HOW DOES ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION AFFECT US?
When giant whales beach themselves on our shores and expire in mass strandings, arctic polar bear populations become decimated due to disease brought on by environmental pollution, and birds fail to hatch because of fatal deformities, we all wonder why. A few years into the third millennium, we experience ever-increasing levels of lung cancer worldwide and suffer strange disease syndromes not encountered a few decades ago. Eight of our pristine National Parks, including Yosemite, are so polluted they violate federal smog standards. Indeed, all Earth’s creatures great and small are suffocating in a potentially deadly soup of toxic, man-made chemicals. THE KNOWN POLLUTANTS Smog and Ozone In 2003, Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernadino and Riverside Counties had 120 days out of compliance with the EPA standard of acceptable air quality. Southern California is, thus, the new smog capital of the United States. The chief pollutant sources are diesel trucks and buses, cars/vans/SUVs, aircrafts, l
