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Study shows air pollution doing serious harm to ecosystems

  2. JanforGore
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If you are living in the eastern United States, the environment around you is being harmed by air pollution. From Adirondack forests and Shenandoah streams to Appalachian wetlands and the Chesapeake Bay, a new report by the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies and The Nature Conservancy has found that air pollution is degrading every major ecosystem type in the northeastern and mid-Atlantic United States.

The report, Threats From Above: Air Pollution Impacts on Ecosystems and Biological Diversity in the Eastern United States, is the first to analyze the large-scale effects that four air pollutants are having across a broad range of habitat types (see inset). The majority of recent studies focus on one individual pollutant. Over 32 experts contributed to the effort; the prognosis is not good.

"Everywhere we looked, we found evidence of air pollution harming natural resources," comments Dr. Gary M. Lovett, an ecologist at the Cary Institute and the lead author of the report. "Decisive action is needed if we plan on preserving functioning ecosystems for future generations."
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This is the world our younger generation will inherit. They must begin to get serious about working to preserve it and to hold this generation accountable for leaving it sustainable. I have always been baffled at how we humans can know doing something is dangerous and toxic to the future and to the present regarding the quality of our air, water, and land, and yet we continue to do it. We cannot continue on this path. This is one of the most important challenges our younger generation will have to face, and I truly wish there was more of an urgency about it. Pollution is not a 'natural' occurence of nature, we are doing it, and only we can make it right.
JanforGore

25 responses // Study shows air pollution doing serious harm to ecosystems

  • But hey, keep burning that coal. Afterall, there are more important things than the environment and our lives.
    JanforGore
  • Si potrebbe dire che l'intero pianeta è sotto osservazione, in prognosi riservata.
    Il pianeta malato non è ancora morto, ma ci sono buone possibilità che presto lo divenga.
    La colpa di tutto questo non sono le industrie, siamo noi che chiediamo alle industrie di farci vivere in gran comodità, e per soldi ormai si fa tutto
    I nostri successori non vivranno abbastanza per mandarci le maledizioni che ci meritiamo

    One could say that the entire planet is under observation, prognosis confidential.
    The planet patient is not dead yet, but there is a good chance that soon it will become.
    The fault of all this are not the industries that we are asking industry to make us live in great comfort, and for now money is everything
    Our successors will live not enough to send the curses that we deserve
    dagos
  • Bob Dylan once sang....you don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows....well...we don't need any more studies to see what we have done to the world's environment.....it is far past studying time....and something must be done on an individual and corporate scale immediately....we have done so much damage to this planet in the last 150 years.....it is barely believably...when we began to rob the oil from under Earth's surface it has been a rapid downward spiral.....that oil was formed from organic material being covered up over......millions.........of years by cosmic dust and meteors.....it became an integral part of this constantly growing planet.....much the same as the oil in your car......Nature has always had all the basic things needed by mankind.....you should not take anything from underground....look up for a change.....some people in Florida are shooting rockets with copper wires into clouds for NASA....each time it produces a lightning strike that disintegrates the wire and produces millions of volts of electricity....if humans would quit figuring out new ways to kill each other.....they could spend more time finding more out about the glorious facets of Nature.....and for all you oil and coal people......you could get cleaner jobs.....where you can feel the wind...see the sun...and not destroy your lungs and everyone elses.........Golden Ruler......Looking up......Will........
    recommended by  jubal, JanforGore
    Virtual_Will_Rogers
  • Why can't people see this won't just be something they read about it will actually effect them!
    thekingbeyond
  • When I was twelve years old I wrote a letter to then President Nixon telling him how concerned I was for the future and what we were doing to our air and water. That was just when the Epa had been established, and I thought that within a few years we would see how destructive burning all of these toxic materials would be and we would stop it and look upward to the sun. And now almost forty years later here we still are, burning the same toxic materials knowing it gives us cancer and toxifies the very elements we need to survive. And the reason is because of $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ and lack of will both politically and morally to do the right thing.

    This is why we must make people see that investing in solar, wind, geothermal, and other ways to get energy are the better ways in the longrun. Companies look too much to the fast track and making $$$ now not thinking or caring of the affects of the action. We need to take steps to provide cleaner energies that produce longterm benefits both economically and socially. I sure hope we can accomplish this and that the status quo is not too set in, but I fear it is for so many that we will miss this window of opportunity.

    The key to it is people. The public must be vocal in stating they want a change from the status quo way to new cleaner ways that will give this Earth a chance to breathe. What we do to the Earth we do to ourselves. We have assaulted her for so long and done so much to hurt her. I think it will say much about us as humans as to how we now propose to make amends for that.
    JanforGore
  • We are entering that sci-fi world of no trees, air pollution and desperation. I hope it's not too late.

