Alli Favatella Geography 1010 E-portfolio Spring 2015 UTAH’S AIR

What is air pollution? Air pollution is a noxious mix of gases that contains harmful amounts of fumes, dust, and poison. Anyone living in the Salt Lake valley breaths this nasty mix almost everyday. It causes sore throats and breathing problems, as well as lung and heart diseases. Air quality in Asia is so bad that it causes 65% of the continent’s deaths. What’s even scarier is that indoor pollution is 2-5 times worse than the pollution outside.

What causes air pollution? Air pollution is caused by many different things. We burn fossil fuels that destroy our ozone layer and hang heavy in the air. Then we use those fossil fuels to run our cars. The exhaust from our cars are also extremely harmful to our bodies. There are also many different kinds of chemicals we use on a day to day basis that are heavy and deadly. These kind of chemicals have big molecular weights that hold them down on the ground and keep us from getting clean, fresh air. The Salt Lake valley also has high mountains that trap dirty air inside and keeps it from getting cycled out.

Air Quality in the United States As you can see there is more moderate-unhealthy air quality forecasts on a daily basis than there are good air quality days.

Effects on the Environment Toxic air destroys trees and wildlife and causes acid rain. Acid rain causes water to become acidic and kills of fish and other water dwelling creatures. Acid rain also makes trees weak and keeps them from functioning properly.

Air Pollution in China

Air quality in Utah Lately, air quality has caused a huge debate among citizens and government officials. Utah’s cold weather keeps the air from moving, and causes and inversion so bad you can’t see the mountains like you can in the summer time. This year Utah has had the worst air quality in nearly a decade. It has been a problem in the state since the 1870’s, but our desire for change has finally started to reverse some of the damage.

What are we doing to fix it? Just recently, a non-profit organization called the “Utah Clean Air Partnership” has been helping Utahn’s make small changes in their businesses and lives to help reduce the amount of pollution we are putting into the air. They also focus on educating people in the valley about the importance of air quality in Utah. If you have been paying any attention to the city of Salt Lake in the past few years, you may have noticed green bikes popping up in the city for you to pay for and ride. This is also a program to help cut the amount of people driving and getting them to use their cars less.

I hope that one day we can all convert to something less toxic to our planet. We only have one Earth, and if we continue down the path we are on, we won’t be around much longer.

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