Environmental Science Final Mitigation Strategies and Solutions

Mitigation Strategies and Solutions

Tyler McNeil

Phoenix University/Phoenix Online

Professor Kristine Reed

Atmospheric Issues

(Air Pollution)

The issue that we will be discussing here is atmospheric issues, but more extensively the atmospheric issue of air pollution. Air pollution is a major atmospheric issue because there are many pollutants entering into the atmosphere and causing major problems with air quality. Air pollution of course is worse in bigger cities, and as cities continue to grow the more air pollution that is made. Air pollution can be made from natural causes or from human activities which we will go more in detail on later. Air pollution is divided into two categories primary and secondary. Primary air pollution consists of nitrogen oxides, carbon oxides, sulfur dioxide, particulate matter, and hydrocarbons. Secondary air pollution only consists of ozone and sulfur trioxide because these take place in the atmosphere. These chemicals enter the atmosphere and affect the atmosphere itself, the ozone layer, air quality, and settles on land creating many other issues.

Earlier we discussed that air pollution can be created either naturally or mainly by human activities, which we are going to discuss more in detail now. Air pollution can be created naturally by a couple different sources. Many forest fires are created by lightning. These forest fires put air pollution and toxins into the air, which of course cannot be controlled. Air pollution can also be created naturally by geysers and volcanic activities. This form of natural air pollution cannot be controlled or maintained because it is natural incidences that cause it in the first place.

The rest of the air pollution comes mainly from human activities, which actually has many different sources. The biggest source of human air pollution is industrial, like power plants. These plants pump many different pollutants into the air in large amounts. In bigger cities air...