    I live in a place that depends on cars, factories and "development". Exhaust, smoke, smog, concrete, plant & animal removal - the natural beauty of my home state has been killed,... and we're turning the water into the Not-So-Great Lakes.

    Don't let it be too late. Think. Act. Change.
    PajamaDan
  • In a few weeks they are going to start the field burning season. Get out your gas masks. In Oregon this is a real problem especially for the elderly, children, and those with respiratory ailments.

    I wish they would ban the field burning altogether.

    You would think that in Oregon we would have good air quality, but in the Willamette valley we don't. The name in the local Indian language means "valley of sickness".
    jubal
  • Coal, petroleum, and nuclear... It's gonna kill us all. But hey, 2% are filthy rich right?!? I hope they spend it wisely in HELL.
    onechance
  • And so much damage has been done to all of the progress made in previous years by the Bush regime. They are the worst administration in the history of this country regarding the environment and sustainability.
    JanforGore
  • Some people (mostly Republicans) constantly view environmental issues as either/or scenarios:

    Either we can have a nice quality of life and pollute or we can all wear loin clothes and live in caves.

    That is such a false choice.

    We can live well and live responsibly. The PR machine coming from Big Business has really and truly convinced a lot of people that you can't create electricity or manufacture widgets without dumping 100 metric tons of toxins into the air and water. It is possible, but they just don't want to spend the small amount of money necessary to bring their facilities up to a higher standard.

    Hopefully the next President and new Democratically controlled House, Senate, FDA, and EPA will take a more logical, common sense approach to our environment and resource management than the two knuckleheads we have in office now.
    crob80227
  • Unfortunately, in this Congress both parties have failed us. Especially those on all sides voting to give oil and coal what they want and touting "clean coal". They have alot to make up for if they get that chance without having 'filibusters' and 'not having 60 votes' to use as excuses.
    JanforGore
  • Politicians are exactly like professional wrestlers......they arrive in the same car......put on a show.....act like they hate each other.....come within inches of actually hitting each other......get back in the same car......laugh and drive away.....joking about how gullible and stupid the public is......if they want to do it for free...that is one thing......for the very same public they scorn to support them and give them outrageous amounts of money is a totally different matter......Wake up.....Golden Ruler......Will............
    recommended by  JanforGore
    Virtual_Will_Rogers
  • Democrat and Republican politicians are the same in that they have to raise huge amounts of money to keep getting re-elected. Enter big oil, gas, coal, and car companies to fill their coffers. We need to put a firewall between our political process and the big money special interests that control it. Election reform - massive election reform is needed. People will do what they have to do to get elected, including sell their souls to the highest bidder. We need to reform the system so that is no longer necessary.
    recommended by  jubal
    philbangs
    1 response to this
  • This post has absolutly nothing to do with the article above . . . .

    Greetings all from South Texas and Hurricane Dolly.

    I wonder how morons like some of you above would live if you practiced what you spewed. I am sitting in my 2400sq/ft house and I am waiting for the electricity to go out. If you holy-er-than-thou eco nuts were in my predicament now (and like the one I was in during August 2005 . . that means Katrina) how would you cope? No electricity to spew your ignorance, no sun for solar and wind is not everywhere, how would you treat injuries at a hosptial? How would you get on the internet? How would news weather stations get the weather reports to you? How would you evacuate?

    I'LL TELL YOU HOW I'LL LIVE, ONCE ELETRICITY GOES OUT, I AM FLIPPING THE SWITCH ON MY OILFIELD DIESEL RUN GENERATOR IN MY BACK YARD, SO MY ASS DOES NOT SWEAT WHEN I GO TO SLEEP. And as for the elderly couple that lives down the street, I invited them over to hook up any respirators and/or life saving equipment they need.

    God bless big oil
    God bless Diesel
    God bless america
    God Bless this damn hurricane Dolly
    mrburns
  • at least the beer is cold
    mrburns
    2 responses to this
  • There's a desperate need for an economic boost in these coal areas. People work the mines because you can't support your family on a McDonald's paycheck or from a gas station.
    Frier_peppino
    2 responses to this
  • I guess every village has an idiot.
    JanforGore
  • and don't you forget that I power that village. . .


    God bless big oil
    god bless america
    mrburns
    1 response to this
  • Weather one believes in global warming ,and the melting of the polar ice caps,or not, the fact remains that the mercury and pcb's that reside in fish is proof positive that Air pollution is harmful to us and our environment.
    glabadabadoo

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