Go Green!!!! Why Stop Using Plastic Bags?

Plastic bags pollute soil and water, and kill thousands of marine mammals yearly

By Larry West, About.com Guide

Did you know . . .

Americans throw away almost 100 billion plastic bags every year, and only 1 percent to 3 percent are ever recycled.

What’s So Bad About Plastic Bags?
Plastic bags are not biodegradable. They clog waterways, spoil the landscape, and end up in landfills where they may take 1,000 years or more to break down into ever smaller particles that continue to pollute the soil and water.

Plastic bags also pose a serious danger to birds and marine mammals that often mistake them for food. Thousands die each year after swallowing or choking on discarded plastic bags.

Finally, producing plastic bags requires millions of gallons of petroleum that could be used for transportation or heating.

Consider a Personal Ban on Plastic Bags
Some businesses have stopped offering their customers plastic bags, and many communities are either considering a ban on plastic bags or have already implemented one.

Meanwhile, here are a couple of things you can do to help:

1.     Switch to reusable shopping bags. Reusable shopping bags made from renewable materials conserve resources by replacing paper and plastic bags. Reusable bags are convenient and come in a variety of sizes, styles and materials. When not in use, some reusable bags can be rolled or folded small enough to fit easily into a pocket.

2.     Recycle your plastic bags. If you do end up using plastic bags now and then, be sure to recycle them. Many grocery stores now collect plastic bags for recycling. If yours doesn't, check with your community recycling program to learn how to recycle plastic bags in your area.

Consequences of air pollution

In people: the lung such as asthma, emphysema, lung cancer, bronchitis. At the level of the skin, spots, skin cancer, conditions in the mucous membranes of the nose, eye irritation, conjunctivitis, also exacerbates cardiovascular disease, among other diseases.
In materials, deterioration of materials used in buildings and other surfaces.
In plants, alters the process of photosynthesis.
Environmental problems: among the most dramatic problems with the smog of big cities, climate change and regional to global scale, the greenhouse effect, acid rain and the decrease of the ozone layer.

Smog
In large cities such as Mexico, New York, Santiago de Chile and others, you can see a gray cloud in the sky that usually covers the entire city, this cloud is called smog and is formed by the accumulation of pollutants in the atmosphere. Among these pollutants are:
Carbon monoxide driven by vehicles.Sulfur oxide, expelled by the chimneys of factories.Coal, black powder formed by the incomplete burning of gasoline and other petroleum products.

The World Health Organization (WHO) states that every year 3,000,000 people die because of pollution. This figure triples million people die yearly in car crashes.

Air Pollution

Pollution means any alteration of natural conditions in a given environment. In this way you can identify different types of pollution: water, air, noise and visual. Air pollution is any alteration of its natural composition, the presence in the atmosphere of compounds that have adverse effects on humans and their property, as well as on animals and plants.

Pollutions effects

Human health

Adverse air quality can kill many organisms including humans. Ozone pollution can cause respiratory disease, cardiovascular disease, throat inflammation, chest pain, and congestion. Water pollution causes approximately 14,000 deaths per day, mostly due to contamination of drinking water by untreated sewage in developing countries. An estimated 700 million Indians have no access to a proper toilet, and 1,000 Indian children die of diarrhoeal sickness every day. Nearly 500 million Chinese lack access to safe drinking water. 656,000 people die prematurely each year in China because of air pollution. In India, air pollution is believed to cause 527,700 fatalities a year. Studies have estimated that the number of people killed annually in the US could be over 50,000.

Oil spills can cause skin irritations and rashes. Noise pollution induces hearing loss, high blood pressure, stress, and sleep disturbance. Mercury has been linked to developmental deficits in children and neurologic symptoms. Older people are majorly exposed to diseases induced by air pollution. Those with heart or lung disorders are under additional risk. Children and infants are also at serious risk. Lead and other heavy metals have been shown to cause neurological problems. Chemical and radioactive substances can cause cancer and as well as birth defects.

