Imagine you’re walking around in your town just trying to get a good walk in,looking up in the sky seeing grey smoke from all these factories and aircrafts. Lots of people just see it and shrug it off, little do they know the smoke in the air is slowly harming their future. Naturally it shouldn’t be that way, we caused this harm on the earth , but we can change and prevent it from getting worse in the future.
The air pollution is affecting our health. When factories pollute the air and aren’t stopped soon about it, it continues to become a major risk of lung cancer and many other bad health problems to you and those you love. According to the World Health Organization “An estimated 4.2 million deaths globally are linked to ambient air pollution mainly from heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lung cancer and acute respiratory infections. (“Exposure & Health Impacts of Air Pollution.”) It makes it gradually worse for your grandparents, your children, and those who have lung problems and cardiovascular diseases. It’s unfair to have kids with asthma, or other people in general get worse over time due to the air we have to breathe to even live, when we can stop with the pollution and find alternatives for factories that make it good for us.
However, if we don’t stop soon its not just gonna affect our lungs but it will affect global warming and will continue to get it more dangerous. We are causing a long term change in our earth, making the weather patterns more different and dangerous. According to the NOAA, ever since 1982 the temperature increase rate has tripled making 2023, and 2024 the hottest years recorded.This stretch has caused numerous storms and heat waves that make it harder for us. According to NASA,“burning of fossil fuels causes greenhouse gases to rapidly rise in the atmosphere. As carbon dioxide, methane, and other gases increase, they act as a blanket, trapping heat and warming the planet. In response, Earth’s air and ocean temperatures warm. This warming affects the water cycle, shifts weather patterns, and melts land ice, all impacts that can make extreme weather worse.”(“Extreme Weather.)
People may ask “ well why should I care about the earth, it’s not affecting the way I live”. Soon enough not only will it come and affect you but it will be here for generations upon generations making the future struggle with the stuff we have caused, such as putting your money and life on the line. More bad weather like drought,and temperature going up brings more money to leave your pockets.according to Imperial college it states “ Climate change increased the risk of the devastating LA wildfires. Drought conditions are more frequently pushing into winter, increasing the chance a fire will break out during strong Santa Ana winds that can turn small ignitions into deadly infernos.” (“LA Wildfires More Likely Because of Climate Change, Says Attribution Study.) Due to climate change we have made a big difference in families that live and grew up in La. This has all caused a devastating event to the residents and the U.S For not only the deaths and destruction but the money it will cost the economy to bring it all back. .According to ABC NEWS it states “ A preliminary damage estimate by AccuWeather put the economic losses so far between $135 billion and $150 billion, which would put the fires among the costliest natural disasters in American history. (“Los Angeles Residents Face Cost of Devastating Wildfires: ‘I’m in Shock’.) The wildfires cost the economy billions of dollars.
Put yourself in these residents’ shoes, they lost all they had in these fires that were caused and spread by climate change. Not only do they have to deal with the pain of losing loved ones or just their home burning down in general but they also lost their jobs and they have to pay millions to rebuild their property.
So as we can see this is a major problem to the planet. We are faced with our own air being harmful to breathe in,the weather becoming more dangerous to the fact it can put our lives in danger. we need to change this or else it’s all gonna cost us either out of our pocket or just our lives in general.
American Lung Association. “Who Is Most Affected by Outdoor Air Pollution?” American Lung Association, www.lung.org/clean-air/outdoors/who-is-at-risk. Accessed 14 Apr. 2025.
World Health Organization. “Exposure & Health Impacts of Air Pollution.” WHO, https://www.who.int/teams/environment-climate-change-and-health/air-quality-energy-and-health/health-impacts/exposure-air-pollution. Accessed 14 Apr. 2025
.NASA. “Extreme Weather.” NASA Science, https://science.nasa.gov/climate-change/extreme-weather/. Accessed 14 Apr. 2025.
Blunden, J., and T. Boyer, editors. State of the Climate in 2021. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, vol. 103, no. 8, 2022, pp. S1–S465. National Centers for Environmental Information, https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/monitoring/monthly-report/global/202113.
Brennan, David, and Alex Presha. “Los Angeles Residents Face Cost of Devastating Wildfires: ‘I’m in Shock’.” ABC News, 13 Jan. 2025, https://abcnews.go.com/US/los-angeles-residents-face-cost-devastating-wildfires/story?id=117619527.
Levey, Simon, and Sam Ezra Fraser-Baxter. “LA Wildfires More Likely Because of Climate Change, Says Attribution Study.” Imperial News, Imperial College London, 31 Jan. 2025, www.imperial.ac.uk/news/260633/la-wildfires-more-likely-because-climate/.Imperial College London
