Why Care About Air Pollution
Air pollution can kill, has killed, and will kill if citizens do not take personal initiative in decreasing the chemicals they put out.
“If air quality continues to decrease our respiratory systems will weaken and it is likely that a lot more children will suffer from childhood upper respiratory infections and diseases,” stressed Houle. It is obvious that Houle cares. She works daily teaching our youth how to care and rise up as a generation who knows how to take these matters properly into their hands.
Caring for air pollution means, increasing quality of life, decreasing mortality due to air pollution rates, decreasing asthma in youths, lung cancer in adults, and dementia in the elderly.
It looks like greener landscapes, clearer waters, and more vibrant foods of the earth. Air pollution contaminates our drinking water and the “fresh produce” we consume. We should care because it affects all areas of our lives.
How to Take Action
Caring about air pollution means taking action. Taking action is less of a task then one would think.
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Taking action is efficient transportation
“Is your destination within two miles? Ride your bike!” Begs Houle. If you are not the athletic type, then maybe you are the socialite; carpooling reduces traffic, which improves travel time, which reduces emissions given off by running cars as well as burning of fossil fuels. A packed bus also removes 20 plus cars from the roads. Choose public transportation when possible. -
Taking action is buying less packaged foods
Have you ever realized how many layers of plastic and cardboard are used in a single purchase from the grocery store? Shopping along the perimeter of the grocery store, or at farmers markets can help reduce our consumption of plastic. Less plastic means less particles released into our air when the plastic is burned or buried. -
Taking action is reusing cups, straws, lids, utensils
According to Houle, “by being aware of these things and consciously trying to use less materials, factories, who make up a significant portion of air pollution, won’t have to make as much, thus reducing the impact on air quality.” -
Taking action is planting a tree
“I don’t think that a three acre farm is the solution in a city, I think we need to fundamentally rethink how land and air is used,” said Schaffer. Improving air quality does not call for citizens to become urban farmers. It could simply look like planting a tree or gardening. Trees breathe carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and ozone according to treepeople.org. These are three of the four main pollutants in Birmingham, one small tree can make all the difference.
5. Taking action is engaging in local efforts
GASP, the Great Alliance to Stop Pollution in Birmingham, provides simple tips, petitions, and events people can participate in as a citizen of Birmingham to help better air quality. Click Here to take action.
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“Those living in larger cities are at a higher risk for upper respiratory diseases as a lot more gunk is getting into their bodies. In turn, this will lead to shorter life expectancy,” Chloe Houle remarks. Houle is a Naturalist at Mission Springs Outdoor Education in Scotts Valley, California. Her life and career surround the studies and teachings of air quality and ecological responses to toxins in the air.
Houle said “the primary impact would be on quality of human life.”
The quality of our lives is under direct attack from the chemicals in the air that we put out. Locations like Jones Valley, the valley that houses the Birmingham metro area, accelerate these effects because of the geographical landscape that acts as a container, trapping the particles.
“By far this is the hardest city I have ever farmed in,” said Jesse Schaffer, the head Urban Farmer at Jones Valley Teaching Farm. Schaffer has farmed in urban settings from Michigan and New York, to California and the Middle East. “The heat, humidity and moisture make for the perfect storm,” Jesse explained Birmingham’s climate. This mixture brings abundant life to not only his crops, but also the diseases and toxins in the environment that his crops are growing in.
However, we are ultimately in control of the quality of our lives and health here in Birmingham.
Aside from human health, another major impact air pollution has is on our environment.
“Plants are designed to take in all the CO2,” Houle explains, however they have a limit. In high concentrations of carbon dioxide, plants cannot function as efficiently. As a result vegetation has a decreased life expectancy as well.
When plant life is endangered, animal life is endangered, and so on and so forth up the food chain.
Major Impact of Air Pollution
by Emily Frazier
