Link: http://www.enn.com/top_stories/article/22284
Summary: A study by the University of California shows that women who live in areas with high amounts of pollutants have up to a 25% higher chance to have a premature baby as compared to women who live in areas with little or no pollution. The researchers were careful to exempt factors which could have disrupted the study, such as alcohol ingestion and smoking. This study shows that pregnant women have yet another potential disaster to worry about, other than the other dangers of air pollution. The costs and benefits of taking action to reduce air pollution must be weighed again. Perhaps this time, the balance will tip to the right side.
Comment: Air pollution can pose all kinds of dangers to mankind: skin rash, throat irritation, headache, nausea,
dizziness, asthma, chronic bronchitis, kidney damage, nervous system damage, cancer. And to this ever-growing list can now be added the horrifying threat of premature birth. Premature birth can cause various problems, such as increased risk of medical problems and a range of other complications, from cardiovascular to neurological. A child’s life could be ruined before it could truly begin. Such injustice should not be tolerated by humans; it is our duty to stop it.
Many argue about matters like euthanasia and abortion. They take firm stands that human life should be valued at all costs. This they do, even though there is only so much they understand about the processes. Why talk of such matters, when there are dangers right in front of our noses? Dangers everyone can help to prevent, and dangers everyone helps to increase; they are so lethal, yet none seem concerned. Air pollution is no new enemy to mankind. It has persisted through the tests of time, and continues to haunt us today. I have already stated how deadly a foe it can be; yet it is a foe that is easy to take down, for it is a terror that we have constructed.
Indeed, air pollution stems from human beings. It is our intrusion upon the natural world we were gifted that gave birth to this monster. Cars and factories release so many harmful gases into the air every day that cities seem to be engulfed in fog day in, day out. Yet what we have created we can destroy. However, it is often said that bad things are easier to create than to remove, and so it goes in this example. The difficulty is not so much in removing the pollutants, but in convincing the people to play their part in this extermination. For air pollution will continue to thrive unless everyone in the world does their utmost to prevent contamination of the environment.
People must understand that it is their intervention of nature that caused all the problems in the first place. Thus they will find it easier to work to make amends. Problems caused by air pollution have been brought upon by ourselves, and it is up to us to change that. After all, the problem we created is killing only ourselves. This is the price of technology and the life many of us are able to enjoy today. People have become so addicted to it that they are not willing to give it up without a fight. They stall for time, maintaining that they are trying to make technology less harmful to the environment. This is a plausible solution, and perhaps one that could satisfy all- if it worked quickly enough. For every day we stall is another day in which the threat of air pollution looms ever larger. Every extra minute we take increases the chance that one of us will be struck down by a tendril shooting out from the powerful monstrosity that we let loose. Every second we wait, our surroundings get destroyed, nature gets depleted. Every moment we fail to act, we take a step closer to total annihilation.
Summary: A study by the University of California shows that women who live in areas with high amounts of pollutants have up to a 25% higher chance to have a premature baby as compared to women who live in areas with little or no pollution. The researchers were careful to exempt factors which could have disrupted the study, such as alcohol ingestion and smoking. This study shows that pregnant women have yet another potential disaster to worry about, other than the other dangers of air pollution. The costs and benefits of taking action to reduce air pollution must be weighed again. Perhaps this time, the balance will tip to the right side.
Comment: Air pollution can pose all kinds of dangers to mankind: skin rash, throat irritation, headache, nausea,
dizziness, asthma, chronic bronchitis, kidney damage, nervous system damage, cancer. And to this ever-growing list can now be added the horrifying threat of premature birth. Premature birth can cause various problems, such as increased risk of medical problems and a range of other complications, from cardiovascular to neurological. A child’s life could be ruined before it could truly begin. Such injustice should not be tolerated by humans; it is our duty to stop it.Many argue about matters like euthanasia and abortion. They take firm stands that human life should be valued at all costs. This they do, even though there is only so much they understand about the processes. Why talk of such matters, when there are dangers right in front of our noses? Dangers everyone can help to prevent, and dangers everyone helps to increase; they are so lethal, yet none seem concerned. Air pollution is no new enemy to mankind. It has persisted through the tests of time, and continues to haunt us today. I have already stated how deadly a foe it can be; yet it is a foe that is easy to take down, for it is a terror that we have constructed.
Indeed, air pollution stems from human beings. It is our intrusion upon the natural world we were gifted that gave birth to this monster. Cars and factories release so many harmful gases into the air every day that cities seem to be engulfed in fog day in, day out. Yet what we have created we can destroy. However, it is often said that bad things are easier to create than to remove, and so it goes in this example. The difficulty is not so much in removing the pollutants, but in convincing the people to play their part in this extermination. For air pollution will continue to thrive unless everyone in the world does their utmost to prevent contamination of the environment.
People must understand that it is their intervention of nature that caused all the problems in the first place. Thus they will find it easier to work to make amends. Problems caused by air pollution have been brought upon by ourselves, and it is up to us to change that. After all, the problem we created is killing only ourselves. This is the price of technology and the life many of us are able to enjoy today. People have become so addicted to it that they are not willing to give it up without a fight. They stall for time, maintaining that they are trying to make technology less harmful to the environment. This is a plausible solution, and perhaps one that could satisfy all- if it worked quickly enough. For every day we stall is another day in which the threat of air pollution looms ever larger. Every extra minute we take increases the chance that one of us will be struck down by a tendril shooting out from the powerful monstrosity that we let loose. Every second we wait, our surroundings get destroyed, nature gets depleted. Every moment we fail to act, we take a step closer to total annihilation.
(500 words)
