Cause of air pollution

Begin with industrial revolution; the air quality has been worsening. New technologies were invented, and our life quality has been improving. But at the same time, the amount of carbon dioxide that was produced has imbalanced the earth’s natural cycle. Today, after three hundred years of “human invention”, we have caused the issue of air pollution, and it has become a global environmental issue. While the problem is caused by many factors, but human beings are still responsible for the two dominate causes: extravagant use of electricity and produce of greenhouse gas.
People rely on electricity in order to complete everyday life affairs. The importance of electricity in our life is the same as the importance of water for fish to survive. Life would be a disaster without electricity. However, the problem is, residence in United States has been using electricity excessively. Compare with European country, each year, an average American family needs 50,000kWh more of electricity; besides, European country depend more on alternative energy sources—wind energy, nuclear energy, solar-power—than traditional energy sources—coal, oil and natural gas. More than 70% of U.S. electricity comes from traditional energy, in contrast, 78% of France electricity comes form nuclear energy, and 98% of Norway’s electricity comes form hydroelectricity. All in all, United States has become the biggest producer of greenhouse gas for decades.
Another important cause of air pollution is the production of carbon dioxide from vehicles. For people In Los Angles, it has been part of our culture to remember to check highway traffic status every morning. According to a document from Exxon/Mobile in February 2005, United States uses 370 million gallon of gasoline daily; such huge number can fill up 16,758 Olympic pools. Furthermore, the total number of automobile in U.S. is still increasing at an extremely fast rate. From 2005~2007, the amount of cars have increased from 62 million to 76 million. With such large number, it is important for consumers to start consider purchasing fuel-efficient vehicles.
Altogether, air pollution is a series environmental issue the world is facing today. Although, there is many other causes as well, for example, oil refining, waste deposition, and burning woods. However, in contrast with the amount of human greenhouse gas production, the amount of greenhouse produced by those activities is still a small number. Therefore, the best way to solve air pollution issue is by changing our daily lifestyle: use alternative transportation whenever possible—train, subway, and bus; acquire energy sufficient product—hybrid vehicles, compact fluorescent light bulb; recycle reusable product—plastic bag, paper product, water bottle. Because we all know big success is made up with baby steps.