ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION

GLOBAL WARMING

THEORY

AIR POLLUTION AND GLOBAL WARMING

Some of the most pressing issues today are those that pertain to pollution and global warming.
Pollution, if left unchecked, will destroy Earths resources completely making it impossible for continued
human existence. Global warming also offers a similar impact: an increase in average surface
temperature by just a few degrees can melt the polar ice caps and flood low-lying cities all over the
world. Severe weather disturbances can also redraw the world map and impair our way of living. The
future looks bleak if pollution and global warming trends continue to happen as projected. The problem
lies in the fact that the relationship between pollution and global warming are as intricate as they are
complex.
Human civilization is completely dependent on energy for survival; we draw majority of our energy from
burning fossil fuels; burning releases pollutants into the air, most notably carbon dioxide; carbon dioxide
is a greenhouse gas; increasing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere naturally leads to a
greenhouse effect otherwise known as global warming.
Scientists monitoring carbon dioxide levels in the air and surface temperatures on earth find a very
strong correlation between these two factors. When man started to burn more fuels to sustain the
energy needs for growing cities, carbon dioxide concentrations in the air went up. During this period
starting in the mid-1970s, the average surface temperature of the earth also inched upwards. Pollution
and global warming are deeply intertwined in this respect: pollution, at least on paper, leads to global
warming.
Many countries of the world have some laws that define the quality of air emissions by industries. These
laws specifically limit the emission threshold of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, methane, sulfur
dioxide, and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) so that concentrations of these pollutants in the air do not keep
on ballooning. Non-compliance to these regulations can be sufficient ground for government agencies to
close the erring facilities.