Sources of Air
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Sources of Air |
There are not many sources to air. The main source to air is plants and trees. Trees give off oxygen through their leaves and bark. Plants give us oxygen the same way. Smog is a threat to plants and trees because it kills trees. It kills some of the trees and damages the other trees. Trees cannot clean up our air, but we, the people can. We are also the ones who are making our air dirty by letting off chemicals like Carbon Monoxide, and pollution that factories put into the air. We are the ones who are killing ourselves.
| Threats to Air |
There are two different types of Smog. One of them is Photochemical Smog. Photochemical Smog is made up of organic particles, ozone, aldehydes, keytones, peroxyacetyl nitrate, organic acids, and other oxidants (Solutions to Air Pollution). The other type of Smog is Industrial Smog. It comes from burning coal and heavy oils. In the northern part of Canada, a lot of people use coal and oil to heat their homes. They also use wood. But the wood is not the problem. In towns that are at a higher elevation, they cannot use wood burning stoves because the smoke will just sit below the clouds and the people can get sick .
Smog is the fog-like-mist hanging in the sky over large cities and urban centers. H.A. Des Voex was the first man to use the term “Smog”. Des Voex first used the term Smog in 1905 in France. He used it to describe the fog-like conditions in the sky over large cities and urban areas. This wasresult of emissions of sulfuric dioxide from the newly created smoke stack of the industrial revolution. Smog refers to a complex chemical reaction where by sunlight breaks down chemical compounds such as volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and nitrogen oxides (Nox) into their constituent parts. Once broken down, the now free oxygen molecules can link up with the oxygen in the air (O2) and create ozone, which is a variation of oxygen, with one addition oxygen molecule attached to it. The chemical name fro ozone is O3 (the ABC’s of Smog). The word Smog comes from the two words smoke and fog. The SM and the GO and you get smog (Smog).
Smog can kill off the forests. It kills the foliage in the fall. The trees that it hurts the most are Maple, Ash, White Pine spruce and ash, poplar, and red oak. These trees are the most sensitive to Smog. They are the ones that are killed easily. It means that their leaves cannot give off the oxygen because they are dead. It also kills layers of vegetation (Smog-Our Health At Risk).
| Solutions to Smog Pollution |
There are many solutions to Smog pollution. To stop polluting the air from the pollutants coming your car, people can car pool, do not let your car idle, and do not leave the car running when you are not in the car. Try to not to top off your gas tank when you fill it up, gas fumes can escape from the tank. Plan your trips before you leave. Accelerate gently. Try not to use your AC all of the time, unroll the window and just enjoy the air. Conserve electricity. It pollutes the air a lot, and if everyone conserves, then we might be a step closer to having clean air. For every time that someone leaves the light on the electricity plant has to use up that much more gas. It does not seem like a problem but if everyone does it, it adds up to a lot (Air Pollution Solution-What You Can Do to Help Reduce Air Pollution).