxide is also a byproduct, which affects the lungs. It can constrict air passages, making breathing virtually impossible. Even a brief exposure to sulfur dioxide can cause an asthma attack (Cook 78). Sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide, another byproduct, are the main components of acid rain, which can kill plants and animals (Shaw 183). In the average city, automobile exhaust causes 60% of the atmosphere¡¦s nitrogen dioxide, while power plants cause 30% (Reese n.pag.). Nitrogen dioxide reacts with air and light to produce O3, also known as ozone. Ozone, the most harmful chemical in smog, affects lung tissue and causes serious chest pain. This harmful lower atmosphere ozone is not to be confused with the upper atmosphere ozone that protects people from the sun¡¦s ultraviolet rays (Cook 77). Carbon monoxide is the product of burned fossil fuel that has caused the most deaths per year in the United States. Carbon monoxide is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, and poisonous gas. Carbon monoxide deprives a person¡¦s body from the oxygen, which is essential to life (Cook 77). In the average United States city, automobiles produce 90% of the carbon monoxide that enters the earth¡¦s atmosphere (Reese n.pag.). The remaining byproducts of burned fossil fuel are called particulate matter. Particulate matter is composed of microscopic particles and tiny droplets of liquid. They can get stuck in your lungs and cause wheezing (Cook 78). People and the environment are hurt by many kinds of fossil fuel emissions. These byproducts of fossil fuel are endangering the environment. One of the main effects is an increase in the average temperature of the earth¡¦s surface, mainly known as global warming (Schneider n.pag.).