Air Pollution: A Crisis More Deadly Than Any Pandemic - Essay Sample

Introduction

Air pollution is a significant crisis with more deadly outcomes than any other pandemic in the world today. According to research conducted by Paulson et al. (2012), through monitoring of the primary pollutants in low-income areas in Los Angeles, high traffic and large carbon emitters were found to be the leading causes of pollution. Additionally, the production of photochemical products is a significant cause of minute particle experience in the atmosphere during the afternoons. The research is supported by the American Lung Association's annual report 2020, which positioned Los Angeles as the most polluted city in the USA for the 21st time. Other cities in California listed as most polluted include Bakersfield with the largest particle pollution and Fresno-Madera as the most short-term particle polluted city. The extent of pollution in California is devastating. Of 10 smoggiest cities in the USA, 7 of them are California's. To make matters worse, 6 out of 10 sootiest cities are from the same state.

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According to the report, soot pollution causes premature deaths due to lung cancer. Despite environmental regulations in the country, the air quality is worsening due to smog and soot. Rice (2019), in his article, explains that increasing population and topography gives room for pollution to surpass environmental regulations. An increase in population leads to high usage of cars and trucks and settlement of people in valleys where pollutants settle.

All is not lost in the attempt to save Los Angeles dying Ozone layer. Khan (2020) shows how LA in now one of the cleanest cities, thanks to the COVID 19 pandemic, which forced people to stay indoors for more than a month. The improvement is attributed to reduced traffic and industrial operations, thereby reducing pollutants in the air.

The Relationship Between Bad Air and Higher COVID Deaths or Exposure

Harvard School of Public Health produced a paper linking air pollution to higher death rates to COVID 19 patients in the USA. The paper researched 3,080 counties and found out that those regions with high rates of fine particulate air pollution had higher COVID death rates. Exposure to fine particulate matter leads to health conditions such as cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. Therefore, patients with such ailments have a weak immune system which cannot fight the COVID 19 virus. The counties have registered increased hospitalization rates, deaths, and higher use of resources to control the spread of the virus. It is, therefore, essential to enforce air pollution regulations to prevent air-pollution related ailments always.

How the Original Clean Air Act Has Been Weakened and Diluted

Clean Air Act was legislated in 1970 and enhanced in 1990 to prevent increasing air pollution and control life-threatening situations such as ailments and natural hazards (Kristie, James and Thomas, 2012). The Act has several legislations to fund research, pollution control, government responsibility in implementing the Act, and criteria of categorizing pollutants. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) aimed at regulating emissions in automotive, agriculture, and manufacturing industries by regulating emissions into the air. However, there is a weakening of the efforts of EPA to control pollution by various players. For instance, Lavelle (2018) provides that there is suspension and delay of implementation of regulations aiming at protecting the environment and public health. Federal court cases are piling up, making it hard to implement the regulations. EPA's director Pruitt's progress in environmental protection, faces obstacles when courts suspend their implementation. Additionally, employees leave the agency, positions eliminated, and the budget is to limit the agency's operations. The misfortunes are related to the efforts of lawyers and lobbyists who represent companies related to pollutants emitters. Newly employed EPA employees are closely related to companies directly affected by environmental laws to ensure that they limit their implementation.

Biggest Stakeholders and How They Influence Policies

Government, oil, and gas companies are the most prominent stakeholders in environmental control strategies. The government is the formulator and implementer of environmental policies to curb pollution from industries. However, their efforts receive opposition from manufacturing and processing companies. In his article, McCarthy (2019) explains that annually, public oil, as well as gas industries uses more than $200 million for lobby and advocacy with the aim to control, hinder, and obstruct climate policies. Governments, therefore, receive blows in implementing environmental policies. The companies assert that their lobbying money funds activities that support the fight for sustainable climate activities. They draw attention to reduction of carbon campaigns, branding themselves as environmental experts, and recognizing that climate change is a world problem, without implementing the solutions. Such activities mislead the public, considering that they expand their operations while spending little towards control of carbon emissions.

American Petroleum Institute is the biggest oil lobbyist group. Over the past decades, the group has stalled progress to save the ozone layer. It hires consultants using millions of taxpayers' money to question the credibility of research conducted to prove that particulate matter and carbon products relate to ailments such as bronchitis and asthma (Jenny, 2017).

How the Trump Admin Is Weakening the Regulations Even More and What Scientists Are Saying About Its Impact

On September 18, 2019, the Trump government declared its motive to remove the Clean Air Act in California, citing that federal rules are more powerful than state authority. As a result, states were no longer authorized to set emission standards in automobiles. The Union of Concerned Scientists (2019) corrected the declaration by stating that the move completely endangered environmental protection as well as the violation of environmental laws. The administration is seen as reluctant towards giving states the responsibility to control environmental pollution and deal with increased risks of environmental change. Additionally, the government is defying international law and democratic values by enhancing increased pollution.

