Bad Breath of Air

It’s just true that good hygiene involves taking a shower when we get dirty. Other than that, there is really nothing more relaxing for me than to have a good dip in the tub. However, there are things that do affect our overall health that we’re not always able to keep clean. In fact, getting more of this clean stuff will eventually mean having a longer lifespan. And that thing we’re dealing with is none other than clean air.

Yep! It’s a fact.

If you breathe more clean air then you get to live longer. Makes you want to get rid of that bad breath of air, don’t you? That’s what the Harvard School of Public Health found out in a study they conducted. They compared the average lifespan of residents in cities with air pollution problems with other cities that have cleaner air. They found out that you can add a minimum of five months to the average lifespan if you breathe cleaner air.

Douglas Dockery, an environmental epidemiology professor comments that such gains are dramatic. It is interesting that by a simple reduction of fine particles that are most hazardous to human health, the overall life expectancy of a certain populace can be improved. City governments with federal regulations limiting the amount of fine particles, thus gaining better air quality, understand that it outweighs any costs compared to the health benefits their citizens gain. This is actually a win/win situation in the long run.

This is nothing more than just a demonstration that the general public is the general winner when laws that mitigate air pollution are passed. When there are no laws that regulate fine particle pollution then one should expect the life expectancies of the general populace to be in a decline.

Particulate Matter?

I asked the same question myself and kept digging. Particulate matter or fine particles are made up of a mixture of liquid droplets and solid particles that are about 10 micrometers or less. The most hazardous to humans are only about 2.5 microns. They are usually described as acid water droplets and are usually microscopic. They’re the particles that actually make that brown-like yellow color in smog.

Anyway, particulate matter is produced naturally. However, we human beings can produce amounts of it in exponentially greater amounts than what nature usually produces. Humans produce particulate matter via car and industrial emissions.

The other human sources of particulate matter include lawnmowers, barbecues, coal powered generators, using oil based cleansers and paints, and the use of pesticides.

The Need to Pass Air Pollution Laws

Well, at this point we all should know that there is indeed a political aspect to get cleaner air. Of course, the other things like better healthcare, better diets, and healthier lifestyles are just as important. But note that every base should be covered in order to really get the really air cleaned out. Check your city’s regulations on air pollution and see if they square with getting you cleaner air.

Other than passing laws that are necessary to ensure cleaner air, it should be noted that we too have our own responsibility with regard to this issue. There are a lot of simple things we can do, like carpooling for instance, to prevent air pollution and the production of particulate matter. Other than ensuring that the right laws are passed we must also do our share to get cleaner air. Remember, better air quality means longer life expectancy.

If you’re interested in the findings of the Harvard School of Public Health you may read them here: harvardmagazine.com/2009/05/clean-air-longer-life.

One of my coworkers in one of our coffee breaks stressed that we are all responsible for the onset of what is called the “greenhouse effect“. The point that he was making in his short tirade in between sipping into his hot cup with an extra lump of sugar is pretty much linear:

Humans started the greenhouse effect – the greenhouse effect sparked the onset of global warming in just half a century – thus conditions are worse and we just have to accept that a drastic change in climate will come our way.

Our coffee break ended in a pretty awkward way so I decided to check things out for myself. I know I read about it somewhere in a magazine perhaps but I can’t recall just where. I know that my coworker’s blabber is a bit inaccurate for some reason so it kept coming back like an itch that just won’t go away until you give it a good scratch.

Here’s a little definition I was able to Google from the net since I can’t find that old magazine I kept. Guess it’s time to turn the house upside down again.

The greenhouse effect refers to circumstances where the short wavelengths of visible light from the sun pass through a transparent medium and are absorbed, but the longer wavelengths of the infrared re-radiation from the heated objects are unable to pass through that medium. The trapping of the long wavelength radiation leads to more heating and a higher resultant temperature.

Source: http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/thermo/grnhse.html

You know what, I read that and I thought that needed a bit of time to digest. So I turned to good old Wikipedia and got this:

The greenhouse effect is a process by which thermal radiation from a planetary surface is absorbed by atmospheric greenhouse gases, and is re-radiated in all directions.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenhouse_effect

Now, that is a working definition that we simple folks can understand.

