Clean Air through Reduced emissions

By: Shaun Jacob

 Index
1.Introduction
2.The Problem
3.The Solution
4.What This Will Achieve
5.Citations
 Table of Figures
1.0. Mapping California Air Quality
1.1. Electric vs Gasoline Vehicles
 Introduction
In the past few years, you must have been hearing about how bad climate change and
pollution have been. Here at the Coalition of Clean Air there are people working to fix
that. The Coalition of Clean Air or the CCA is a California based organization fighting to
make sure the Earth has clean air for future generations of humanity so they can enjoy
the world and nature the same way it is enjoyed now if not even better. The next step of
the organization is to work on cleaning up air emissions caused by transportation in
California. They would like to work with you, the Environmental Protection Agency, to
help them do that. The CCA feels this would be the perfect partnership to really clean
up the quality of the air. With the backing of the Environmental Protection Agency a real
difference can be made to improve air quality. They want to get a law put into place that
bans all gasoline powered vehicles by 2035 and replaces them with electric or hybrid
vehicles. Let's take a look at how bad the problem really is.

The Problem
Air pollution is a big problem. The average passenger vehicle releases about 4.6 metric
tons of carbon dioxide yearly. So, with more than 300 million citizens in the United
States, those numbers add up. In the short term air pollution can cause irritation to
people’s eyes, nose, and throat. Also, more serious illnesses such as pneumonia or
bronchitis can be direct byproducts of air pollution. In the long term, the effects are even
worse. People can develop heart disease, lung diseases, and damage to nerves and
organs. Almost 2.5 million people worldwide die a year from air pollution effects. Those
are just general facts. Within the state of California alone there were 7200 premature
deaths, 1900 hospitalizations, and 5200 emergency room visits due solely to air
pollution. These are ridiculous numbers and people should not be suffering due to what
the state of California puts into the air. The Clean Air Coalition does not want things to
keep progressing this way. The Coalition wanted to find a way to reduce emissions in
the state and inspire other states to do the same. So, it was decided a plan would be
created to make sure air quality is cleaned up. Shaun Jacob was put in charge of
coming up with a plan to work with you, the Environmental Protection Agency, and help
reduce the emissions in the state of California..There is an outline of a possible solution
that could use the feedback and backing of the Environmental Protection Agency.
 Figure 1.0: Map of Air quality in California from 1990 to 2018

The Solution
As described above a major contributor to the problem of Air Pollution is vehicle
emissions. So, the CCA decided that was the perfect place to start when figuring out
how to clean up air quality. The plan is to drum up support of a law that will require all
new produced vehicles starting 2035 to be electric powered or hybrid vehicles. To
achieve this collaboration between the CCA and the Environmental Protection Agency
is crucial as neither organization has enough members to carry out the plan alone.
Collectively the two organizations will form teams to go out and get signatures. This is
an important step to the plan because it shows the state that it has citizens that really
care about what their air quality looks like and that a change needs to be made. The
CCA estimates that at least five thousand signatures will need to be collected to show
the state government the gravity of the issue at hand. If the Environmental Protection
Agency has any input on how to collect those signatures or a difference in opinion of
how many signatures should be collected, they should reach out to the CCA to discuss
this. After obtaining the signatures to show how many people care about the issue the
next step is to have the CCA and the Environment Protection Agency legal teams
collectively work together to draft a sample law that both organizations agree to. The
input of the two organizations will help solve problems and make the draft as close to
perfect as possible. During all of this relations teams should reach out to the state
Senator and Representatives to get their input as well as set a meeting time to present
the draft of the Law. What this does is it builds up a relationship with the people who
can get this law passed, it adds to the credibility of the plan, it gives the plan another set
of eyes and ear to help determine what is possible and what is not, and it gets the
backing of state officials to get the law put into effect. After that hopefully the law will be
implemented, and other states will see the groundwork laid out by these two
organizations and they can follow suit. If anyone is to take the first steps and lead the
rest of the nation, it should be the state of California. This is the perfect time to execute
this plan as electric vehicles are gaining popularity. With the iconic Tesla coming out
and people flocking to purchase the vehicle a plan to switch to all electric vehicles can
very much be achieved. If this plan goes into place it will mean cleaner air and the
chance for future generations to have a livable planet.

Figure 1.1: Image describing the differences between gasoline powered vehicles and
electric powered vehicles.

What This Will Achieve

What this plan does for the state is it stops the production and purchase of gasoline
powered vehicles in the state of California. The state of California is one of the largest
states in the country and has over seventeen million gas powered vehicles on the road
right now. By making the state switch to electric and hybrid vehicles emissions from
tailpipes of gasoline powered vehicles will be reduced immensely. This in turn reduces
the amount of carbon dioxide going into the air which in turn makes the air cleaner,
reduces threats of global warming, and prevents citizens of the United States from
catching diseases due to air pollution. There are also problems that are created by this
plan. Not all families have money to buy new electric and hybrid vehicles. There is also
the case of what happens to all the car companies and factories in California that are
developing these gasoline powered vehicles and the impact it will have on the state
economy. These issues are where the CCA needs the help of the Environmental
Protection Agency the most. They would like to meet to figure out what can be done to
solve these problems or prevent them. A meeting time should be set up between the
two organizations to discuss the plan and how to move forward. All communication
should be sent to CCA@email.com. With the collaboration of the CCA and the
Environmental Protection Agency, cleaner air can be achieved not only in California but
across the United States.
 Citations
https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/resources/health-air-
pollution

https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedi
a/air-pollution/#:~:text=Long%2Dterm
%20health%20effects%20from,air
%20pollutants%20cause%20birth%20defects.

https://californiahealthline.org/multimedia/califor
nia-air-quality-mapping-the-progress/

https://pc-homeservices.com/electric-cars-what-
is-an-electric-car

Reaktion Air by Peter Adey