Today in the Los Angeles Times I read the article "A bad air day beats cabin fever" which described how due to the recent fires the air quality has been deemed unhealthy, and many have chosen to skip outdoor activities and stay inside in order to avoid serious health problems. While I feel sorrow for the victims of the fires and I wish the fires never occurred, part of me wonders if we can at least learn something from this tragedy, and that is that the quality of our air is absolutely vital to our health and our quality of life.
Most people would agree that having to stay indoors because of the poor air quality was not enjoyable. In my case, both of my small children were not allowed to play outside at school, and my son's soccer game was cancelled. My friends who are parents complained that their kids' eyes and throats were burning, and that asthma was exacerbated. Doctors reported that they were seeing cases of asthma in children who had never suffered from it before.
I hope people stop to consider, what if it were like this all the time? Unfortunately, after the soot, ashes, and particles from the fire clear, our air quality in Los Angeles leaves much to be desired. With the predicted increase in population over the next 20 years, the air quality is bound to get worse as more people means more cars and pollution. If we do not want to end up with unbearable air quality such as in China, we would be wise to pass legislation to clean up our air.
In class and also on blog post 10-21-07, we discussed Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. We mentioned food, water, shelter, and health care as examples of our essential physiological needs. I would like to add clean air as an additional basic biological need that must be satisfied before we can progress up the triangle and aspire to reach the most highly evolved versions of ourselves.
Do you agree that clean air is a basic biological need of great importance to our overall wellbeing? If so, what are some concrete actions we can take either on a personal level or the governmental level, to clean up the current state of our air in Los Angeles, and also to prevent our air quality from worsening in the future?
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21 comments:
How many more examples of how bad the air is do we need before people are willing to try to change the status quo??? With the abundance of nonpartisan science re: global warming, it amazes me that people aren't scrambling to do whatever they can.If we are wrong about people effecting climate and it is just nature's course, would it really hurt to have the air even that much more clean? You can't live if you can't breathe...........
I definitely agree that air is an essential for life and one of our biological needs on Maslow's hierarchy. The simple reason being WE NEED AIR TO LIVE. Without it, even if we had all the food and shelter in the world, we still could not live. A great way to clean up the air would be to bring back the electric car and get rid of all the other ones. However, that still would not get rid of all of our air pollution. About a month ago or so I read in the newspaper and also heard from my Environmental teacher that a lot of our air pollution actually comes from China.
I agree with both Catherine and Jennifer that we need air to live. As of now we have a poor air quality in the district of LA. One of the major reason is factories. Factories owners only care about money and most people know the phrase "every dollar counts." Well these big corporations make every dollar counts. Even if they damages the air we breathe. They clearly do it for that extra dollar and they do not care about the future generation that will be affected by it. And also Automobiles probably is the most common cause of air pollution and the best solution is to start using hybrid cars. Even though they cost more than the regular cars it should help reduce air pollution. As Jennifer said it would not get rid of all of our air pollution but it is just the beginning when there is a beginning there is an end.
I agree with every single person that commented this blog. We need air to breath, there are not exceptions. Some action we can take is to monitor our pollution out put of every family or individual. Cars are a big issue. If people carpooled or used public transportation, there would be less green house gasses released into the environment. That would lead to an overall cooler temperature (less fires) and a cleaner air situation.
Ok. just so you people know the air in china is quite bad, but its not UNBEARABlE...(ive been there semi recently) Anywho on the your biological needs. The air we breath IS STILL OK!!! Yah its not great, but its do-able. Even though its not good for people with asthma, for much of the population no normal people have been felled by the "toxic air". And if we look at it biologically in the future it might not matter. Future generartions may evolve to be able to withstand the air and thrive in it.
As for changes, if people aren't dropping like flies, then hardly anything will be done. Even when every other person yells and groans about the poor air, hardly any of them will do anything but whine.
Finally the most effective means the government to solve this problem is "lais sez faire" (this essentially means let it go to the dogs) with this the government doesnt have to do anything. Why would this be effective? Its is because when everyone is choaking on the noxious fumes, then EVERYONE (if able of course) will plant a foot (metaphorically for those without feet) and make a stand for the better of all.
Oh, and if any of your think i dont care for the environment, i do somewhat. I usually longboard to school; which saves gas, which saves money, which saves the environment from more CO2, which helps make the air "better" however small this contribution is...
BUT...BUT since some people at the discipline committee at our school has BANNED- not just that we can't ride it (we understand this) but WE ARE NOT EVEN ALLOWED TO HOLD ONTO THEM AT SCHOOL!!! And the punishment is confiscation of such items...
Anywho its not that I dont care about the environment its just that there arent enough people willing to do anything, even if there are a few models people should follow. There just isnt enough demand for a better air...YET!
Regardless of what people see on the news about how bad global warming is getting, people still drive their cars and add to polluting our environment. And the fire that happened last week didn't help our environment at all. you would think that after that fire people would notice that theres definitely something wrong if you reach 90 degrees plus in late october. cause thats just not right even if we do live in a desert. i say everyone on the planet should go plant a tree and drive less. and use public transportation and use other methods of getting around, like walking, bicyle riding, or LONGBOARDING, basically just anything that doesn't run on a motor. By doing this you are doing three good things: 1) youre helping the environment 2) youre not burning money on gas 3) youre burning calories that u can easily get back from a burger from mcdonalds.
To Phil Man, when I described the air quality in China as unbearable, I was thinking of recent stories describing how at next year's summer Olympics to be held in China, they are thinking they will have to cancel many of the events due to the poor air quality. If you cannot play sports outside due to air quality, in my opinion, that constitutes the description "unbearable". Also, one only has to read the daily air quality analysis in the Los Angeles Times to see that nearby cities frequently are labeled "unhealthful". Remember that there are no barriers keeping the poor air quality from neighboring cities from reaching the city you live in. All it takes is a shift in the wind.
