Pollution, Pollution, Pollution

Juan Miranda

On April 29, the American Lung Association released a report that informed the public that air pollution doesn’t only affect the environment adding to the problem of climate change, but in fact it affects humans directly. The report states that air pollution endangers the life of six out of every ten Americans, which is a total of about 186 million people. This problem does not seem to slow down, since even with the progress by agencies like the Environment Protection Agency and other governmental organizations. In some areas of the country, the conditions of the air have worsened since last year. "This should be a wakeup call. We know that air pollution is a major threat to human health," said Stephen Nolan, American Lung Association National Board Chair. "When 60 percent of Americans are left breathing air dirty enough to send people to the emergency room, to shape how kids' lungs develop, and to kill, air pollution remains a serious problem." This report should increase the urgency in which the issue of pollution and the search of alternative energy because its not only going to be a problem in the long run, but its already killing us today. We need to realize that the way we have been treating the environment is obviously not efficient and we have to hurry up and find ways to reverse all the damage that we have caused. It is no longer an issue that will affect us in a thousand years, it is affecting us now.

http://www.reuters.com/article/mnCarbonEmissions/idUS335768782520090430