Pollution in America

Luke Ware
UWRT 1103 Writing and Inquiry in Academic Contexts I and II
November, 6 2015

The world serves as a common home for all creatures, ranging from
humans to the smallest of microorganisms. As a people, we tend to forget
how big of an environmental foot print we can leave on the planet and the
other organisms that live here. The importance of protecting the
environment does not just help other species, but it can determine the fate
of our future generations. In order to secure the safety of the planet, the
whole world must make and understand the required steps to reach the
desired goal. Every country needs to get on the same page and do their part
to save the environment. The United States of America have great resources
and ideas to contribute for reaching a stable environmental friendly future.
However America also tends to prioritize money and business over what
really needs to happen. Many questions can arise from this topic, but the
main points of discussion need to focus on Americas current goals to save
the environment. One huge issue with the environment today is pollution. I
believe that America has helped out with trying to control pollution, but there
is still more work to accomplish.
The Beginning of Pollution
Pollution is no new thing to mankind. Since the beginning of time
humans have always produced some kind of pollutants, it was just not until
later in more advanced eras where the environment actually started taking a
huge loss. Mankind started out producing pollutants such as waste. There
was really no sanitary way to dispose of waste, so it would be added into
water runoff and continue to pollute rivers, streams, and other bodies of

water. This would prove to be a huge problem for people, especially those
living in high populated areas, because waste had the potential to carry
many diseases that could be detrimental to human health. Eventually
mankind came up with a system in the 1800s called a waste water treatment
center that effectively sanitized human waste so that the water could safely
enter nearby streams and rivers. When the industrial revolution hit in the
late 1800s more pollutants entered the environment as by products from
many factories and other businesses. Pollutants like nutrients and
phosphates in water and carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide and many others
can effects the quality of life for every organism. Sadly nothing will ever get
done until something goes wrong. In this case it took a massive forest fire in
1969 that was caused by a polluted river then catching fire from a capsized
vessel. This captured the attention of many Americans and caused a demand
in change for the water quality in America. The high demand for change led
to the creation of the Clean Water Act. Soon after cases arose all across the
United States where people were breathing in dangerous smog in the city.
Similar to the Clean Water Act, people started to demand change and this led
to the creation of the Clean Air Act.
Pollution in America
Pollution control in America is a difficult and serious problem because
there is so much in an everyday life that people do not realize the damage
they are potentially causing. This is not an easy problem to solve because
limiting the way Americans use their resources can be considered infringing

their rights. The United States has implemented acts like the Clean Air and
Water Act, but that only effects business that produce large amounts of
pollutants. America is an affluent society, where people use more than they
necessarily need. Not only does this seem like a problem for people across
the globe, it also means that more pollution and wasteful byproducts are
being used at an astounding rate. Between the year 1950 and 2005 energy
consumption skyrocketed nearly 35 quadrillion Btu (British Thermal Units).
Even though the population in America is only doubling, the amounts of
resources that they use accounts for more than an fourth of the total natural
resources. Americans choose to live in luxury and use more natural resources
than they use, which in return causes more pollutants to enter the
environment. An example on how America overconsumes can be seen in a
recent automobile statistic. China has more citizens than America does, but
China has 12 motor vehicles per 1000 people. America on the other hand
uses an upwards of 779 motor vehicles per 1000 people. America is one of
the few countries that are supporting a continuous population growth,
meaning that in the as time continues in America the more pollutants will
enter the environment unless some serious changes are made. As much as
people want to blame the Government for not doing anything about
pollution, Americans need to consider how their daily activities are affecting
the amount of pollution entering the environment.
How America Has Helped Control Pollution

