United for a planet without air pollution
World Environment Day is celebrated on June 5, dedicated this year to the fight against air pollution under the slogan “No air pollution”. Established by the UN in 1972, during the Stockholm Conference or First Earth Congress, whose central theme was the normalization of human relations with the environment.
China will be the global host of World Environment Day 2019. The country's Government has committed on that day to organize celebrations in a large number of cities, with a main event in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. In northern China there are several cities where the air is practically unbreathable due to pollution.
As a result of the serious environmental problems in the Asian country, BBC Mundo, in January 2017, titled: "How to live in the most polluted city in China (and it is not Beijing)". The story is about Shijiazhuang. "It is a dense fog that covers everything," says the reporter. Breathing it every day is dangerous. Pollution alarms city dwellers in northern China, where face masks are already part of everyday life. "
Going backwards, one of the most connoted and serious air pollution occurred in England. It was an event that history knows as the "Great Mist of 1952 in London".
Do you know what the difference is between air and atmosphere? In the following link we offer you the answer, we also clarify the most frequently asked questions about air pollution.
What is the environment?
If we take into account the dictionary definition of environment or environment, we have that it is the “set of physical and biological circumstances or factors that surround living beings and influence their development and behavior”.
Is the biosphere equivalent to the environment?
The definition of biosphere is the "system formed by the set of living beings on planet Earth and their interrelationships". That is, the space in which life develops. According to this pair of definitions, biosphere and environment are not equivalent concepts, but they are quite close. Now we will try to establish what is the size of the biosphere.
What is the maximum height where a bird has been found?
The highest record of the existence of a bird was found during an accident, in 1973, in which a Ruppel vulture was hit by a commercial plane that was flying over the Ivory Coast at about 11,300 meters above sea level. Bypassing this case, the common crane has been seen to rise above the Himalayas at 10,000 meters. The Indian goose flies at 8,800 meters, also over the Himalayas. The whooper swan sails 8,000 meters above Northern Ireland.
What is the maximum depth where living beings live?
In recent years, a species of snail fish was discovered that lives in the Mariana Trench, the deepest place on Earth. Pseudoliparis swirei inhabits 8,000 meters below the sea surface. On the other hand, Japanese scientists managed to record fish that sail to depths of 8,134 meters.
How tall is the biosphere then?
From these data we can calculate that the thickness of this narrow dome, formed by the atmosphere, the soil and the oceans, which we have called the biosphere, measures 11,300 m. + 8,134 m = 19,434 m. In round numbers it is approximately 20 kilometers. For this reason we say that it is a narrow dome, since if the radius of the Earth is 6,371 km, then the biosphere does not reach 1% (in reality it is about 0.3%). It is in this thin dome that we cohabit nearly eight million species on Mother Earth.
What are the causes of air pollution, this year's theme on World Environment Day?
Environmental pollution generally occurs when certain elements causing harmful effects accumulate in amounts that nature cannot recycle. In the case of air, starting in the 1950s, the concentration of pollutants on a global scale reached levels never seen before. This stage, which has not concluded, some specialists have called it "the great acceleration".
This has brought serious consequences such as environmental pollution, acid rains, deterioration of the ozone layer, the greenhouse effect and pollution or smog that reaches intolerable levels, especially in mega-cities, where overcrowding, respiratory diseases, allergies and other pathologies.
What can be done to decrease air pollution?
As more electric cars, wind energy, solar energy, green cities are used and the objectives of the 2030 Agenda for sustainability are met, the use of fossil fuels such as coal, natural gas and energy will decrease. gasoline and therefore greenhouse gas emissions.
The declaration of “Climate Emergency” by England, on May 1, 2019, followed by Scotland and hundreds of cities in the world, to which some universities joined, is an important step to recognize climate severity, in addition to attracting attention of the communities that inhabit the planet.
We remain hopeful of achieving a world without pollution, free from fears of catastrophic events, the consequence of uncontrolled global warming and chaotic climate change.
