After reading the two articles on air quality trends in New York City, I realized the enormous impending health dilemmas Americans face due to rising ozone levels and harmful air pollutants. It was refreshing to finally read an article that focused on the positive efforts that the government has been making to create a cleaner environment for its inhabitants. Most of the articles that we have read in class focused on the destruction humans placed on the environment, which provided us with a great foundation for why and how humans currently face environmental issues. However, I feel like the only reason that our city is making these strides is because of the incentive to win this competition of having the cleanest city air in the United States. Although the government has to incentivize the reduction of harmful air pollutants, such as sulfur dioxide and nickel, it is a great way to encourage citizens and other local government officials to become more active in environmental protection.
Both of the articles conveyed that further research was needed to discover the exact pollutants, sources, and solution; I believe that more people should become invested in surveys such as PlaNYC to help educate them, therefore, allowing them to be a part of the solution. A lot of the carbon dioxide emissions were traced back to vehicles and buildings. It would be extremely difficult to rid cars in general; however, there can (and has been) be larger efforts to use cleaner alternatives for oil, such as public transportation and biking. It would be interesting to reach 2030 and see if PlaNYC achieves all its goals of reducing the air pollutants.
I was shocked to read the statistics of the number of hospitalizations, emergency room visitations, and deaths related to poor air quality. To lost that many people annually, which was apparently more than the number of murdered people, is egregious. People have yet to connect these lung diseases, asthma, and other health detriments to the ozone levels and high pollutant levels. This all ties back into the collective ignorance and need for immediate effects that we have discussed in class. Maybe we should have our media redirect our attention to environmental issues instead of some of the ridiculous news updates that we receive now. People would probably scoff because they would not consider it a serious issue. However, the only way to implement effective changes is to gain society’s attention and consensus that we need to make efforts to save the environment and reduce harmful pollutants!
