Air Pollution Facts

acidman1968:

A – …"using products of technology like automobile engines will be a great solution…" One thing you’ll find, is that many people throw a huge portion of the blame for pollution on internal combustion engines. In the majority of the United States, vehicles have to meet certain emissions standards, and I’m not positive about this, but from my experience in Latin America (Chile), I’d have to say that vehicles in the U.S. have fewer tailpipe emissions than vehicles in many other parts of the world.

"…using DC supercharger instead of oil/gas in vehicles is better…" I could agree with this, IF the electric vehicles were using a non-polluting source for the electricity used to recharge the batteries of those electric vehicles… Another "problem" the electric vehicles have (in my opinion) is lack of acceptable range, and the actual "capability" – towing, hauling, etc. of those electric vehicles.

B – "What are some ways to lessen air pollutants (CO, PM10, SOx, gaseous hydrocarbons, NOx, Ozone, and hazardous toxic substance…)…" Interesting question on this one… One way to reduce airborne pollutants, would be to require those "developing nations" which were exempt from the Kyoto Protocol to meet the higher standards for their emissions. The cleaner technology IS available, and has been developed in the countries which are already living a higher standard – often at a high cost to the companies in those nations. So to exempt those developing nations is ridiculous… Carbon monoxide is a byproduct of inefficient combustion… Particulate matter (PM-10) is made up of small particles that are smaller than 10 microns across. Sources of PM-10 are all over the place: Construction, vehicular traffic, manufacturing, etc. Sulfur Oxides – which happen to be what I work with – are another pollutant which is generated by many different industries, etc. Where I work, I operate an acid plant which is hooked to the cleanest copper smelter in the world. My acid plant is a fancy pollution-control device for this smelter. The gas going into my acid plant is about 130,000 ppm of SO2. What comes out is less than 80 ppm of SO2. The rest is converted into Sulfuric Acid – often as much as 21,000 gallons per hour. So the technology is there for cleaner smelting… Coal burning power plants is another source of SO2…however the "clean-coal technology" is out there to help reduce the emissions from those power generating stations… Nuclear energy doesn’t produce the "greenhouse gases", but because of ignorance & fear, nuclear energy faces a HUGE uphill battle in the U.S. Automobile exhaust is a HUGE source of emissions, CO, SOx, NOx, hydrocarbons, etc. – but how many of those emissions are from the United States (with its higher emissions standards) and how many are from "developing nations" that may not have any emissions standards?

It’s a fact that our "modern lifestyle" is one that impacts the environment. How much it impacts the environment, is pretty much up to the consumer. Consumers can change the way businesses work by either buying or boycotting a businesses product…especially if an "environmental scorecard" is one of the categories people use to make their buying decision. Here’s another example: Tiffany’s buys gold from the company I work for – because of the effort this company puts in being environmentally friendly. We’re ISO 14001 certified – and ISO 14001 is an international standard for environmental responsibility that many companies strive for. People can make the same type of choices that Tiffany’s has made. They can CHOOSE to buy from a more responsible company, or they can CHOOSE to save money by purchasing stuff which is made in a non-environmentally friendly manner…

Oh, and one last thing to remember: There are also HUGE sources of CO2, SO2, and other pollutants that are entirely natural. Volcanic activity spews millions of tons of carbon dioxide and sulfur oxides into the atmosphere every day… MILLIONS OF TONS… Some folks will try to discount the volumes of pollutants being discharged by natural sources, yet the fact remains…

Nature does in fact pollute nature.

Humans also pollute nature.

Common sense would have humans doing what they feasibly can to reduce their environmental impact and consumption of natural resources.

Realistically, humans alter their environment – but cutting down trees, planting trees, putting up houses, plowing fields, releasing domestic animals into the wild (cats, hogs, etc), manufacturing, harvesting, etc. Unless people want to lower their standards of living and get rid of many aspects of modern life, we’ll just have to figure out how to minimize our impacts.