The move is disadvantageous since it triggers companies responsible for pollution to continue their irresponsible activities, thereby endangering the environment. Therefore, disrespecting regulatory authorities equates to infringing the democratic process in the USA. Rott and Ludden (2020) correct the move stating that the rules will elevate carbon levels from the automobile industry by 1.5% annually by 2026. Additionally, they cite that the rule aimed at reversing Obama's administration policy, which aimed at an annual reduction of carbon emission in the transportation industry. The industry will double its emissions over time, thus experiencing criticism from Environmental Protection Agency.

Why Los Angeles Rely So Heavily on Cars and Lacks Alternative Modes of Transport

Source: Laist.com

Los Angeles residences have an addiction to cars. Laist.com researched on why LA's do not use public transport but prefers using personal vehicles. The study found out that safety, unreliability, and inconvenience as the main reasons. Most people state that using the train takes more time than driving themselves through traffic. People opt to use more money to maintain their automobiles than waste time on buses and trains. Women experience harassment when using public transport, especially at night. Bus stations are far from workplaces, such that when one alights the bus, he or she has to walk, thereby consuming more time (Tinoco, 2016).

Political roadblocks have been the main challenge of why alternative modes of transport were not established or improved. For instance, the process of establishing modern infrastructure is complicated in California due to its litigious environment. As Panagiotopoulos (2017) explains, homeowners have regularly litigated against projects whey does not support. There has been a case where LA County has sued the Los Angeles Metro to stop its plan of building a subway passing underneath the city. Therefore, the infrastructure department has lacked support from other departments, policy leadership, and budget to establish an effective transit network. The court cases are not only time consuming but also costly, money which would otherwise be used to fund such projects.

Los Angeles Plan On 2028 Olympic Games in Relation to Air Pollution

LA will have a privileged of hosting the 2028 Olympic Games. However, the months of the event are the foggiest, an action resulting from the emission of carbons and oxides from automotive exhaust. July and August are the hottest and combined with fog make it hard for the participants to adapt to the conditions. As a result of such circumstances, it is easy for the community to succumb to respiratory diseases. Athletes will likely experience difficulties in breathing, raspy throat, and coughing (Elsom, 2020). To prevent adverse effects, LA plans to control its impacts by reducing the hours of operations for industries, industries to use alternative sources of fuel such as natural gas or electricity, and families to stop using electrical appliances such as air conditioners. Sharing of cars during transport to minimize traffic and consequently carbon emission will be advocated.

Personal efforts such as warming up in the early morning hours when the atmosphere is less foggy will limit exposure to fog while maintaining conditions fit for competition. Limited exposure to smog through staying indoors before the competitions is important as an individual effort. Additionally, consumption of food rich in vitamin E prevents oxidation processes in the body, thereby limiting the harmful effects of Ozone (Elsom, 2020).

LA weather in July and August. Source: Geographical

Works Cited

American Lung Association. "State of the Air 2020." http://www.stateoftheair.org/key-findings/ Accessed 29 April. 2020.

Derek, E. "Los Angeles 1984: The Olympics under a cloud." Geographical, 2020. https://geographical.co.uk/places/cities/item/1855-los-angeles-1984-the-olympics-under-a-cloud Accessed 29 April. 2020.

Doyle, R. "Bad air days on the rise: The nation's most polluted city is..." 2019. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/04/24/air-pollution-smog-soot-worst-california/3551734002/ Accessed 29 April. 2020.

Drew, K. "Los Angeles has notoriously polluted air. But right now it has some of the cleanest of any major city" 2020. https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/07/us/los-angeles-pollution-clean-air-coronavirus-trnd/index.html Accessed 29 April. 2020.

Jie, H. "Fueling Dissent: How the Oil Industry Set Out to Undercut Clean Air." The Guardian, December14, 2017. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/dec/14/fueling-dissent-how-the-oil-industry-set-out-to-undercut-clean-air Accessed 29 April. 2020

Harvard School of Public Health. "Air pollution linked with higher COVID-19 death rates." https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/hsph-in-the-news/air-pollution-linked-with-higher-covid-19-death-rates/ Accessed 29 April. 2020

Marianne, L. "How Pruitt's EPA Is Delaying, Weakening and Repealing Clean Air Rules." Inside Climate News, March 22, 2018. https://insideclimatenews.org/news/21032018/trump-epa-smog-rules-pruitt-air-pollution-clean-power-plan-air-quality-connecticut-pennsyvlania-power-plants Accessed 29 April. 2020

Matt, T. "Why We Don't Take Public Transit: LAist Readers Respond." March 25, 2016. https://laist.com/2016/03/25/laist_readers_react_why_we_dont_use.php Accessed 29 April. 2020

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