From the above mentioned definitions, I can conclude that my coworker was indeed mistaken. The so-called greenhouse effect is a pretty natural thing that occurs in the world around us. A certain percentage of the sun’s energy gets to our planet’s surface and is kind of reflected back but the greenhouse gases already in our atmosphere traps the heat. The increase in heat occurs when the long wavelength radiation is trapped.

Reading further into the Wikipedia article, citing a NASA Earth Fact Sheet dated October 2010, it says that the earth reflects only 30 percent of all the incoming sunlight. This simply means that most of the sun’s radiation is absorbed by the earth’s surface. The earth’s surface then emits infrared radiation. Some of the infrared radiation passes through the atmosphere but some are absorbed and re-emitted in all directions chiefly by the greenhouse gases.

I guess you can’t paint a clearer picture than that. Since it is a natural thing to occur on this planet, it is well to understand that this planet’s global climate has had seasonal variations. The first thing that pops up in my head includes the warm temperatures that dinosaurs were used to then after that comes an ice age.

Of course, the dinosaurs couldn’t have been responsible for the coming of the ice age and the climate change in their time. Those huge beasts weren’t smart enough. Today, man has become too smart, or I should say, too careless in his intellectual pursuits that he endangers everyone around him – including himself. What we are experiencing nowadays is not just another greenhouse effect.

I guess the more politically correct term to use is an amplified and enhanced greenhouse effect due to human contribution to the levels of greenhouse gases.

- Mary

This post is not about breathing bad air, but nothing makes me sadder than seeing innocent animals smothered in oil from an oil spill. They are suffering and they have no idea why they can’t move, can’t fly or can’t breathe.

I have collected a few sad videos on Youtube, I did not make these videos myself, but today I just got caught up looking around on Youtube and these videos really got to me, so I had to publish them here on my Bad Breath of Air blog.

The video cannot be shown at the moment. Please try again later.

I am sorry to ruin your day by showing you these videos, there are tonnes more on youtube.com <- you can click this premade search for ocean pollution to search for the latest videos on Youtube.

Pretty disgusting I would say.

- Mary

We might have been throwing words around trying to understand the damage we’ve already done to our atmosphere and why there are folks in other parts of the world suffering from extreme weather changes and climate change. I’ve done some digging and found out some things that might help shed light in certain aspects of this issue. Some of the things I found out include terminology, eye opening facts, and other interesting tidbits.

Climate vs. Weather

It kind of baked my noggin when I found out that weather and climate are two very different things. Well, the folks I know and everyone in our neighborhood use these two terms interchangeably, so why blame me? I literally grew up thinking that we’re talking about the selfsame thing when we talk about climate and weather.

NASA Connect segment explaining the difference between weather and climate.

Here’s an example of a standard definition of what the term climate means:

“the average course or condition of the weather at a place usually over a period of years as exhibited by temperature, wind velocity, and precipitation”

Source: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/climate

Now here’s a standard definition of weather from the same source, Merriam-Webster:

“the state of the atmosphere with respect to heat or cold, wetness or dryness, calm or storm, clearness or cloudiness”

Source: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/weather

Since weather deals more with the state of the atmosphere then we would be talking about a lot of different variables that affect the atmosphere around us. That would include the amount of rainfall, the humidity in certain locations, and the temperature in different regions.

Come to think of it, we usually ask our friends how the weather is like in their locality and we do really refer to the current state of affairs in their area rather than an overall outlook of things in a specific period of time.

And I guess that is what climate means. It is an overall estimate of the prevailing weather conditions throughout a given period of time. We’re not just dealing with a few very hot days when we’re talking about climate – we’re actually talking about an entire hot season like summer.

So, basically, when we talk about climate change we’re talking about changing weather patterns where summers get shifted or perhaps prevailing weather conditions get worse. We’re not just dealing with a singular phenomenon happening in a certain locality but we’re actually dealing with long term changes in our atmosphere that affects us on a global scale.

That to me is the really scary part. Well, I know what I can do and what I’m doing to help but I am not sure what the rest of the world is doing to help – whether they’re helping or not at all. The way things are getting worse, I think I might be one of the few who take on this lonely crusade.

Has the World’s Climate Ever Changed in the Past?

Absolutely. Just remember the previous ice age. However, we should take note that it took about a million years before the climate to ever change so drastically like that. It’s sad to note that the type of global warming we’re experiencing now didn’t take a million years to happen. It all happened in just the last century. I’m guessing right around the industrial revolution – just my hunch and I will need to dig into this a little deeper. It should also be noted that the warming up of our planet in the last 50 years is double the increase in global temperature in the last 100 years.

