Pollution in our Community
Introduction Pollution is a large issue in the world today. The many gases factories release into the atmosphere are hurting our environment. Whether the effects of the pollution are visible or not they affect our air supply and the health of many. Wake County received a grade of “D” for ozone pollution. While the grade went up from a “F” to a “D” the air quality is still poor. Adding to the air pollution there are excessive amounts of carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides emissions in the air surrounding Wake County. There is also large amounts of pollution in our soil and water here in Wake County. Many water treatment plants dump over their allotment of wastewater and chemicals into water sources. While there are fines going along with these violations, they have not stopped the violations from continuing. Many creeks in Wake County have so much pollution and runoff in them, that it is not safe to eat the fish from them. Many people need to be made aware of pollution and its effects upon the environment. Though we cannot make large improvements, we can still help the cause. By cleaning up trash and debris in parks and rivers, we can better our environmental situation. The Issue The issue with pollution is affecting people worldwide. We specifically are the 142nd most polluted city in the nation. That might not seem like a huge problem, but considering the amount of cities in the United States, us being 142nd is pretty bad. The American Lung Association said that there were unhealthy levels of ozone pollution in the triangle. This is bad because it affects the air quality here, so people will be breathing in pollutants which can do severe damage to your lungs and airways. Things that cause our environment to get “sicker” are trash like plastics that get discarded poorly and float away into the air. Another thing that usually gets let go of are balloons that are filled with helium, which can hit something extremely hot or sharp, pop from compression and the remaining plastic float into bodies of water or just land on the ground and stay there for a very long amount of time, or the balloon becomes deflated and floating to the ground then to be eaten by an animal killing it by getting stuck in their throat or digestive tract. The reason I talk so much about plastics is because plastics can’t go away. See, plastics are made from a material that doesn’t naturally decompose, making the plastic object, whatever it may be, everlasting. Unless they are burned, which is also bad for the environment because while the plastic melts, it emits very strong and dangerous chemicals into the air, causing the air to slowly start to become unbreathable. This might be more of a minor problem, but it can still cause a great deal of slow, but sure destruction. The thing that I’m talking about is sediments.Some sediments are problems because they have a dangerous effect on things like water. For example Flint, Michigan has an ongoing problem with lead from old pipes contaminating the water that they use for sustenance. This is causing the people a lot of problems, like forcing most to move out of the vicinity of where the water flows to taps. “There have also been a lot of people who have been throwing trash into sewers making them completely filthy”.https://www.raleighnc.gov/environment/content/PWksStormwater/Articles/WaterPollution.html Solution By picking up trash, we create a better and cleaner environment. We are also reducing air and water pollution, which saves wildlife and makes our parks look good as new. Also, ultimately we are reducing climate change and global warming, even if it's only by a little bit. Picking up litter is not the only way we can save the planet. There are many ways to reduce pollution. A really successful way to reduce pollution is to conserve energy. You can do this by turning off lights, computers, and other electronics. Another way to reduce air pollution is to use energy efficient light bulbs and other electric appliances. Another good way is to rely on solar power rather fossil fuels. It’s very good for the environment and it’s cheaper. Not only does doing all of that reduce air pollution, it helps wildlife. over one hundred thousand sea mammals die each year because of water pollution, and those numbers are rising dramatically. We can help decline those numbers by cleaning up at your local beach, or cleaning up a lake. Even if you only clean up one small lake a little bit, it will really improve the aquatic life. To help out wildlife on the land, we can go around our local parks and look for any litter and dispose of it. Animals could eat it and get sick so this is really helping them out. Conclusion There are several ways that we can help our community, that will eventually clean our community and make it more desirable to live in. We personally can go and clean up a local park one day and pick up some trash. We can conserve energy by pledging to turn off lights at home, not leaving the water running and by taking some shorter showers. This helps us to not overuse water, and to keep our environment clean. By turning off lights you can conserve energy therefore not polluting the environment and requiring less pollution by energy providers. I also propose that we take some students out and pick up trash, or make the park really clean. This would eliminate some of the pollution that is in the park, and make it all clean. To help with this issue we propose the idea of going to a local park to clean up trash. We will go to a local park and clean up multiple bags of trash to make the park cleaner and more pleasant to look at and play in. Specifically at Laurel Hills park or Jaycee park, one with high foot traffic. To get all of the supplies we will buy some heavy duty lawn waste bags and several boxes of gloves to successfully and safely clean the park. We also will need several parents to volunteer to help being chaperones on the trip. The requirements of getting to volunteer are simple. Filling out some paperwork/permission forms to go to the parks, and some safety release forms, and release forms that the volunteers must fill out, but that is it. To get transportation we can go and get some money from the eighth grade fund, and or have each student bring in 5 dollars to pay for the bus. We would hope to do this on June sixth in the early afternoon or morning so the heat would not be too bad, and we can work easily into lunchtime. Some important info you may need and or want to know is that we already have someone willing to partner with us and help us to clean up the parks. They work for Raleigh Parks and Rec. and they have given us a lot of information on things we can do and are willing to partner with us. We may need some money from the eighth grade fund for this but that would be it, and it is a fairly simple project in terms of supplies. We only need trash bags, gloves and possibly trash spikes but that is it. And finally our goals for this project are to collect ten bags total of trash and waste we find in the parks. We want to make a noticable difference in how the parks look and how they feel when you go. All we want to do in this project is to make the parks more enjoyable and nice to look at for all of the families that go there so that everyone gets a pleasurable experience, and wants to come back. We want at least 40 volunteers to go along to maximize our trash pick up and our expanse we can cover. We hope to make this a wonderful project and one that will succeed and make our community fun and clean once more.
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Authormy name is sam and I am an 8th grader at martin middle school Archives
April 2018
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