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Ben McCoy
Rasheedah Alexander
English 112
26 January 2014
Environmental pollution
Union of Concerned Scientists. "There Is Overwhelming Scientific Consensus That Global
Warming Is Happening and Humans Are Causing It." Ed. Debra A. Miller. Detroit:
Greenhaven Press, 2013.
In There is an overwhelming consensus that global warming is happening and humans
are causing it, it is explained that global warming is happening and that humans are
causing it to happen. This article has many different sources such as American Physical
Society, and American Geophysical Union. The National Research Council of the
National Academies quotes, Most of the recent warming can be attributed to fossil fuel
burning and other human activities that release carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping
greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. This statement supports the overall idea of the
article, that humans are causing global warming. The general idea of this source supports
my other source fossil fuels cause global warming, because they both state that the
burning of fossil fuels is releasing carbon dioxide that its harming the environment. This
article is significant because it quotes many different creditable sources and their
thoughts on global warming and environmental pollution.
Word Wildlife Fund(WWF). "Ocean Pollution Is a Global Threat." Pollution. Ed. Debra
A. Miller. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2012. Current Controversies. Rpt. from "Marine
Problems: Pollution." Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 26 Jan. 2014.
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The Word Wildlife Fund organization it explains the ways that the ocean is being
polluted and the problems that can occur from this type of pollution. The ocean can be
polluted in many different ways, all of these ways have different negative problems. This
article talks about a few different forms of pollution such as oil spills, fertilizers, garbage
pollution, sewage disposal and toxic chemicals. When the ocean gets polluted there are
many negative things can occur, like making the fish that we eat from the ocean have
harmful chemicals in then that can be harmful for human consumption. In the article it
says, Evidence is mounting that a number of man-made chemicals can cause serious
health problems including cancer, damage to the immune system, behavioral problems,
and reduced fertility. This article is important because it shows many different forms of
pollution and support my topic that the environment is being polluted due to many
different reasons.
Lynas, Mark. "Fossil Fuel Use Causes Global Warming." Alternative Energy Sources. Ed.
Darrin
Gunkel. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2006
Mark Lynas an environmental activist, writes about the environmental problems that are
starting to occur due to the pollution humans are creating. This article talks about the
problems that are occurring all around the world such as drought and glacier shrinking,
due to greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels. These problems are being
cause because of the carbon emissions from the burning of fossil fuels. Problems such as
glacier shrinking is causing people to loose many of the fresh water that they need to
survive. In Alaska some of the lakes that use to freeze over do not anymore, this is
hindering the Alaskin residents from using the frozen lake as a hunting ground to gather
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the meat for the winter. In the article it says, We must abandon the old mindset that
demands on oil-based economy, not just because it sparks wars and terrorism, but
because the future of life on earth depends on leaving it behind. This article provides
examples the problems that are occurring in the world due to the pollution of the
environment.
Spotts, Pete. "Record US Temperatures in 2010 Are Consistent with Global Warming
Predictions."
Pollution. Ed. Debra A. Miller. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2012
In Record US temperatures are consistant with global warming predictions explains
that the overall temperature of the planet is increasing, causing problems among the
planet. This article gathered information from the preliminary analysis of year-end data.
In the article it states, According to preliminary analysis of year-end data released
Wednesday, the global average temperature in 2010 topped the 20
th
century average by
1.12 degrees Fahrenheit. This may not sound like a lot of change, but that slight change
in the atmosphere can affect the weather patterns. With this change in temperature it is
raining and snowing more in places that it normally would not rain and snow often. This
article is important because it provides different statistics on various ways pollution is
affecting the planet.
Siegel, R.P. "Efforts to Slow Global Warming Should Focus on Methane and Soot Instead of
Carbon Dioxide." Global Warming. Ed. Debra A. Miller. Detroit: Greenhaven Press,
2013

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In, Efforts to Slow Global Warming Should Focus on Methane and Soot Instead of
Carbon Dioxide Siegel explains that soot and Methane levels in the atmosphere need to
be reduced to reduce the depletion of the ozone. Soot and Methane are two reasons for
why the environment is polluted, they are two fast acting chemicals that effect the ozone
in negative ways. In the article it says, These two pollutants are both fast acting, so
reducing their presence in the atmosphere can have a more immediate impact on the
overall GHG concentration. A few of the ways to reducing these pollutants is to ban the
burning of agricultural land, capturing methane from landfills and capturing the methane
released from coal mines. If we can reduce the levels of methane and soot it could reduce
the temperature of the environment by almost 2.2 degrees to 1.3 degrees Celsius. This
article is important, because Siegel writes about two of the chemicals that are effecting
the environment this source supports the statements the Union of Concerned Scientists
wrote saying that humans are the ones causing pollution.

