The levels of air pollutants in my county are monitored by several stations. Nonetheless, the data is displayed on the Ministry …show more content…
I was relieved to find out that, at least on this date, the air pollutant levels were from 57-62% μg/m3 away from public information levels and even further away from alarm levels (Ministry of Environment & Energy, n.d.). However, because today was a good day, does not mean that this was or will always be the case.
Air pollution has become an apparent issue in my country for the last forty years. One of the driving factors of air pollutants concentration and emissions is urbanization. There was a massive wave of people moving from rural areas to cities so fast and in such an arbitrary manner and there was no planning whatsoever (or even the time to create one).
Air pollution sources can be divided into urban and industrial. The main sources of urban air pollution are primarily vehicles and secondly emissions related to heating. Industrial air pollution can either be caused by human activity or natural occurrences. Human causes are the operation of thermal power stations for electricity production, large industrial plants and areas where there is accumulation of many small industries. Natural causes can be a regions topography, climatic conditions and the dust transfer from deserts (e.g. Sahara), a phenomenon observed in all the Southern European countries under certain meteorological conditions (Eukolidou, …show more content…
To begin with, the vast majority of the public is completely unaware of the implications air pollution has in their livelihoods. Hence, the need for several educational campaigns is prominent. Moreover, it is a well-known fact that politicians, traditionally, do not usually go out of their way in order to implement changes if there are no short-term results from which their careers can benefit. However, in the democratized world we live in, when enough people demand a change, it is more likely to happen. Hence, I am fairly positive that the combination of the aforementioned ideas could bring about these much needed changes to improve air