In the past few years, air pollution has increased drastically. As more cities are being developed and becoming densely populated, the air quality decreases with the amount of automobile usage. This increases the harmful effects of poor air quality on the people living in those areas and puts their health at risk. According to recent studies, pollution levels have increased up to 8% over the past 5 years. Air pollution does not only affect people on earth, but it also affects plant and animal life. There are several ways to keep air pollution from reaching drastic levels by carpooling, conserving energy, and joining local energy conservation programs.

There are many ways that carpooling helps decrease the air pollution that is increasing so alarmingly. By carpooling with other commuters, people can not only save gas money by having more passengers in a car, but fewer cars on the road decreases the amount of carbon and other gases that seep into the air. A commuter has multiple options to locate a carpool to join.  It is easy to find someone who has the same work schedule as you so you not only have company for the commute, but you are helping to improve the air quality as well. Many large companies offer ways to help employees locate a carpool or even offer commuter vans to groups in the workplace. Less automobiles on the freeways may decrease the wear and tear on the actual pavement which in turn decreases the need to resurface the road as frequently. This in turn helps decrease air pollution by not having to repave as often.

Conserving energy is a great way to stop pollution from getting into Earth’s atmosphere. By conserving energy, natural resources that have become expensive and very scarce are consumed less. One major way for conserving energy is by converting to solar energy. There are many pros and cons to converting over to solar energy. One advantage is that  it is renewable and very low maintenance but it does not come cheap. Another advantage to switching to solar energy is that the technology is always improving, so a consumer will always have the best product for saving the planet. There are more ways to conserve energy other than switching to solar energy. Another example is reduce, reuse, and recycle. Instead of throwing away plastic bags and water bottles, store the bags somewhere to reuse them for later and refill the water bottle whenever is necessary. Reduce the amount of waste that you produce by using cloth bags instead of plastic, purchase products that use the smallest packaging possible or which use biodegradable packaging that could be composted.

Joining any local conservation group and/or club helps spread the word about Earth’s environment more than one would think. Working together to spread awareness about pollution harming the Earth helps influence others to be apart of the action. Actively promoting the conservation efforts of a group brings the cause to the attention of more people and may increase their awareness of the growing concerns of the need to protect our environment and air quality.

Our Earth should be everyone’s number one priority. The problems facing our Earth, such as pollution, is not something that can be “pushed off until tomorrow” or something that can be corrected overnight. Pollution is a huge problem that we humans face every day of our lives and we need to start taking action to protect and  clean up our planet.  As guardians of the planet and its resources, we have an obligation to protect, preserve and maintain it for the future generations.