- In the Rockford Register Star April 22, 2021 edition, there appeared a small article titled Study: Millions in U. S. breathe polluted air. The study was done by the American Lung Association. According to the report 40 % of Americans. (135 million) live where the air is polluted and that people of color were 61% more likely to live in in an unhealthy area than white people. Climate change was blamed for air pollution. Two kinds of pollution were included in the reports
- Smog (ground-level ozone)
- Soot (particulate matter)
Smog forms on hot days and vehicle exhaust exacerbates the problem.
Sun
O + O2————-→O3
Normally oxygen in the atmosphere is a diatomic molecule (O2). However, radiant energy of the sun may split O2 molecules which then may combine with normal oxygen molecules to form O3. Ozone may also form as a result of running certain machines. I vividly remember the pungent odor of ozone in the copy room of one of the schools I taught in. An aside: I was taught in high school never to end a sentence with a preposition. Therefore, to honor the late Dorothy Bennett (Miss Bennett to us) who was my English grammar and literature teacher for three years (English II, English IIII and English IV. I will rephrase that sentence to read “I vividly remember the pungent odor of ozone in the copy room of one of the schools in which I taught.” Sounds weird doesn’t it. Many years later I learned that rule had been relaxed.
Back to the essay; smog is also formed from power plants and industrial smoke stacks. Really hot weather again exacerbates .the whole problem. (Can you tell I really like that word exacerbates ?) Next, particulate matter (larger particles) is more deadly causing more premature deaths than ozone pollution. Next, to my California readers, sorry but your state is the most polluted one with Los Angeles the top city followed by Bakersfield. Visalia and Fresno topped the list for particulate pollution. For those who are interested, Barrington, Vermont, Charlottesville, Virginia, Elmira, Corning, New York, Honolulu, and Wilmington, North Carolina were the least polluted according to this report. (Rice)
In an article written by Doyle Rice, the level of O2 is higher now (2020) that it has been in 3. 6 million years. “Human activity is driving climate change” says Colm Sweeney of NOAA’s Global Monitoring, Laboratory. The Earth’s atmospheric temperature has risen to levels that can’t be explained by natural causes according to scientists. Here are some thoughts to ponder.
•The world’s temperature has risen about two thirds of a degree in the last 20 years. That may not seem much but in 100 years that figure changes to 3.5° worldwide. • “We’re completely certain that the increase in CO2 warming is the planet”
Kate Marvel a climate scientist at NASA said:
• “I’m even more certain CO2 causes global heating than I am that smoking causes cancer. The world is already more than 2 degrees warmer than it was before the Industrial Revolution.
• The global surface average for CO2 was 412.5 ppm (parts per million) during 2020. (Rice)
Sea levels are rising at an ever-faster rate as ice and snow shrink, and oceans are getting more acidic and losing oxygen according to the climate Intergovernmental Panel on climate change (IPCC). Another aside: As I pointed out in an earlier essay, as a body of water is heated its kinetic energy increases (energy of molecular motion) because molecules are bumping into each other at a faster rate. Thus O2 molecules are forced to the surface and go into the atmosphere. As many aquarium enthusiasts know, the increase in water temperature if left unchecked will kill the fish. Believe me, I know from experience. Now think about this concept of physics on a global oceanic level and its effect on all ocean animal life. Added to this is the fact that this also promotes algal bloom which chokes out zooplankton and all marine animals, which just as you guessed, exacerbates the problem. This is already happening on a world-wide basis. Additionally, (another favorite word) rising ocean temperatures spawn hurricanes and other tropical storms. And I called this just an aside!
The annual increase in atmospheric methane, CH 4, a far more potent greenhouse gas, was 14.7 ppb (parts per billion), the largest annual increase since 1983 when such measurements began. (Dole Rice)
It’s no wonder the oceans are warming since they absorb more than 90% of the excess heat in the atmosphere as well as much of the CO2 making the upper water layer slightly acidic The chemical equation for the reaction is:
CO2 + H2O → H2CO3: (carbonic acid)
Next step: H2CO3 ←→ H + HCO3–
carbonic acid hydrogen ion bicarbonate ion
In a reversible reaction if the forward reaction is favored, then a hydrogen ion
(a hydrogen atom that lost an electron and thus simply has one proton in its nucleus) which explains the + and a bicarbonate ion which gained that charged electron are formed. If however, the reverse reaction occurs which will happen once the H + and HCO3– concentrations are in excess (> [H2CO3]). Then eventually everything comes to a new equilibrium but that equilibrium is different from the old. So what does this all have to do with the first equation? Absolutely nothing! Well sort of but if you followed my reasoning, it was a lesson in logic and organic and biochemistry.
So if you are into statistics as I sometimes am (besides baseball stats and my own website analytics), then consider these.
The world’s oceans (and I love this) have been taking the “heat” for climate change for decades.
- Seas are now rising at one seventh of an inch a year which is 2.5 times faster than the rate from 1900 to 1990.
- From 2006 to 2015 Greenland ice melt plus that from Antarctica, and
the world’s mountain glaciers has increased and now equals 720 billion tons of ice annually. That is equal to about 8 million modern aircraft carriers! - Marine animals are likely to decrease 15% and fishery catches by 21% by the end of the century.
I caution readers that these are estimates and projections and rely on many factors, any one of which can significantly alter the figures for the good or bad. (Borenstein)
References:
Borenstein, S. We’re all in big trouble, September 26, 2019, Rockford Register Star
Rice, D., Study: Millions in U. S. breathe polluted air. April,22 202, Rockford Register Star
Rice, D., NOAA: Earth’s carbon dioxide levels highest in over 3 nillion years, date unknown