The Clean Air Act was established by America in 1970 following the
increasing amounts of smog in the populated cities. In addition to many
health problems caused by smog, the Clean Air Act looked to solve the
problems such as acid rain and ozone depletion, by placing regulations on
the emissions of harmful air pollutants. Reducing the amounts of pollution is
key in saving the environment because emissions of gasses like carbon
monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, and many more reduce the ozone layer. The
ozone layer is critical to organisms health. For humans the ozone layer
blocks out harmful UV radiation that can cause serious skin conditions. By
setting limits on the amount of pollutants emitted into the atmosphere, the
Clean Air Act helps protect the public health. Under the Clean Air Act all
states must adhere and follow the restrictions placed by the Environmental
Protection Agency. The Clean Air Act also helps provide restrictions on the
amount of pollutants released from motor vehicles and factories that
released the criteria pollutants such as carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide,
and lead. The United States adopted this act in 1970, this being said there
has been an effort made by the United States to help control air pollutants
that without the Act would cause many health problems for the public and
the environment.
Similarly to the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water had many similar
strategies including regulating the disposing of hazardous materials into
water beds. The Clean Air Act was established in 1972 and gave the
Environmental Protection Agency the power to control how factories and

businesses dispose of their waste. The Act also worked with the NPDES
(National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System) which was a permit system
that prevented industrial and other businesses from discharging pollutants
into the water, unless otherwise given permission. This is a key part in safety
because where businesses would be discharging pollutants, this would be the
area where people participated in recreational activities as well as important
aquatic ecosystems. The Clean Water Act also helped implement the usage
of wastewater treatment facilities across the nation. The EPA declared that
hazardous waste could not be dumped into was would be considered
navigable waters. These quality standards were implanted across the United
States creating the first nationwide regulations on waste disposal into
waters. Along with all the regulations set in place, the Clean Water Act also
raise awareness for waste disposal into water, showing how harmful dumping
unregulated waste into waterways can be for the environment and public
health. Before the Clean Water Act, anyone could dump anything they want
into nearby lakes and streams. By creating this act, you can tell that the
United States does have a desire to help the environment. However this act,
similar to the Clean Air Act, only has some regulations on emitting pollutants.
This helps explain that the United States is attempting to do well in helping
the environment, but there could be much more done in their part.
In more recent environmental events, President Obama created the
first ever nationwide plan to conserve energy and drop carbon emissions.
The Clean Power Plans goal is to drop carbon emissions by 32% by the year

2030. The aspiring goal of this plan is to protect the public health, boost the
economy, and save families money. Looking further into the plan, you will be
able to see that the plan focuses deeply on reducing the amounts of
pollutants power plants produce. Since 1998 the year 2014 has broken the
record on the heat index and 2015 is predicted to take its place. According to
BBC News, If temperatures remain as predicted, 2015 will be the first year
to breach this key threshold. The world would then be half way towards 2C,
the gateway to dangerous warming. The presidents new plan to reduce
emissions is a great step towards achieving environmental stability. The
Clean Power Plan is provides evidence that the United States has a concern
of the wellbeing of the environment, especially since the Clean Power Plan
seems to last until the year 2030.
What America Has Avoided Pollution Control
The Kyoto Protocol was a treaty that was formed by the United Nations to get
countries on page to confront global warming. This international treatys goal was to
have as many countries get on the same page to reduce the six emissions that lead
to global warming. When the treaty was formed in 1997 35 countries agreed to
apply the treaty in their own countries policy. The United States signed the treaty in
1998, but due to the policies of the Clinton administration the policies were not
implemented into the United States. More specifically the United States signed the
treaty but President Clinton did not have the senate approve the regulations,
therefore parting ways with the treaty. Later on in 2004 the Bush Administration did
not sign with the treaty, but did start implementing their own regulations for

reducing emissions. The United States past involvements with the Kyoto Protocol
bring up an interesting point in the environmental protection within the country.
From the Kyoto Protocol the United States would like to help the Environment but
seem to not go through with their plans 100%, this mainly is because of the politics
involved and the overall effects in such policies could change the whole dynamics of
the economy.

Out of many hot topics out in the world involving environmental

awareness, climate change has definitely raised a few eyebrows and created
a new concern for the Earths environment. The term climate refers to a long
period of time where there has been a substantial amount of change. The
biggest contributor to climate change is the emissions of air pollutants.
Whether or not global warming is the true culprit at hand or whether or not
humans are the ones to blame is beyond the point. It is no secret that the
planet is getting hotter and there has to be some kind of reaction to that.
Over the course of a century the earths climate has increased about 1
degree Celsius. To put things into perspective, the last ice age had a climate
only 5 degrees Celsius less than the global temperatures today. Imagine the
opposite effects that an increase of the same amount can have on the
environment.