Natural Causes or Man Made Causes

Now that is a big question that we all need to look into. Can we really blame nature for any changes in our planet’s climate? Or perhaps, we only have ourselves to blame? Experts admit that natural fluctuations in weather patterns do occur. The climate also varies naturally. However, such natural shifts in climate occur over a lot of timescales. One such example that experts point to is the El Nino oscillation.

Greenhouse Gas

We all know that the increase in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is a huge factor in global warming. I once thought – why not just get rid of all of them, which was really silly of me come to think of it. Having read up a bit about the thing, I guess there is enough reason why we should keep them after all.

Yes, greenhouse gases have their natural use too. These greenhouse gases tend to absorb radiation from the sun in order to keep our planet warm enough in order to sustain life. What happened in the last 100 years is that the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has drastically increased. No, volcanoes did not cause the increase since the gases they produce are pretty miniscule compared to the amount of greenhouse gases that we humans have produced in the past century.

If you’re wondering what are these greenhouse gases that everyone is talking about then here’s a short list you can go over:

1. water vapor (this is the most common of all the greenhouse gases)

2. methane

3. carbon dioxide

4. nitrous oxide

5. hydrofluorocarbons

6. sulphur hexafluoride

7. perfluorocarbons

In that list, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane occur naturally in our atmosphere. On the other hand, sulphur hexafluoride, perfluorocarbons, and hydrofluorocarbons are synthetically produced. They are either created and used in today’s modern industry or are nothing more than just by products of every single nation’s industrial processes.

Considering all that stuff that goes into our air, I think industry leaders have a great responsibility with regard to cleaning up our atmosphere. Synthetic greenhouse gas emissions should either be controlled or taken out of the picture for good measure. The natural stuff we can’t do anything about but the synthetically produced greenhouses gases should be a point of great concern.

Looking at the Impact

We have to embrace the fact that climate change will change all climates both locally and globally. It is affecting the way we live, our economies, communities, and industries. As our understanding of the impact of climate change grows the more we are made aware of the sources of our current problems. I just hope that we will be able to find robust solutions and not just have world leaders make their citizens brace themselves for a backlash coming from mother nature.

This is disgusting, but I guess there are no other ways to get rid of this nasty oil, just imagine how many fish and birds are caught in this mess created by human greed!

While the oil burns it will also pollute the air and burn up our precious air. I hope the people responsible for this are roasted in the fire on the ocean.

A Panorama of What was Lost in 2009

National Geographic published photos of their Top Ten Environmental Losses of 2009. We all know that words often convey very potent ideas. In fact, some words can move you into action. Words have a powerful impact on any people from any part of the world. Nevertheless, pictures and photos can tell a story that even the craftiest words cannot tell. You can find the pictures I’m talking about by pointing your browsers to:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/12/photogalleries/091215-environmental-losses-2009/

I find these photos to be a big eye opener. Sometimes you need to see the real picture before you realize the gravity of the situation. As a bit of a warning, some of the pictures you’ll see there are quite graphic, like the drought in Kenya and that sack full of Lemurs.

One of the photos in that aforementioned collection also opens another dimension that we all have to look into before we can catch some 100% fresh air ever again. And that issue is the political dimension of caring for the environment. Well, that’s the last photo in the set.

We have to face the fact that caring for the environment also takes a lot of political will. There really is a need for concerted effort in order to make this happen. Yeah, I know it sounds pretty much a cliché but everyone must pitch in the effort since we are all occupants of this singular planet in which we live on.

Enjoy the pictures!

- Mary

Experts say that drought is one of the severe backlashes we’ll get due to climate change. Well, if we keep messing up the atmosphere we’ll definitely get repercussions such as drought and sniffing our very own bad breath of air one time or another. Drought is a serious matter wherever in the world you may be.

Drought Maps

I never thought there was such a thing as a drought map before. I thought like, why would anyone bother making a map of drought stricken areas and parts of the world. It simply amazes me at what people would be willing to do in order to get the facts straight. I think it’s a positive move from the US Department of Agriculture for putting up these maps to help folks monitor the status of the current situation.

