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Pollution in China

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Submitted By mattkicks23
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Section I:

* Summary * As the new years come, scientists are starting to look back at 2015. They claim that 2015 was the “hottest year in the historical record by far”. With the burst of heat that has continued into the new year, this could affect our whole environmental system leading to negative side effects. * The Issue * The issue at hand is that the global temperature is rising and it could lead to potential negative affects to our environment. Given a warmer atmosphere, it will hold more water vapor. Consequently, it will lead to greater and more intense rainstorms. This was predicted before, and can be seen through everywhere in the United States. * The 5 W’s (Who, what, when, where, why?) * Who: Recently, professor Stefan Norra and Dr. Nina Jasmin Schleicher from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, in cooperation with scientists of Bordeaux and Beijing, investigated temporal and special distributions and sources of particulate mercury (HgP) in the air of Beijing, China.

* What: They came to the conclusion that mercury can be harmful to man and the environment. According to their studies and results, mercury concentrations at Beijing were really high at the time, especially during heating periods. Also, the concentrations were said to be highest during winter, along the inner city of the 3rd ring road.

* When: The report was published on December 16th of 2015, however the pictures within the article refers to December 5th of 2015.

* Where: The study was done and tested in Beijing, China. Beijing is China’s capital and one of the world’s greatest megacities.

* Why: Smog and pollution has been an ongoing issue in Beijing. Almost everyday, the citizens of Beijing has to be worried about the smog levels of china and has to be concerned about whether or not to wear a mask just to step outside of their house. Not only is this an environmental issue, but has also caused copious amounts of health issues and diseases. That is why it is essential to learn more about the problem at hand, so we can hopefully prevent things from getting worse in the future. * This article was published on December 16th, 2015 on sciencedaily.com.

Section II:

* Discuss the impact of the environmental issue identified in Section One on the community and/or society. Recently, the smog in Beijing has reached its all time high. Although smog and pollution has been an ongoing issue, if we don’t try to stop it now, Beijing won’t have livable conditions anymore. Almost everyday, the citizens of Beijing have to wear a mask to help filter out the smog, they have poor visibility on the roads, and have to have use an air filter in each house. The Smog in Beijing has impacted millions of citizens and has altered their everyday life. Now, more and more people are getting sick and ill due to the air quality in Beijing. * Discuss the possible outcomes. There are actually many things that we can do as a whole to reduce the pollution in the air. For example, during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, China implanted measures to reduce pollution by a lot. At that time, only half of the vehicles were allowed to drive on the road at a particular time. Restaurants with coal stoves were required to change to soot filters. Moreover, large and heavy industrial production as partially stopped. All of these factors combined together indeed helped the pollution in China. * Why should we be aware of the situation? We should be aware of this situation because pollution is affecting hundreds and millions of people. We can’t just let pollution destroy mankind and the environment. With China having the world’s largest population, if something were to ever happen to China, our whole world would be affected. With this getting worst, there would potentially be even more disease, sickness, and environmental damage. A study in the past has showed that China’s pollution played a major part on the impact of the Ozone right now. We need to do more to protect our environment and the place that we live in. * Why should we be aware of the situation? The solution to pollution is consistency. As long as we did what we did in the 2008 Beijing Olympic, it could help reduce pollution drastically. The only challenge with this is, we need to continuously working together to fight this environmental problem and we can’t give up. * How did your opinion change as a result of this article? My opinion didn’t really change as a result of this article. This article mainly emphasized on the importance of working towards fighting pollution in Beijing. From going to Beijing in the summer, I can relate to this article and what it was saying first hand. The facts that the article gives is very accurate and is indeed a problem that needs to be fixed immediately.

* Do you recommend this article to others? I do recommend this articles to others because I feel as if many people don’t view pollution as a serious problem just because they haven’t witnessed it themselves. For example, living in Philadelphia, we don’t see too much smog or the great pollution that this article was talking about. However, just because we don’t see it, doesn’t mean that it isn’t a serious problem at hand. By reading this article, it can give more people a chance to understand how severe this environmental issue is, and it could bring more understanding to everyone.

Source(s): http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/21/science/earth/2015-hottest-year-global-warming.html?ref=earth&_r=0

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