Is Going Green Making A Difference?

Now that it seems almost everyone in the world is making an effort to be more “green” it has a lot of people wondering if it is actually doing our world any good. There are millions of countless ways that we have damaged and polluted our Earth - is this damage irreversible? A groundbreaking new study led by the US has discovered that we may actually be making some headway.

Air pollution is a combination of different environmental factors including carbon monoxide from vehicles, nitrates, sulphur dioxide, ozone, lead, and second hand tobacco smoke. These pollutants come from different sources such as vehicle fumes, road dust, power generation, metal processing, construction and demolition, wood burning, molds, forest fires, and even volcanic emissions. As you can see, it is not an easy to task to cut back on air pollution due to the number of sources from which is stems.

One study claims that efforts to cut air pollution in the past few decades have helped increase life expectancy in the general population.  Air pollution can cause a variety of different ailments, some of which are life threatening.  Asthma, bronchitis, lung disease , cardiovascular disease, emphysema, and even cancers can be caused by toxic air .  On average, life expectancy has increased by about five months for those living in the US and professionals believe that this is due to cleaner air. Canadian cities were not included in this study but the study’s that have been done here recently also show promise that we are improving our air quality. 

To do your part towards making our Earth cleaner and our lives healthier, start now by reducing your carbon footprint. Walk, take the bus, ride your bike, or carpool. You can also recycle many household items to ensure they do not end up in the garbage dump. Try to eat organic food grown close to home as much as possible and even grow your own food if possible.