The economic development of Georgia in the United States is the reason for the nation’s welfare, which can affect the environment and natural resources negatively. In Georgia, the intense pursuit of economic development and growth has exacerbated different environmental and natural resource issues. Most of the common environmental issues in Georgia in the United States include land and forest degradation, waste management, in addition to climate change and pollution. In this case study, the focus is on air pollution in Georgia, highlighting its cons and possible solutions.
Deterioration of air quality in any nation is one of the critical consequences of increment of economic activities, which originated from the urbanization of production. For the case of Georgia, air pollution is an s result of transportation sectors, industrial and energy sectors. Some of the significant ambient air pollutants that have been monitored in Georgia entail a particular matter, which means all the suspended particulates, nitrogen oxide, in addition to sulfur dioxide and carbon monoxide. Public transportation in Georgia has not yet sufficiently developed, as showing in the public transport report in Georgie in the United States (Tu et al., 2016). The large size of the Georgia population utilizes private means of transportations as the most preferred mode of transport. The number of these private vehicles has drastically increased for the last decade, with statistics indicating that the amount has almost doubled. This has led to increment in traffic, which is then followed by industrial sources. There is a significant increase in the number of dirty diesel vehicles on the roads where pollution testing is virtually nonexistent. Data presented from WHO and IEA offers research data, which illustrates that most of Georgia’s deaths can be attributed to air pollution when compared to other nations.
Before 2000, Georgia utilized leaded fuels for its transportation system. For the soviet auto models, they can use low octane gasoline while European models can run on higher octane gas. But increment of fuel’s octane levels leadings to the addition of lead. Most of the vehicles, both private and public in Georgia, are currently 15 to 20 years old. Additionally, most of these older cars demand the use of leaded petrol since the lead lubricates and protects the depreciating of valves (Tu et al., 2016). Research indicates that Georgia has a habit of importing second hand that uses low octane gas, but they are later manipulated through the addition of lead to attain leaded gasoline. All these effects lead to the composition of exhaust emissions, which in turn leads to air pollution.
Air pollution in Georgia has an environmental impact. Air pollution leads to global warming, where according to estimates, with the increased rates of air pollution, there a possibility of these temperatures increasing from 3 degrees censures to 8 for the next three decades (Russel et al., 2018). This will directly impact the climate of Georgia in the United States’ distribution of plants and animals, melting of snow caps and increment in sea levels leading to submerging of some nation’s part. Additionally, air pollution in Georgia leads to the formation of photochemical smog. Smog is formed when pollutants such as hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxide mix in the presence of sunlight. Hence smog is formed from the photochemical reactions, and it hampers visibility as well as causes different respiratory disperse and allergies.
Aerosol formation: Aerosol is formed through a scattering of fluid matters direct to the atmosphere. In the cases where aerosols structure a thick layer in the environment, they influence the climate conditions by obstruction of sun radiation. Aerosols are deposited on the plant, which directly affects the plant photosynthesis. Aerosols tend to disperse the inorganic metallic pollution materials far and wide. Another significant impact of air pollution in Georgia in the United States is that it leads to depletion of the Ozone layer. Normally the stratosphere contains the ozone whose primary function is the absorption of the UV rays that are present in the sun’s radiations and helps in the protection of people from harmful effects if the ultraviolet rays (Tu et al., 2016). However, the like soft chlorofluorocarbons, which is a form of hydrocarbons, damages the ozone molecules leading to the depletion of the ozone layer. In Georgia, there have been ozone holes that have been identified, permitting the ultraviolet rays to pass through and reach the earth’s surface. This leads to rampant in diseases such as skincare which is more in Georgia than in California due to air pollution.
On the other hand, air pollution has a tremendous environmental impact in Georgia since it leads to the formation of acid rain. When sculpture dioxide mixes with nitrogen oxides and water in the atmosphere, it leads to the accumulation of sulphuric acid and nitric acids. So when it rains, these acids come down in a combination of the rains making the acid rains. Acid rains have negative effects on the environment, such as causing respiratory disorders, immolating of the plant’s productivity since they affected plant leaves then gets into the soil and damages its pH leading to leaching (Russel et al., 2018). Further, it also gets into the ground and river waters, causing harm to the aquatic life and also leads to damaging the buildings in Georgia.
All these environmental impacts of air pollution in Georgia need to be addressed before they get rampant. This can be through the establishment of technologies for reducing air pollutions at the sources of air pollution, and there can also apply the new industrial development, which counters air pollution. Still, there can be retrofitting of all industries in Georgie US and the power plants since it can be useful. Still, there can be different emissions standards that can set for all automobiles to avoid exhaust emissions. Through the use of a global scale, Earth Summit in 1992 made establishments of various principles that could help in the reduction of GHG emissions. Through the Kyoto Protocol, it focused on achieving GHG emission levels to be below 5 % (Tu et al., 2018). All these practices would help in containing and eliminating health risks that are generated through air pollution in Georgia. Extensively, Georgia should focus on involving governmental and non-government organizations to come up with strategies that will bring a permanent solution to air pollution in Georgia since it is significantly impacting the environment at an alarming rate.
In conclusion, air pollution in Georgia is a result of transportation, industries, and the energy sectors. Most of the air pollutants in Georgia are the particulate matters, carbon monoxide as well as sulfur dioxide which are being generated at an excessive speed. The air pollution has led to other environmental impacts, which include; global warming, the formation of acid rains, which damages the environment, and has led to the forming of photochemical smog. Further, air pollution in Georgia has led to the depletion of the ozone layer. Hence, there is a need for the government to come up with permanent strategies to address the issue.
References
Tu, J., Tu, W., & Tedders, S. H. (2016). Spatial variations in the associations of term birth weight with ambient air pollution in Georgia, USA. Environment international, 92, 146-156.
Russel, T., Huang, R., Senthilkumart, N., Mulholland, J., Strickland, M., Tobert, P., … & Chang, H. (2018, September). Using Fused Chemical Transport Models to Estimate Spatially and Temporally Resolved Ambient Air Pollution in Georgia and North Carolina. In ISEE Conference Abstracts (Vol. 2018, No. 1).
Tu, J., & Tu, W. (2018). How the relationships between preterm birth and ambient air pollution vary over space: A case study in Georgia, USA using geographically weighted logistic regression. Applied Geography, 92, 31-40.