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Kevin Mohammed
ESW113B
Professor Khadka
03 November 2019

Environmental crisis: How We Can Stop Air and Plastic Pollution

The environmental crisis is a crisis that affects everyone around the globe, and it has

recently become more recognized. Whether it’s because more people are aware of it, or

because the detrimental effects have become more noticable is unknown. This crisis has made

many individuals afraid of the future. Afraid of what type of world their children and

grandchildren will​ live ​on in the future. That is if there’s even a world for them to live in. This

crisis isn’t the fault of one person. This is the cause of human greed and corruption throughout

the past 200 years. We wanted more power, bigger and better everything. We ended up getting

it, but at what cost? The environment is at a disarray and it may be too late to fix it, or is it? The

environmental crisis is vast and diverse but I am here to focus on air pollution, and plastic

pollution. Although it may seem like this is an​ inescapable outcome​, there are still ways to

reverse air and plastic pollution.​ ​What can we do about this pollution? What caused pollution on

a global scale? Although we have been taking action lately, there are still masses pollution

around the world.

Air pollution is caused by air contaminated by excessive amounts of gases, particles, and

biological molecules. Air pollution isn’t pretty. Toxic air is killing us and most people either don’t

know, don’t care, or is trying to stop it from happening. Ever heard about the chemical carbon
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dioxide? Carbon dioxide plays a huge role on air pollution. Carbon emissions are the number

one reason why air pollution is such a huge issue today. Ever since the industrial revolution,

carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere has grown rapidly. This is such a huge change in the

world’s atmospheric environment. Before, carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere would not go

over 200 and it would always just go back and forth. Now it’s over 400 and everyday it’s

increasing rapidly everyday.This hasn’t happened in millions of years and everyone needs to

realize what a serious issue this is. With increased levels or carbon dioxide, the polar ice caps

are melting and the earth’s temperature is growing rapidly. Carbon emissions are caused by

cows, nuclear power plants, and cars. Because of this, more people are now switching to

electric cars, becoming vegetarian, and implementing solar power as their source for energy.

This is helpful but it won’t be enough to reverse air pollution. We need everyone’s help.

The ozone layer is depleting because of air pollution. Our ozone layer is what protects the

earth from harmful sun rays. There won’t be an earth to live on if the ozone layer is destroyed.

An article “What is air pollution?” by Conserve Energy Future states that “Manufacturing

industries release a large amount of carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, organic compounds, and

chemicals into the air thereby depleting the ​quality of air​.” This affects how we breathe and also

our respiratory system. Many people in asian countries wear face masks to protect themselves

from the air pollution caused by the burning of fossil fuels.

In the article air pollution: clean up our skies by Julia Schmale, Drew Shindell, Erika von

Schneidemesser, Ilan Chabay and Mark Lawrence, the authors states that “rigorous reductions
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of global methane and black-carbon-related emissions by 2030 could prevent around 2.4 million

premature deaths per year that result from air pollution.” Air pollution causes many deaths and

people don’t even realize it. Reductions in carbon emissions from factories and power plants

can certainly help in the cause. Making the world a better and safer place for everyone to live in.

What can we do to help? Although this might not completely dispose of air pollution, planting

more trees can certainly help. Trees take carbon dioxide from the air and turns it into oxygen

using photosynthesis. Planting more trees can help the environment. Everyday, trees are being

torn down in order to make material for buildings, chairs, beds, and many things we see and use

today. If you look around, many of the things around us are actually made of wood. Wood is a

very useful material and is very important but if we keep cutting down trees, there would be no

more trees and it will only make air pollution worse.

A YouTuber by the name of Mr.Beast started a campaign to plant 20 million trees. He needs

people to donate and for each dollar donated, a tree will be planted. At the time I am typing this

he has 4 million dollars donated so far and it’s only been about two weeks. In the video titled

“using drones to plant 20,000 trees,'' he showed how we can use drones to plant a lot of trees.

He then told everyone about his plan to get the YouTube community to help in his project. To

plant 20 million trees by 2020. Planting more trees are a way you can help and donating in the

cause wouldn’t hurt..

