Pollution is a problem which everyone in the world must deal with and accept responsibility for all damage being done to our planet.  Everyday we destroy just a little bit more of our resources.  We are able to accomplish this with hazardous waste, air pollution, water pollution, the destruction of natural resources, and acid rain.

Well over half of the world is covered by water.  This water contains life, valuable life which is important to our ecosystem.  Yet, we spill, dump, and contaminate these waters everyday.  Oil spills can destroy hundreds of miles of shore lines.  It can kill millions of animals, plants, and trillions of gallons of water.  Making it unsuitable to support life.  The Mississippi River is an excellent example of water being polluted.  It starts out from a pure source.  Naturally melting snow, rainfall, and springs.  However, by the time the river reaches a place such as New Orleans, it is so polluted that one can not even purify it enough to drink the water.  Chemicals, sewage, acid rain, and many others all pollute the water.

Acid rain - just what the name implies.  All rain has acid in it.  However, the label acid rain comes from the fact that the rain contains airborne pollutants and much higher amounts of acid than what should be in it.  Acid rain has a range of effects on the world.  There are things such as a car dealer having to have the cars washed after each rain fall all the way to historical monuments being destroyed.  Other examples are waters such as lakes become so acidic that it can no longer support life.   Forested land is not immune from its effects either.  The soil's acid level becomes so high that plants can not survive.

Hazardous waste is a big part of our pollution problem.  These days just about everything is in some way or another connected to hazardous waste.  The paint we use on our homes, stains on the decks, chemicals to kill pests, to the gas and oil we use in our cars.  When we are done using these types of products we cannot just throw them away.  We have to dispose of them in a
responsible manor.  Examples of this is storing them safely and taking them to the collection sites in the area.  These people will take them and find new life for some, like recycled paint or recycled oil.

Air Pollution is a becoming a large problem.  In California there is just a heavy fog all day long because of air pollution.  Smog is directly related to causing terrible problems with people. It seems that the elderly, and the one's with asthma have a hard time breathing.  Air pollution is effecting the world.  In parts of South America where there is still rain forest left effects can be seen.  In smaller cities such as St. Louis the meteorologists inform the viewers what the air quality is going to be for the next day.  All of these is contributed to the internal combustion engine and big factories that flood the air with pollution. 

Cars are one of the greatest and worst inventions.  For obvious reasons they are great, but they are one of the worst because they have terrible after effects on the environment.  The engine uses gasoline to operate.  This substance is made from oil.  Oil by itself can cause a catastrophe if it is mishandled.  After the oil is refined into gasoline and burned in an engine it leaves behind air toxins.  When the gasoline evaporates it leaves a vapor, in that vapor is small amounts of these air toxins.  This small amount from one car adds up fast when one considers the fact that most families have two cars and there is a countless number of people in the world today.

The ozone is an important part of our being here.  Without it we could not survive.  This ozone was being destroyed by chemicals such as Chlorine, Fluorine, and Carbon better known as CFC's.  These chemicals are almost completely indestructible, meaning they are hard to break up into individual atoms.  Two of the most common places to find CFC's were in spray cans (e.g., spray paint, most chemicals which used compressed gas to release the contents).  The second most common place to find it was in air conditioners (e.g., whole house, room, vehicle, refrigerators, and freezers).  Over time with use of these chemicals caused a hole in the ozone.  When this was discovered to be the source of the problem the chemicals were eventual removed from use after lawmakers saw how bad the problem was.  We now have new products out to replace the systems and cans which used CFC's before the problem got out of control. 

Water, air, acid rain, hazardous waste, and the destruction of the ozone are all ways the earth is being destroyed by us.  The ozone such have been a wake up call to lawmakers, industries, and us as individuals.  However, it is was not until it was almost to late to fix the problem before anything was done about the ozone.  We should stop these other pollution's before they become problems which cannot be fixed.