WRONG! What does it take to wake up the polluters? People pollute because they eventually take resources for granted and are unaware or do not care about the consequences. Robert Orben once said, “There’s so much pollution in the air now that if it weren’t for our lungs there’d be no place to put it all.” He could not be more right. Continue reading for an insight on the three most damaging aspects of pollution today...
As of late, there seems to be much more garbage lying around in this cold winter season than usual. Winter is cold, no argument there, but is that an excuse to litter? Absolutely not. For some reason, the colder it is outside, the more ignorant people become towards pollution. There is no excuse for spitting out your gum in the street, leaving your pet’s excrements in the park, rolling down your window and throwing out your pop can or dropping your burger wrapper on the sidewalk. It may look fine because it is hidden in the snow, except that is nothing but a temporary fix. The long-term damage is what is truly disgusting and what requires such tedious volunteer work to clean-up when the time comes(1). As the snow melts in spring, the litter is no longer frozen and the terrible smell of rotting spreads throughout the air. It will not kill you to hold on to that object for another minute, but eventually... pollution will. There are garbage cans everywhere, do not be lazy!
While littering is a big chunk of winter’s pollution, those offenders are not the only ones to blame. The issue of individuals idling their cars to avoid driving to work in the cold has been brought to everyone’s attention on multiple occasions but nothing has changed. The provincial government has even acted by creating the 3-minute idling law. Now, all that is missing is the reinforcement of this law. The reason that idling cars is still very popular is because the public does not take the risks or the law seriously. If the smog in China would begin to form in Canada, drastic measures would be taken. Likewise, if the law enforcement team would handout more fines (if any at all), it would have a direct impact and definitely affect the number of citizens pumping out unnecessary smoke from their car’s exhaust.
Next, there exists a way of polluting for which a solution has not yet been found: building a fire in your very own heart-warming fireplace. The constant flow of smoke is extremely damaging and plays a big part in winter’s air pollution. The only help that can be asked in this category is to slim down on the chimney fires and to figure out other ways to keep your home warm, such as extra blankets or electric heat(2).
Conclusively, it appears to be more generally accepted to litter or pollute whereas it should be frowned upon. Those who will not wait that extra minute before reaching the garbage can and those who do not want to endure a few minutes of cold on the drive to work will feel a serious amount of guilt when the damage they are causing eventually begins to take effect.
References:
(1) Tons of winter litter makes for a ton of spring cleaning by Martin Rozenman (2008)
(2) Wood smoke major source of pollution in winter by M. Legrand and H. Puxbaum (2007)
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