Kudos also needs to go to various organizations and individuals all over the world who take the time to monitor such things and map them out. Great work people! I just hope that we would also go beyond just making maps and looking at the current scenario.

If you’re interested to see what a drought map looks like then click the link below. It shows the Drought Monitor for January 27, 2009 in the United States. This particular drought map was released two days after the situation was actually mapped out. This one was made by some guy from the US Agriculture Department.

I guess I’ll try to make it one of my habits to check out these drought maps and see how things are going from time to time. Changing gears a bit, I mentioned earlier that there are folks in other parts of the world who are also engaged in making these drought maps. These maps help us see the big picture and what’s going on with the rest of the world where drought is concerned.

The Global Picture

Looking around a bit, it appears that drought is now a problem everywhere. For instance, a report from CNN World dated February 6, 2009 says that China is currently suffering one of the worst droughts ranging to 50 years. The Chinese government has now raised the alert level to red, which probably means things aren’t looking too good. The affected areas seem to be central and northern China.

A total of 4.3 million people in China are now facing a shortage of drinking water not to mention that they also have a couple million livestock that also competes for the same water supply. Moving our lenses a bit further, it appears that central Asia and the Middle East is also facing the same thing. Well, not all of the countries in the said region are experiencing extreme drought but seeing it happen there too is really telling.

To date, the countries that are suffering their worst drought in decades include Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Kenya, United States, China, Australia, Kenya, and Argentina. On the other hand, Mexico, India, Thailand, Pakistan, South Africa, and Tunisia among others are only suffering moderate drought.

We all know that such drastic occurrences of drought are only part of the effects of a global climate change. I expect some scientists and other experts to debate the issue and contend that it has nothing to do with the shifting climate. It’s a wait and see situation but the fact of the matter is that drought can be caused by our messing with the atmosphere triggering changes in our climate.

- Mary

Thank you for taking the time to take a peek into this little cubbyhole otherwise known as “Bad Breath of Air“. You maybe wondering why in the world would someone call their personal nook on the Internet as “bad breath,” right? Well, as you move along this very first page I hope I will be able to relay the reason why I chose to call it like that. But you will have to admit the name is a bit catchy, huh?

Just a Speck

For all practical purposes, in the eyes of the world, I am simply nothing more than a speck. I’m nothing special, not even large enough for a lot of people to even notice. Except for the fact that I’m trying to say something that may be so important for you to hear.

That thing about the “Speck” is taken from the animated film ‘Horton Hears a Who!’ If you haven’t seen it or you just need to rattle your memory a bit, you can get a synopsis of the whole thing from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0451079/.

I love the part in that movie when Horton, the elephant played by non other than Jim Carrey, swears to protect the speck and live by the motto “a person is a person, no matter how small.”

So, to the world, I am just a speck…

Most of you won’t even notice me when you actually get to meet me in the street. That is a very good picture of what our society in general has done to us as individuals and to this planet in which we live in. We have been conditioned never to take a peek into the details. As long as it works, it’s OK? Right? Are you sure?

You might be quite surprised to find what’s really messed up under the hood.

Waiting for the Big Exhale

I am but a single voice in the ocean of noise that the majority of the populace tends to ignore. However, a lot of the things we ignore and take for granted will eventually be heard and will be heard with full intent. That is also true of the world we live in. We tend to ignore and take for granted the little things this planet gives to us for free – like fresh air for instance.

Have you ever had a whiff of fresh air lately?

You think that’s fresh air you’re breathing?
(from the Matrix movie, I know, Keanu Reeves is such a doll!)

The air we breathe is just one of the things in our environment that we all tend not to think about that much until the time when it, like the Who’s in the Horton movie, makes a distinct appeal, one that we won’t be able to ignore any longer. Unfortunately, we have taken for granted even the air we breathe that we might have to buy them in a soda can someday (Spaceballs anyone?).

Ever had a bad breath of air lately?

You know what bad breath smells like, don’t you? You’ll be surprised that in some parts of the world the air is so bad that they are literally breathing bad breath. Makes you want to hold your breath doesn’t it?

As citizens in this little speck in the universe we call home, we ought to cast out our voices until we catch everyone’s attention. The air we breathe and the environment in general are pleading their cause. Pay attention before we end up storing fresh air in soda cans.

Truly yours,
Mary

P.S.

You can exhale now.