Wake Up and Smell the Smog

A nuclear winter sounds like a horrifying event, one which no one would like to live through. The major problem in this disaster would be the excess pollution blocking out the sun, halting the progress of life as we know it, or more accurately, of life. Plants would stop production of chlorophyll, would stop needing carbon dioxide, and would stop producing oxygen. Although the atmosphere is 8% oxygen, we would slowly suffocate ourselves, simply by breathing, which would only occur if we don’t die from the cataclysmic event, or the poisoning from the toxic air first. The ominous fact is we have begun down this path towards poisoning and suffocation, a surefire way to commit a worldwide genocide.

You might say that this can never happen. The cold war has ended, we have stopped stockpiling our nuclear weapons, we are on positive terms with all other nations with atomic bombs, or at least not pursuing aggression of any form against them. So what will cause this nuclear winter? The world has functioned superbly for thousands, if not millions of year, so the answer is obviously us, and more specifically our actions, which have predicated our downfall due to our use and usage of unclean fuels such as coal and gas.

We can trace this partnership between coal and ourselves back to the industrial revolution in Great Britain, when coal was first used to power plants to create desired products out of raw goods, and progress human civilization positively. This was our first major poisoning of ourselves, and it was followed by many later doses of toxins throughout the world. Like a drug user we recieved momentary surges forward from this, but were always left wanting more. Now the earth is truly becoming poisoned, and we are suffocating with enormous amounts of smoke and industrial haze being poured into the air.

Admittedly, Americans are the worst culprits, producing around 20 tons of carbon emissions per person, compared with the average 18 tons produced by Saudi Arabians and Canadians who are the next largest producers. The Chinese who we view as having extremely polluted cities only produce a surprising 2 tons per person, 2 tons less than the world wide average. What these statistics show is that we Americans are the worst producer of carbon emissions, but being at the top (in a negative way) means that improving should be easier for us.

Of our 20 tons of carbon emissions produced annually, about 82% is produced from fossil fuel combustion. We NEED to work together as a community, a United States community to reduce this number. Turning off all the lights not being used in the house, using public transportation as often as possible in all cities that are visited, and driving a car that has a low impact in the environment are all positive ways to start. Use air-dryers in public restrooms verses using paper towels, which have to later be driven to a dump or a recycling plant, and walk whenever possible. Education about carbon footprints is the key to this process. So now that you have learned, how will you reduce your contribution to nuclear winter?