Yes the air quality is bad, but we are the people that cause it to be so bad. One of the fires was caused by a person, so if we really want to stop global warming then make everyone stop dring their cars, no hair spray, learn other methods of transportation because the amount of stuff that is let into the air by a bus is just as bad at like 4 or 5 cars. so yes its easier but its actually worse then a car. same with dump trucks and big 18 wheeler trucks. so if we keep complaing about the air, we need to think about what we do and try to stop it before we complain about it.
I certainly agree that air is esentail for survival. Bad quality air makes it more dificult for you to breathe. I heard that children have an increased risk of getting exposed to toxic substances. I have walked near buses before and it felt pretty bad when all that smoke was surrounding me. I think a cleaner environment would be a lot better. I hope on day we can solve this problem. The sad thing is that there are probably cheaper and cleaner ways to get energy.
One personal action that my husband and I recently took was purchasing an old diesel Mercedes Benz which we then had converted to run on 100% vegetable oil. Currently, we run it on 100% clean soybean oil, and this produces less carbon emissions than regular diesel gasoline. The next step we are planning is to find a restaurant willing to donate their waste oil from their kitchen that we will then filter and use as fuel for our car. It's a cleaner rewewable energy and it helps to relieve U.S. dependency on foreign oil as well. While I do not think that vegetable run cars are the only solution, I think they are part of the many diverse solutions it will take to take care of our environment.
I just wanted to say that I accidentally spelled "renewable" incorrectly, and I apologize for the bad modeling!
These environment problems only get worse. I think more steps should be taken place to solve this problem of ours. The longer we wait to solve a problem the worse it gets. I believe that once new sources of energy are made, it will become easier to get and more convenient, so then everyone will stop using gasoline for fuel. I think it would be cheaper too since we don’t have much oil left. A barrel of oil is expected to reach 100 dollars soon. If people have a cheaper, more efficient, and cleaner energy source, then we won’t have to worry about the air as much. Also I think every country should make laws to grow more plants to improve our air worldwide.
I agree with Adam that we should use a more environment friendly form of fuel for our cars, there are alternate forms of fuel it is just that we have not been able to harness that energy and if we knew how it would probably be a very costly method.
In the case of the car that I own that runs on 100% pure vegetable oil, it has been an affordable venture so far. My husband and I are looking for a restaurant that will give us their waste oil which we will then filter and use as fuel for our converted Mercedes-Benz, so then our fuel will be free. Currently, biodiesel can be purchased for the same price as regular gasoline at the pumps. If you generate electricity from a solar panel to charge an electric car you are obtaining energy in an affordable manner. The fact is environmentally friendly forms of energy usually end up saving you money as they are more efficient ways of harnessing energy and efficiency saves you money. I believe it is a myth that ecofriendly actions cost more. Also, we already have and understand the technology to produce more energy efficient forms of fuel. Nothing new has to be invented; we already have the knowledge, and it is just a matter of implementing it.
First, we need to clean up the people. There are way too many people living in California, let alone in the Los Angeles County. The L.A. County has the largest population of the country. LA County has 10 million people, that is more than 40 other states...
Second, california should go hybrid; but then others would argue high electricity prices.
Or we can also, switch some oil for coal. The switch from oil to coal should also help stop the silent war. but, we must be careful because too much coal produces oxygen depleting carbon dioxide ... which on the other hand also helps keep the eartnh cool... Thus aiding the fight against global warming.
okay, so it's pretty clear that we all agree that air is essential to our well-being. But what are we going to do about it?
No matter what steps we choose to take there will be cons.
It's much like changing your bedsheets yourself. The larger the bed the larger the "obstacles". A king size bed requires a lot more stretchings and gettin back ups and of course Time. but, eventually you'll have a beautiful bed. Hopefully so beautiful you'll resist the urge to roll into it, perservng it for when you're ready o put your hard working self to rest. I'm sure most of us can relate to this and this is how we should viw the strive for clean air. Yes, Phil, at times it may seem pointless but we must be persistent.
I thought it was interesting that at the Presidential Forum on Global Warming that I attended 2 days ago (see blog entry November 18), both Hillary Clinton and John Edwards had strong praise for California in terms of being one of the best for environmental progress. However, the only reason we have made any progress at all is because of activists constantly putting pressure on our state government to legislate in favor of preservation of the environment. It is a constant battle, and we can never relent when it comes to fighting to protect our environment.
The thing most people realize is that overcoming an obstacle is possible provided they have the ability to work hard, never give up, and perhaps getting others involved. unfortunately a big problem is that its easier to do something bad than good. It's a lot harder to clean a mess than to make one. In Chemistry my teacher said that we can take Hydrogen out of water and use it as energy. He says that Hydrogen has a lot of energy per gram. I'm sure using Hydrogen would be cheap and easy to get since it is the most abundant element in the universe! Also scientists are trying to come up with a complex carbon substance that is tougher than steel and weights much less so the car would use less energy. Although these ideas sound good it will take lots of effort and determination to finish successfully. Unfortunately another problem is that there is a downside to everything.
I think that definatley clean air is essential to our wellbeing. Without clean air, I think that a whole lot of deaths would occur. Clean air you need it, because imagine taking in smog, smoke, and pollution etc. Yeah Im pretty much geussing that you wouldnt want that in your body. Clean air doesnt do any wrong for you. It keeps you very healthy.
Clean air is absolutely beneficial to our health. Without it we cannot live and prosper as a nation. We have descreated our land and ruined for future generations
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