College App

Poya Osgouei
Professor Brian Glaser
English 103
23 September 2010

September Eleventh, 2010 was the start of a long journey to improve my impact on the environment. After starting to read No Impact Man, I began to question my daily actions and how my decisions impacted the environment: actions like using five water bottles a day or wasting so many plastic bags, etc. I felt guilty…as if I was killing my home, my environment, MY EARTH.
I knew I had to make a difference, so I decided to act fast and save the planet. But there was a problem; I did not know where to start, so I decided to log on to Colin Beavan’s blog (Author of No Impact Man) and ask him for help. I emailed him asking what I can do to make a difference in my community to help the environment. Days passed, and I didn’t get a response from Colin, so my patience ran out, and I decided to act.
Problem Number One:
Driving a car is the most air polluting act an average citizen commits. Air pollution is not a good idea for a variety of reasons, large and small. The right ideas for remediation of environmental degradations involve unselfish and compassionate behavior, a scarce commodity. The right ideas involve long-term planning, conservation and a deep commitment to preserving the natural world. Without a healthy natural environment, there will be few or no healthy humans. To understand air pollution you can consider a simple schematic that divides a big problem into components.
1. Local effects -e.g. poisoning humans breathing bad air.
2. Regional effects - fallout from airborne pathogens - infections, particles, chemicals.
3. Global effects - changing interactions between the atmosphere and sun,   weather effects, effects on plants and oceans. (Robert Williams, Paragraph 3)

Developments in the media made "Green" the slogan for action to limit the adverse effects of air pollution. The media often suggests the idea of environmental crisis that is a relatively new consensus. They...