McKibben, Bill. "Humans Have a Responsibility to Reduce Carbon Emissions That Contribute
to
Natural Disasters." Natural Disasters. Ed. Margaret Haerens and Lynn M. Zott. Detroit:
Greenhaven Press, 2013. Opposing Viewpoints. Rpt. from "Natural Disasters?" Guardian
1 Apr. 2011. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 2 Feb. 2014

In, Humans Have a Responsibility to Reduce Carbon Emissions That Contribute to
Natural Disasters Mckibben is writing about the changes to the environment since
humans began burning fossil fuels. When we burn fossil fuel it releases chemicals that
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block the heat from escaping the environment, therefor increasing the temperature of the
earth at a slow rate. In the article Mckibben explains that if the temperature of the planet
continues to increase then natural disasters such as hurricanes, tornados, and earthquakes
will become normal and be seen more often. In the article it says, That CO2 traps heat
near the planet that would otherwise have radiated back to spacethere is, simply, more
energy in our atmosphere than there used to be. Since heat is being trapped near the
planet it causes moister to also be trapped, affecting weather in many places. This article
is important because it elaborated on the actually effects of CO2 being burned.
Peterson, John. Environmental Pollution Caused by Factories. Globalpost.com. N.p, Web. 25
Jan. 2014
In, Environmental pollution Caused by factories Peterson explains that factorys
contribute greatly to the pollution of the environment. John Peterson has a masters
degree in anthropology and has wrote about environmental pollution for many years.
Factories contribute to 50% of the fossil fuel pollution in the environment. Factories
pollute the water ways, factories dump their dirty water that has harmful chemicals into
many lakes and rivers. In the article it states, Factory pollution is often thought of as
mostly smokestack emissions, but industry pollutes water and land as well. Many
factories across the world dump chemicals into drinking water and places that animals
live. Many countries regulate the dumping of chemicals in to water sources but 70% of
factories across the world still dump chemicals. This article is important because it
supports word wildlife funds thoughts on the ocean being polluted, factories contribute
greatly to the pollution of the oceans and water ways.
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Wee, Darren. Ex-health minister endorses finding China's smog kills 350,000 a year.
Scmp.com.
N.p, 08 January, 2014. Web. 2 Feb 2014.
In, Ex-health minister endorses finding China's smog kills 350,000 a year it explains
the problems that are occurring in china due to high amounts of smog being created by
humans. Smog is something that comes from the burning of fossil fuels, smog leads to
cancer, asthma and many other diseases. China has the most smog in the world, 350,000
to 500,000 people die a year due to the high amounts of smog in china atmosphere. In the
article it says, Yesterday Guangzhou activated its orange alert and ordered 11 mandatory
air pollution emergency measures for the first time, which included taking one-fifth of the
13,000 government vehicles off the roads. The amount of fossil fuels that are burning in
china is leading to many breathing problems, people in china are getting lung cancer
because the air quality is so bad. This article is important because it writes about the
health problems that can occur due to enviormental pollution.

El-Nemr, Ahmed. Management of Environmental pollution. New York: Nova, 2010. Print.
In, Pollutions impact on the environment El-Nemr from the institute of space and earth
information science, write about the reasons for the environment becoming polluted.
Once of the main reasons that pollution of the environment is occurring is because of
industrialization. When industrialization started to occur air quality became very poor,
factories were the main source of the pollution being made. The population increased
when industrialization happened, leading to the building of more cars and factories
increasing the levels of smog and harmful gases in the atmosphere. El-Nemr wrote,
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With economic growth also comes an increasing demand for industry and agriculture,
which can both greatly impact on our air quality. This book is important because it looks
are the core reasons for air pollution and the pollution of the environment.
Eisele, Kimi. "Air Pollution May Contribute to the Increased Incidence of Asthma." Pollution.
Ed.
Louise I. Gerdes. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2006. Opposing Viewpoints. Rpt. from
"With Every Breath You Take." OnEarth 24 (Winter 2003): 14. Opposing Viewpoints in
Context. Web. 5 Feb. 2014.
In, Air Pollution May Contribute to the Increased Incidence of Asthma Eisele explains
that the increase of harmful pollution in the environment, more kids and adults are getting
asthma. Eisele studies the number of people reported with asthma in the 1900s and
compares them to the number of people reported in 2000s with asthma. The numbers
have almost doubled of the people getting asthma. In the article it says, In the days when
East Germany was highly polluted, its population had higher rates of asthmabut fewer
allergiesthan West Germans. Due to the high levels of soot in the air he concluded
that pollution is causing more people to get athsma. This article is important because it
explains the reasons why pollution is a health problem.