Cree Sheppard Professor Sarsar IT 2010 27 September 2013 The Most Important Problem: the State of Wellness in the

United States and the World Environmental health is composed of all the interactions that humans have with their environment and the resulting consequences of their health. Although it is complex and beyond each individual, every person has a cause and effect to the health of their environment in some way, shape or form. A few major concerns when it comes to environmental health is population and global warming. One hundred and fifty people are being born every moment while humans are learning to live longer at the same time. It has been said that we have already exceeded the Earths expected capacity by twenty percent. Meaning that our resources cannot comfortably take care of every individual that is living on Earth. There is not enough fertile land, food, water or energy available. In the last century our population on this planet increased by over six billion people. For this reason, it is crucial we figure out how we are going to survive. Many things have become a result of environmental change, not just the severity of how scarce resources has become. Disease has also evolved in many ways. There are now more sexually transmitted diseases more than ever and they are causing a serious issue in povertystricken countries that do not have the ability to treat their citizens. In addition, the amount of chlorofluorocarbons and other chemicals that we are releasing into the air has caused major damage to the Earths ozone layer, which has caused skin cancer to increase because of the lack of protection from the suns ultraviolent rays. It also been proven the air quality and smog have a

2 negative effect on the respiratory systems of those that are living in areas where it is heavy pollution. The five major pollutants are carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, particulate matter and ground-level ozone. Governments are taking serious efforts to try to prevent the spread of diseases and global warming. Due to the damage done to the Earths outermost layer of protection, there have been quite a few changes ecologically. The atmosphere is trapping gases, causing the overall temperature on the planet to rise. This has resulted in an increase in rainfall, flooding, heat, melting of icebergs and a pole ward shift. Due to polar ice caps melting there will be a rise in the oceans level. The water has to go somewhere, so less land will be available to the growing population of people in this world. With the United States being one of the largest energy consumers in the world, all of this comes as a serious issue. Just about all of our energy comes from fossil fuels so conservation and the development of renewable resources have become crucial to our government. If we deplete all of our resources, how will we be able to be apart of the world as we know it? For a country to rely so heavily on oil, coal and natural gas then we need to be able to either find alternative ways to live our lives or we will use up everything we have quickly. America has put a lot of money into research so we can have hybrid cars, alternative fuels and different ways of utilizing energysuch as solar power. But these forms have not caught on popularly to the public and are not as cost-efficient in some cases. Our country is not the only contribution to this problem and the United Nations has recently had a summit for all countries to come together and speak on the issue of environmental health. If all were willing to put forward the same time and effort to help preserve and save our planet then we could reverse or slow down the effects of global warming. Together, we could

3 undo the damage to the ozone layer but instead it is feared that all of the environmental health problems will grow at the rate everyone is going. The problem is you cant point fingers and force a government to put forward more efforts and research to help change the path the world is going in. You cant tax the polluted air over a country and make them pay for the damage they have done. This is an issue that people have to be willing to recognize for the future success of the world and those living in it.

Resources Environmental Pollution. England: Elsevier Science Ltd. Web. 28th September 2013. Environmental Science and Pollution Research International. Heidelberg: Springer Berlin. Web. 28th September 2013. Peirce, J. Jeffrey., Ruth F Weiner, P. Aarne Vesilind, and Inc NetLibrary. Environmental Pollution and Control. 4th ed. Boston, Mass.: Butterworth-Heinemann, 1998. Web. 28th September 2013. Spellman, Frank R., and Inc netLibrary. The Science of Environmental Pollution. Lancaster, Pa.: Technomic Pub. Co., 1999. Web. 28th September 2013. Speith, Walter, and United States. Office of Aviation Medicine. Cardiovascular Health Status, Age, and Psychological Performance. [Washington, D.C.]: Office of Aviation Medine, Federal Aviation Agency, 1964. Web. 20 September 2013.