In today’s society, many problems plague the environment. One of the major problems currently threatening the environment is air pollution. Air pollution is the introduction into the atmosphere of chemicals, particulates, or biological materials that cause discomfort, disease, or death to humans, damage other living organisms such as food crops, or damage the natural or man-made environment. A substance in the air that can be harmful to humans and the environment is known as an air pollutant and can take the form of solid particles, liquid droplets, or gases. Air pollution is a significant risk factor for health conditions including respiratory infections, heart disease, and lung cancer. The health effects caused by air pollution may include difficulty in breathing, wheezing, coughing, and aggravation of existing respiratory and cardiac conditions. These effects can result in increased medication use, increased doctor or emergency room visits, more hospital admissions and premature death. Approximately 2.4 million people die each year due to air pollution.

Many possible solutions exist to solve air pollution such as more efficient factories and hybrid cars. To make factories more efficient with less toxic fume emission, we could design filters for the exhaust ports of the factories to filter out all the harmful chemicals and substances so there would only be clean air coming out into the atmosphere. Instead of using either electricity or gas as factory fuels, we could use air as a fuel. Instead of electrical currents, air would flow through valves to control the many parts of the machines.

Another way to limit air pollution is with hybrid vehicles. A hybrid vehicle is a vehicle that uses two or more distinct power sources. The term most commonly refers to hybrid electric vehicles, which combine an internal combustion engine and one or more electric motors. However other mechanisms to capture and utilize energy are also available. Most cars are powered by gas or diesel, which when burned emits carbon monoxide or other hazardous pollutants. One way to stop or lessen this is by creating cars that emit few or no gasses. An example would be to cars that run on electricity. If they use electricity as a source of energy, that would stop the emission of hazardous pollutants. Another way to reduce emissions is to burn natural oils such as corn oil instead of gasoline. Such natural oil is abundant in the world. One other solution is an engine that can alternate between gasoline and electric power it.

Our world has many problems plaguing it and the environment. Some people sit back and don’t care what happens, but others stand up and act upon the problems in the world. With these ideas, I stand up to help fix this world and its problems.