The US's Pollution Levels are at an Unhealthy Rate Among More Than Half of the States

Photo Credit: Huffington Post

The majority of the world knows that the air around them is unclean, but do they know just how contaminated it really is? The air within the United States is full of pollution. A few weeks ago, the American Lung Association revealed that the US population is living among extremely unhealthy air. 

Pollution can be visible or virtually invisible to the human eye. The most well-known type of pollution is smog; a visible pollutant. Smog can be see all around the world, especially in well-developed, industrial areas. It is created when the gases that come out of tailpipes, smokestacks and other sources come into contact with sunlight. 

Pollution is dangerous in any form. Breathing in the contaminated air can result in early death, cardiovascular harm, respiratory disease and cancer. The catastrophic damage that results from the pollution has not stopped people from building up areas and creating more objects that produce harmful particles. Even with all of this information open to the public and plainly stated, nearly 20 million people are living among these harmful pollutants in the United States alone. A report from 2015 showed that 4 in 10 Americans are living in areas with unhealthy levels of pollution. Measures must be taken to protect the air we breathe. Unclean air not only causes us harm, but it is also extremely harmful to our ecosystem. 

Read more about the current state of pollution - Huffington Post

Climate Change: Causing Huge ‘Dead Zones’ in Oceans by 2030

Photo Credit: Vice.com

Man-made climate change is extremely threatening to the environment around the world. 97 percent of actively publishing climate scientists agree: Climate-warming trends over the past century are extremely likely due to human activities. Studies show that man-made climate change is already decreasing the oxygen levels within some parts of the world’s oceans, and by 2030 huge “dead zones” could start to appear.

The oxygen levels are declining because the increasing water temperature makes it difficult to absorb and distribute the oxygen. If carbon emissions continue at this rate, it will likely result in falling oxygen concentrations across large areas of the oceans. A decrease in carbon emissions is going to be a nearly impossible task to complete; everyone in the world will need to change how they go about their daily lives.

Environments around the globe are being effected on different levels by climate change. The Arctic, for example, has temperatures that are rising at twice the rate as they are across the planet as a whole. The process has already begun within the Atlantic Ocean, and the Pacific Ocean is likely to see large sections with reduced oxygen by 2030.

“Dead zones” are a huge problem for humans and the environment. These areas could pose a great threat to some forms of marine life at depths of 200 meters or more, which in turn poses a threat to us. We rely on the marine ecosystem for a variety of services – one of them is a food supply. "We rely on bottom fisheries in these areas. Our study was essentially on fish food," Levin said. "Species that form structures that provide biodiversity-sustaining habitat on the sea floor might be important to watch for susceptibility to ocean deoxygenation, acidification, and warming. They are also vulnerable to human disturbance."

Read more at: Vice.com