We have been more aware of air pollution recently and we have done things that help. For

example, lumberjacks are now planting two trees for every tree they cut. This is very good. The
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only con is that it’s gonna take many years for the tree to grow to its full size. An average tree

takes 20-30 years to grow to its full size. Hopefully we have an earth to live on by that time. I

interviewed individuals asking them what we should do about air pollution and many of them

said “plant more trees, and use a cleaner energy source”. Power plants are the number one

energy source that is used to make electricity to run the world. It burns coal, oil, and natural gas.

Power plants are one of the greatest factors of carbon emissions. If we switch to cleaner energy

sources like solar, or turbine, we can make this a better and safer world for everyone. Many

places are starting to use solar power as their energy source such as schools. If the world runs

on clean energy, we can decrease air pollution around the world.

Plastic pollution is caused by huge amounts of plastic waste affecting wildlife, the

environment, habitats, and humans. ​Plastic is everywhere and the problem is that it’s not

biodegradable. For plastic to be degradable it would take 500+ years. ​ Plastic is cheap, easy to

make, and has a lot of potential. We can use plastic for so many things. Straws, toys, chairs,

tables, musical instruments, bags, food packaging, bottles, and so much more. The possibilities

are truly endless. Today, we use plastic for basically everything. From plastic bottles, plastic

phones, to materials for 3d printing, ,any of the daily items you see around you are made of

plastic. Plastic is very useful and it can be used for many things but it also causes huge

pollution. What can we do about plastic? Recycling certainly does help when it comes to

pollution. Reduce, reuse, recycle is a term I hear a lot as a kid. Recycling is encouraged

throughout society, and now everyone basically recycles. Recycling doesn’t solve the issue.

You can only recycle so many times before plastic is worn out. What can we do about this?

Reduce
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or eliminate the use of plastic. Plastic is harmful for the environment and we need to do

something about it.

In the ocean, sea animals like turtles are mistaking plastic for food. They end up eating it and

end up dying. Save the turtle! Many people now are using reusable bags as a

substitute for plastic bags they always buy in stores. This helps reduce plastic waste but stores

today are still using plastic bags The article International policies to reduce plastic marine

pollution from single-use plastics states that “Plastics have been reported as a problem in the

marine environment since the 1970s.'' It's been almost 50 years and plastic is still a problem in

the marine environment. Birds, fishes, and other marine wildlife get stuck on plastic waste such

as the circle thingy from cans. Beaches around the world are filled with plastic waste. How hard

is it to throw things in the trash can? In the image below, we have a picture of plastic pollution in

the ocean. All this plastic in the ocean can lead to a lot of marine life death.

I interviewed random individuals around CSUN campus asking them how often they recycle.

Most of the people say all the time. They would feel bad if they don’t recycle their used water
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bottles. They mostly all use their own water bottles though. They use their own water bottles

because it’s more efficient and it’s better for the environment. Purchasing a reusable water

bottle reduces the need for water bottles therefore reducing plastic waste. Even if it’s a little bit it

can help a lot. If we all were to purchase reusable water bottles instead of relying on plastic

water bottles, we can save lots of money and we can also help the environment so it’s a win

win.

What are other ways we can do to help eliminate plastic pollution? Scientists have recently

discovered organisms that can break down plastic material. The YouTube video titled plastics

101 by National Geographic shows that few organisms like wax worms and mealworms can

devour plastics and turn it into compost. A microbe called Ideonella Sakaiensis can shrinks the

time plastic can degrade from hundreds of years to a few days. Perhaps this is nature’s way of

adapting to all the plastic in the earth. Maybe it’s trying to clean itself from all the pollution. If we

are able to mass produce these worms, we can clean out all of th

e plastic.

More manufacturers are starting to look into biodegradable bioplastics. These will be used

for spoons, forks, plastic knives and other everyday things. Biodegradable bioplastics degrade

in a matter of 3 to 6 months compared to hundreds of years with a normal plastic. This is

because the materials used to make them are plants. We wouldn’t be in this plastic pollution

mess if we were to start off with biodegradable bioplastics. Biodegradable bioplastics has the
potential to change the world and make it a much better place to live in. We don’t have to live in

a world filled with masses of plastic pollution.

