7 Million Deaths from Air Pollution

by Tahseen Chowdhury

Cityscape, Fubo Hill, Guilin, China

Air pollution has been officially claimed to be the single biggest environmental health risk. According to the World Health Organization, 7 million people died from air pollution in 2012. That is one out of ever eight deaths. It's a terrifying to know that out of every eight people that died, one of them died from air pollution. The majority of these deaths have been occurring in Southeast Asia,near China and India. In fact, the U.S. and Europe combined only had approximately 180,000 deaths from air pollution. Many blame the deaths on nearby highly industrialized areas in China and India, and that does seem to be the culprit. What's even more fearful is that the death rates are much higher than ever projected. The projection for the number of deaths in the year of 2012 from air pollution was less than half of the original outcome.

Many have heard about the fact that there are cities, especially in China, that you must walk with a mask, otherwise you will die from polluted air. The issue is that just miles away from the polluted areas are extremely poor people who can't even afford a mask. The deaths will continue to come, as long as no one does anything to stop the issue from expanding. The continuous cutting down of forests is destroying the pureness of the air we live in right now. At one point, the earth will run out of inhabitable space. 

International Space Station

Many of us watch movies and videos where you can no longer live on earth, and we're living on mad-made objects orbiting what is left of the earth. It may seem like we're even preparing to move to space because we've built the International Space Station. Many people believe if you destroy earth, it will be destroyed fro ever. This actually isn't fully true as earth has a very strong way of implementing equilibrium. Within months, the earth will restore itself to what was originally there if we all left. Don't loose all hope, however, we can't all leave and come back, simply leaving on the first place is almost impossible for all 7 billion people. However what is true is that earth will become inhabitable at one point, especially with air pollution on the rise.

How can you help?

We are all humans, and we are all one species. When we complain about a specific animal killing another species, we blame the entire species don't we? We don't say, no this specific animal is at fault. Do the same for the human race. Stop pointing fingers at others, why don't you start to make a difference. Why don't you start by gardening, or planting a few seeds, and don't complain of something like living in an apartment. Grab a few small pots, get some soil, seeds, and water, put them on the window sill, and every morning or every night simply pour some water on it and leave. Within a few days, it'll become a reflex, and not an annoyance at all. What are you waiting for, get started. If you have a garden, even on your window sill, share the picture with us. 

Source:
The Guardian