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Evan Kaz

Mrs. Klimas

English 10 Pre-AP, Period 5

17 January 2018

Types of Pollution and Its Harmful Effects

Bakalar, Nicholas, “Air pollution May Harm Babies Even Before They Are Born”,

The New York Times, 2017 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/05/well/family/air-pollution-

may-harm-babies-even-before-they-are-

born.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FAir%20Pollution&action=click&contentCollection

=science&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=7&pgtype=c

ollection

Beckman, David S., “The Threats To Our Drinking Water”, The New York Times, 2014

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/07/opinion/the-threats-to-our-drinking-water.html

This article discusses that based on states with clean water, other states with no-clean water

are having difficulties keeping their water not polluted and harmed by any other types of

pollution. An example of an area harmed by water pollution/ multiple pollutants is West

Virginia. They had a chemical spill into their water source. The chemical was coal from a storage

tank, which caused the water sources from West Virginia to Ohio to become unsafe. Along with

the contamination, algae blooms also contributed to the growth of the chemical spill. Due to all

of these factors, causing the areas one and only water source to be contaminated, the water

source for drinking and cleaning was now shut down. Due to this, residents tried stocking up on

all the bottled water they could until they had to live with what they had. This situation and event

obviously caused people to panic, for their needs weren’t made. What else could they think,
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other than that their water source was threatening them? At the beginning of this article, it

proclaims about the clearness of San Francisco’s water supply. Why? Well because we obviously

have to contrast a working, healthy water supply with a contaminated, slow water supply to show

the difference in how an examination is identified. Yet how can we fix this situation? How can

we make all water sources non-polluted? Based on my opinion, I say that we take more caution

in what goes into our water. Especially since half of it can cause diseases inside of the human

body. But in a worldwide perspective, we say that we must find a way to cure or handle more

situations like these. One example would be handling water pollution through local water plants.

Although personally and worldly we might have an option to give or an opinion to say, but

the US government must think it through first in able to fully fix, or at least touch on the

problem. Yet how do these events/examples reflect upon how we can deal with contaminated

water? Well based on our United States government, it can start with passing fully-strengthened

laws about filtering our water. Making it pure and clean. This way it gives citizens access to

clean water no matter where it’s from, so it causes less diseases from it’s random “ingredients” it

gained on it’s journey passing down towards a water supply. Another way our US government

could attribute to the decrease of water pollution is downsizing and rationing the amount of

water for everyone. This solves the problem of people wasting amounts of water on things other

than themselves, so they can use their liquid usefully to limitedly hydrate themselves, instead of

using it for laundry or dishes. In my opinion, the ration or quantity of causing the water to be

divided and split up seems like it wouldn’t fit with everyone’s personal needs. Now although you

have enough water to nourish yourself and your family, you don’t have any/enough water to

clean things or grow things. So although quantity overtime would be great, all it would do is

make each citizen suffer even longer without their needs. Our country’s water goals influence
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how our habits play, and if not all the factors are there, then what’s the point of making a habit of

them? Hopefully we can prevent this water pollution from happening in any way or form, that

way we don’t have to worry about everyone’s intake of polluted water.

Hue, Winnie, “New York Becomes The City That Never Shuts Up”, The New York Times,

2017

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/19/nyregion/new-york-becomes-the-city-that-never-shuts-

up.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FNoise%20Pollution&action=click&contentCollection

=timestopics&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=2&pgty

pe=collection

Air pollution roars around New York City than it does it’s roaring of plastic in the area.

According to this article, we see multiple citizens of New York complain about where they live,

and so many people are already in one, big loud hole that will never shut up. But why exactly

will “The City That Never Sleeps” never wake up? According to research, scientists state that

because of the ongoing work and activities happening in the downtown/New York area, this can

cause loud hearing problems and sleep to never happen. This is a problem for the people in New

York to get lots of sleep because they are people too, and if they’re not getting the main needs

everyone in the world must get, that they will never sleep a day in their life without noise in the

background. New York is the neverending city because it always is moving with opportunities

and life. Yet like the construction workers, a lot of life in New York cause loud noises to occur

and cause problems. And with problems come complaints. The other things that are keeping the

citizens awake are dogs barking, people fighting, loud traffic, loud TV’s, etc. This adds on to the

problems that noise pollution causes for people. As they try to live their lives, something is too
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loud or too bold to not always get into their way. All of these noises cause decibel levels to go

high, according to scientists, and can lead to being deaf later on in life, which isn’t good.

And now we of course come to how to fix the situation, or what’s being brought up to the

main attention to fix. Although the loud construction seems to be the biggest problem for people,

of course the other loud noises add to the affect. Yet mainly for the construction work, I would

change the time of day that they start and end working. In the article, it said the workers are in

labor early in the morning or late in the afternoon. These time periods is when people are trying

to sleep or enjoy themselves, but the loud construction keeps them from doing that. So instead of

having the time periods at the beginning and end of the day, why don’t we move their time

periods more around lunchtime because people aren’t at home at that time, so they wouldn’t have

to worry about the loud construction. It would fix the time frame and cause New Yorkers to get

their sleep they need. Now with the other loud noises (cars, dogs, etc.), there’s not much you can

deal with that government-wise unless you invest in some earplugs. The dogs aren’t yours so you

can’t control them. The cars on the street are just honking from their morning anger. And the

TV’s and other things are just things you can’t fix unless they buy some ear plugs. Besides the

construction option, the decibel levels will go to normal, the other noises will be drowned out,

and all you can hear is silence.

Toles, Tom, “If Science is Murdered In A Forest And Nobody Is Around To Hear It, Does

That Mean The Climate Isn’t Changing?”, The Washington Post, 2017

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/opinions/wp/2017/05/08/if-science-is-murdered-in-a-

forest-and-nobody-is-around-to-hear-it-does-that-mean-the-climate-isnt-

changing/?utm_term=.2f5c70d2af18