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I have had my share of experience with plastic and air pollution. I was born in a developing

country called Indonesia on March 15, 2001. I lived there for seven years and I came to live in

the U.S, in 2008. There were a lot of differences between the U.S. and Indonesia and it’s more

than just cultural differences. Indonesia has a lot of plastic pollution and air pollution. I

remember visiting there to see my family two years ago and it’s gotten worse. I look around the

streets and I see pollution. I’m not quite sure if the whole country is like this, but this is what I

witnessed when I went to the capital city Jakarta. I couldn’t believe what I saw. What’s really

interesting is that the people who live in Jakarta doesn’t even care. They walk around and it’s as

if they don’t notice all the plastic pollution around them. In the U.S. this would be considered a

safety hazard. There was so much pollution it made me nauseous and I keep getting constant

headaches. In the U.S. you would see trash cans in every corner of every street but in Jakarta,

there isn’t much. The only trash cans I see were the ones people have inside their homes. This

made me realize the important role public trash cans have on fighting pollution. Indonesia has a

very low air quality just like many other asian countries. It’s inhabitants wear face masks in order

to protect themselves from the polluted air. I can feel a huge difference in the quality of air in

Jakarta compared to cities like Los Angeles. It’s a sad reality that all cities in the world will

become like this if we do nothing about plastic and air pollution. The environmental crisis is no

joke and everyday it’s getting worse. I don’t want to live in a world where we all have to wear
face masks because the air is too polluted. I don’t want to live in a world that looks like garbage

because there’s just too much trash lying around everywhere and it’s all just piling up. In the

image below, we have a representation of air pollution surrounding the city of Jakarta.

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In conclusion, there’s a lot of work to be done. We’ve made lots of environmentally friendly

changes over the past few years but it's not enough. We need everyone to participate in this

cause cause if we don’t, we are screwed. By opting for environmentally friendly method of living,

one person can make a small impact, but with many people, we can potentially make a huge

impact on the world. Plant more trees, use reusable materials rather than plastic, pick up the

trash you see on the floor, and if you can maybe even purchase an electric car. These actions

will make you not just feel good as a person, but will also make the world a better place.
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Works Cited
​

“Air Pollution in Indonesia.” ​The Straits Times​, 2018, Xanthos, Dirk, and Tony R Walker. “International
Policies to Reduce Plastic Marine Pollution from Single-Use Plastics (Plastic Bags and Microbeads): A
Review.” Marine Pollution Bulletin, vol. 118, no. 1-2, 2017, pp. 17–26.

Beast, Mr., director. ​Planting 20,000,000 Trees, My Biggest Project Ever!Mr.​ ​YouTube​, YouTube, 25
Oct. 2019, www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPJKxAhLw5I.

Geographic, National, director. ​Plastics 101 | National Geographic.​ ​YouTube​, YouTube, 18 May 2018,
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggh0Ptk3VGE​.

Julia Schmale, et al. “Air Pollution: Clean up Our Skies.” Nature, vol. 515, no. 7527, 2014, p. 335.

RC, ND. “Plastic Pollution Solution.” ​NDRC​, 2018,

www.google.com/search?q=plastic+pollution&sxsrf=ACYBGNRwLN-zZFAQ-REsCVTAdjiiSs5y1Q:15
72837994931&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi7h-iPzs_lAhXzNX0KHV0XDRkQ_AUI
EygC&biw=1366&bih=625#imgrc=NYZEmRT9bIEIYM​:
Rinkesh. “Causes, Effects and Solutions of Air Pollution.” ​Conserve Energy Future,​ Conserve Energy

Future, 14 Apr. 2019, www.conserve-energy-future.com/causes-effects-solutions-of-air-pollution.php.

Rober, Mark, director. ​Using Drones to Plant 20,000,000 Trees​. ​YouTube​, YouTube, 25 Oct. 2019,
www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7nJBFjKqAY​.

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Xanthos, Dirk, and Tony R Walker. “International Policies to Reduce Plastic Marine Pollution from

Single-Use Plastics (Plastic Bags and Microbeads): A Review.” Marine Pollution Bulletin, vol. 118, no.

1-2, 2017, pp. 17–26.