Climate and Air Quality: Adverse Effect

All right, so just track with me for a bit. We understand that pollution is a problem. The definition from wiki is "the introduction of contaminants into a natural environment that causes instability, disorder, harm or discomfort to the ecosystem." The effects of pollution have been recounted many times over. They include:

• Smog
• Acid Rain
• Air quality reduction
• Global Warming
• Loss in Soil Fertility
• Loss of Plant and Animal Species
• Etc.

Pollution is bad. We can not attribute anything good to it. Pollution has been able to be traced originating in China and finding its destination all the way in the valley in California. There have been 527,700 deaths in India, 50,000 in the US, and 750,000 in China that are attributed to the effects of pollution. http://www.evsroll.com/Interesting_air_pollution_facts.html

How do we stop pollution? There are plenty of answers. Stop polluting! Car pooling. Proper Vehicle Maintenance. Alternative Energy Sources. Recycle Recyclable Materials. Use Environmentally Safe Products. Another weapon against pollution is our natural ecosystems and the plant life they contain. http://www.buzzle.com/articles/ways-to-prevent-air-pollution.html

Let's take plants for example as a solution. Plants soak up the CO2 and other harmful gasses for their natural uses and emit oxygen in return for the CO2 that the plants consume. Plants need CO2. Other life needs oxygen. It is interesting to look at the reduction of rain forests and other high density forests around the world and consider our loss. There goes our weapon! Nevertheless, prudent individuals seek to replenish the earth and plant any kind of foliage to green up the earth and improve air quality. Honorable endeavor. 

This was the part I was wanting to get to. With that quick run through of pollution, its effects, and our weapons against it. Lets take a look at an interesting study. In the International Journal of Environment and Waste Management, a study was published that "suggested that we can improve city environments by planting trees down the middle of streets provided that they are not too close together." What was shown was that there is an adverse effect that occurs due to the trees and a restriction of air circulation. In urban environments, multi-storied buildings are developed along the streets and result in a phenomena called urban canyons, so called because of the walls of concrete that are put in place. Scientists tested in laboratories using  air tunnels to see the effect that occurs with overcrowded landscaping. What they found out was that the trees actually restricted the polluted air that rested inside the "urban canyon" and would not allow fresher air to circulate into the "canyon." An adverse effect occurred in comparison to that which was desired. 

Now I know that this is special case and almost poking fun at the environmental efforts, but I think it is worth the consideration. Though our efforts may be noble, we need to understand what is feasible and what will be effective. Sustainability in its broad sense requires a past, present, future focus. It requires a reflection on where we have come from, a good plan and modeling to ensure that our efforts are not just blind and out of good spirit. There must be results to our efforts otherwise we operate in vain. 

Sources

Too Many Trees Article http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/07/090720105127.htm

How Can You Help? http://www.lastormwater.org/siteorg/residents/howucnhp.htm