Walt Decherd – A Sustainable World

The Lead Pollution Have Reduced the Greenhouse Effect

Walt Decherd About Higher Levels Of Water And Air Pollution By R. P. Fernandez

Higher levels of water pollution in the air during the years 1970 and 1980 is likely to lead to inhibition of global temperature increases to a certain extent today, almost a full effect greenhouse is kicking in, as there was a continued decrease in the rate of anthropogenic emissions of lead in the last 20 years. As shown in a study published in Nature Geosciences, the lead pollution was to reduce the impact of greenhouse gases on global warming. The particles of lead nurtures the formation of clouds which become effective “umbrella”.

Investigators from Switzerland, Germany and the United States “captured” a few clouds on the mountains, and compare it with artificially created in the laboratory.

It showed that emissions of greenhouse gases could have had much greater effects on global warming if the particles of lead, rejected in large part by human activity, had not promoted the formation of clouds.

Indeed, the presence of lead allows the formation of clouds where the air is not normally quite wet and cold. Sunlight would be more thoughtful on the surface of these clouds, which would mitigate the greenhouse effect in the years 1970-1980, before the mass consumption of unleaded petrol.

“To some extent this has probably led to a slowdown of rising global temperatures, whereas today, almost all of the greenhouse gases are starting to act,” says Joachim Curtius, a professor at the University Frankfurt, Germany.

This study did not aim to enhance the lead pollution which is extremely harmful, but it helps to explain the acceleration of climate change in recent years.

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The Air We Breathe

Walt Decherd Talks About The Air We Breathe By: Gary Tooth

We don’t need scientists to tell us we require ‘air’ to survive. The air we breathe has a gas called oxygen and without it there would be no life period. Humans, plants and animals all need oxygen to survive but although oxygen is a colorless, odorless, and tasteless, there are a lot of pollutants in the air which are not. Worse still, there are a whole bunch of impurities indoors as well as outdoors, which is why ionic air purifiers have become all the rage these days. But just how bad is bad when we talk about the quality of the air we breathe?

Air pollution first got my attention when I was visiting Hong Kong last year. My first impressions of this small country was that it was clean, efficient, and very well organized despite the fact that its buildings and residents were so tightly packed in. As I walked around the city areas, it was pretty noisy and certainly bustling, but I didn’t think for one minute that there were any real issues with pollution. That was until I read an article in a local magazine which reported that there were over 2000 deaths caused last year through air pollution alone.

I found this an incredible read. What does it say for places like Bangkok in Thailand where you can almost chew on the air it’s that thick. My Thai physician here in the USA, explained that Bangkok has lung cancer rates which are about three times higher than the rest of the country, and its air pollution levels are some 14 times higher than international health standards. He went on to say that the city now has the sharpest decline in life expectancy within South East Asia. The price of pollution in the Asia region seems to indicate these Eastern cities are suffocating on their own economic prosperity. Quite a price to pay wouldn’t you say!

But air pollution doesn’t stop in developing countries. Here at home in the US, we are often accused by the international community as being the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases worldwide. In addition to industrial pollution, millions of us have these big automobiles which are all spewing out air contaminants and affecting the quality of the air breathed as we walk around outside. President George W bush has not agreed to reduce emissions at the time of writing this article. He said it would be damaging to the US economy. He also went on to say that developing countries were not required to cut their emissions so didn’t see why the US had to do so at this time.

Governments play a huge role in protecting its citizens and the planet as a whole, but we the little people, also have a duty to do what we can in order to help improve the quality of the air we breathe, and that goes for inside as well as out. In actual fact, our home and work environments may be damaging our health without us even realizing it. So many of us spend a high percentage of our time indoors, so the quality of the air we breathe inside is very important.

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