Environment

Pollution has been found to be present widely in the environment. There are a number of effects of this:

• Biomagnification describes situations where toxins (such as heavy metals) may pass through trophic levels, becoming exponentially more concentrated in the process.
• Carbon dioxide emissions cause ocean acidification, the ongoing decrease in the pH of the Earth's oceans as CO₂ becomes dissolved.
• The emission of greenhouse gases leads to global warming which affects ecosystems in many ways.
• Invasive species can out compete native species and reduce biodiversity. Invasive plants can contribute debris and biomolecules (allelopathy) that can alter soil and chemical compositions of an environment, often reducing native species competitiveness.
• Nitrogen oxides are removed from the air by rain and fertilise land which can change the species composition of ecosystems.
• Smog and haze can reduce the amount of sunlight received by plants to carry out photosynthesis and leads to the production of tropospheric ozone which damages plants.
• Soil can become infertile and unsuitable for plants. This will affect other organisms in the food web.
• Sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides can cause acid rain which lowers the pH value of soil.

Sources and causes!

Air pollution comes from both natural and manmade sources. Though globally man made pollutants from combustion, construction, mining, agriculture and warfare are increasingly significant in the air pollution equation.
Motor vehicle emissions are one of the leading causes of air pollution. China, United States, Russia, Mexico, and Japan are the world leaders in air pollution emissions. Principal stationary pollution sources include chemical plants, coal-fired power plants, oil refineries, petrochemical plants, nuclear waste disposal activity, incinerators, large livestock farms (dairy cows, pigs, poultry, etc.), PVC factories, metals production factories, plastics factories, and other heavy industry. Agricultural air pollution comes from contemporary practices which include clear felling and burning of natural vegetation as well as spraying of pesticides and herbicides.
About 400 million metric tons of hazardous wastes are generated each year. The United States alone produces about 250 million metric tons. Americans constitute less than 5% of the world's population, but produce roughly 25% of the world’s CO₂, and generate approximately 30% of world’s waste. In 2007, China has overtaken the United States as the world's biggest producer of CO₂.
In February 2007, a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), representing the work of 2,500 scientists from more than 130 countries, said that humans have been the primary cause of global warming since 1950. Humans have ways to cut greenhouse gas emissions and avoid the consequences of global warming, a major climate report concluded. But in order to change the climate, the transition from fossil fuels like coal and oil needs to occur within decades, according to the final report this year from the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

Oh… I’m sorry, but… what is pollution?

Can somebody explain me? 

The Wikipedia says:

Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into a natural environment that causes instability, disorder, harm or discomfort to the ecosystem, physical systems or living organism. Pollution can take the form of chemical substances or energy, such as noise, heat, or light. Pollutants, the elements of pollution, can be foreign substances or energies, or naturally occurring; when naturally occurring, they are considered contaminants when they exceed natural levels. Pollution is often classed as point source or nonpoint source pollution.

Well, what exactly is pollution? Something gross? Stinky? Poison? Yes, yes, all those things... and more. Some is obvious like smoke, which you can see, but much of it is not obvious at all. Yet you're eating it, drinking it, and breathing it most of the time. In addition, what is worse is that all this muck affects all other life on Earth. Not only humans, also animals and plants. You can find pollution made by people just about everywhere on the planet.

The Blacksmith Institute issues annually a list of the world's worst polluted places. In the 2007 issues the ten top nominees are located in Azerbaijan, China, India, Peru, Russia, Ukraine, and Zambia.

Therefore, there's nowhere on the planet left with no pollution; not even the bottom of the sea or high up in the air. And this is a very bad news.

Pollution: Help! I can't breath!!!

Pollution?!

You can't miss it, can you? It's everywhere... all over our planet. It makes people, other animals and plants sick or even kills them. It's even making the climate change. Humans are the cause and humans will have to try to stop it... especially kids and teens, because the future is ours! Please follow us on this blog to discuss what we can do with this huge problem. We can interchange a lot of ideas to try to make things better for everyone.