Wisconsin School of the Air; Wonderful world of nature; 18; Air pollution

The wonderful world of nature was guns and school of the air series conducted by Robert S. Thompson professor of wildlife ecology at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Today's topic is air pollution. Now here's Professor Ellison. Hello boys and girls. What have you been seeing in the out-of-doors these days. Last week I saw several birds that I hadn't seen previously this winter. I don't want to cage when I was driving through the countryside north of Madison. And there I had a flock of birds fly up from the roadside. They swirled into the air almost like a cloud of snowflakes. And these birds showed a large white patch on their way things as they flew. They were snow buntings. Snow bindings are an Arctic bird that's kind of like a large sparrow. And these birds spend their winters in southern Canada and in our northern states. You might be keeping your eyes open for them. They're most apt to be seen out in the open country right out on the bare snowy

fields for being tundra birds. They usually stay away from Woods and brush areas. Sometimes we see birds when we least expect to find them. And last week while sitting in my office one day I happened to glance out of my window and perched in a young birch tree in the courtyard outside the window. I saw three small sparrow like birds feeding on the seeds of a white birch. When I looked at them with binoculars I found that they were red bowls. Now the red poles like this nobody things are birds that spend their summers in the Arctic. And some years we see considerable numbers of them here in Wisconsin. There are just about the size of a common sparrow and have a bright red patch on there far ahead. The male birds also have a kind of a pinkish color on their street breast. So keep your eyes open and see what you can see. Now today boys and

girls we're going to be talking about one of our natural resources and the resources we're going to be talking about is air. When I was a student we seldom if ever talked about air as a natural resource. I wonder if you can think of the reason why we didn't. Well probably it's because there was a great deal of great abundance of good fresh air fairly pure and clean. I think that this illustrates an important point and that is that people really do not become concerned about natural resources until the resource is diminished either in quantity or in its quality. And of course today the quality of our air is certainly diminished. This is especially true in the vicinity of our large cities. And of course this is true all over the world. We know that there is still just as much air as there always has been. But the

quality of our air is not as good. The quality has been diminished by pollution. I'm sure that there's not a single one of you boys and girls sitting in this in your classrooms this morning that has not heard about air pollution. But first of all let's talk a little about air and some of its characteristics. Air of course is a mixture of gases mostly nitrogen and oxygen. But there are also a few other gases such as carbon dioxide and some minute amounts of rare gases. This mixture of gases surrounds the earth like a thin layer or blanket. One of the characteristics of areas since it is a gas it doesn't remain in one place and it tends to move around with air currents. Now what about air pollution. I think that we could say that air becomes

polluted when any substance other than these naturally occurring gases the nitrogen and oxygen that I just mentioned is added to the air. Almost all air contains particles of solid material. Very tiny particles. Most of these particles are less than one five hundredth of an inch in size. And the particles may be dust blown up from the earth. They may be soup from the burning of fuels. Or it may be pollen smoke or fly ash. These are all solid materials. Certain gases too may be added to the air. Gases such as carbon monoxide sulfur dioxide nitrogen oxides and various other gases that result from the burning and from manufacturing processes. Certain odors to pollute the air. Most of these odors result from certain kinds of chemical combinations. Again in the form of gases.

All of these things the solids and the gases of the objectionable odors contribute to what we call air pollution. Because none of them are naturally occurring substances in the air. Perhaps I should not use the term naturally naturally occurring because even in nature certain substances may be added to the air. Wind erosion volcanic action and fires that have been started by lightning. Add to add pollutants to the air. But most of the polluting substances are added as a result of man's activities. Why are we concerned about pollution. In the first place we are concerned about because air pollution may actually be hazardous to our health and to the health of other animal life. Many of the air pollutants have actually caused different kinds of disease.

Most of the diseases naturally are lung diseases such as asthma bronchitis emphysema and even cancer. And air pollutants may also cause certain kinds of heart disease. When air pollution becomes really severe it may directly cause the death of individuals. Perhaps the most striking example of this occurred in London in 1952 during one five day period London experienced an extremely heavy dense smog smog is a mixture of smoke and fog. And in this smog over 4000 people died as a result of the polluted air. Now of course there are many instances where air pollution is less severe and still has caused the death of people. In many many cases we suspect that people's lives are shortened as a result of air pollution. So this is truly an important effect of air

pollution. Another important effect of air pollution is its effect on plant life. There are certain kinds of plants that are sensitive to the effects of air pollution. In some cases trees may be killed by it and many other plants are damaged so severely that they cannot be used for the purpose for which they were grown. In addition to being dangerous to life air pollution is very costly. Part of this cost results from the fact that air pollution causes the corrosion or the rusting of metals bridges railroad rails and other kinds of exposed metal rust and deteriorate much more rapidly because of air pollution. Air pollution will discolor paint and cause it to peel and air pollution will also cause severe damage to certain kinds of stone and mortar. Air pollution is also responsible for a large amount of dirt on clothing and

in our homes creating a great deal of work and time and time and money involved in laundering and dry cleaning. Now these of course are just a few of the costs of air pollution. The actual money cost of air pollution in the United States is really staggering. It has been estimated that air pollution costs us about 15 to 20 billion dollars annually. This amounts to almost $80 per person in the United States. And these costs are based on the cost of sickness and disease property damage damage to vegetation and all of the other problems caused by air pollution. Certainly another concern about air pollution is that it is aesthetically unpleasant. Air pollution causes dingy skies and shuts out the sun. In Chicago for example it's been estimated that about 40 percent of the sunlight is

filtered out of the sky and shut off by air pollution. Of course odors are also another form of air pollution and are also objectionable. But one of the most interesting and certainly the most terrifying things about air pollution is that it may ultimately change our climate. There is an element of uncertainty about how it will change our climate. For some scientists feel that the particles in the air the dust and the smoke will shut out enough sunlight so that the Earth's atmosphere and the earth itself will become cool. And this might ultimately result in another ice age. The other theory is that air pollution may warm the earth. These scientists argue that the more carbon as more carbon dioxide is added to the air from the burning of coal and oil this carbon dioxide will tend to keep the heat from dissipating from the earth.

Now this could be just as disastrous as an ice age because of the temperature of the earth became too warm. The polar ice caps would melt and the levels of all of our world's oceans would rise flooding much of our shoreline and many of the big cities of the world. At the present time it appears that the first there is probably the more accurate of the two. For indeed there has been a very gradual loike lowering of world temperatures. Now where do all of these pollutants come from that we find in the air. One of the major air polluters is the American automobile in Wisconsin. It's estimated that about 60 percent of the air pollution comes from automobiles. Automobiles give off carbon monoxide which is a very poisonous gas. Nitric

oxide and substances called hydrocarbons. Now these hydrocarbons are actually gases and vapors of gasoline and oil that have not been burned. In Wisconsin about 25 percent of the air pollution comes from home heating and such things as suck and fly ash and odors are added to the air from this source. I don't national basis However this only amounts to about 8 percent of cars here in Wisconsin where in the northern part of the states and so we have much more high heating that is necessary in the southern part of the country. About 15 percent of the air pollution and was Gazza and comes from industry and power generating plants. While nationally this amounts to about 30 percent. Now what can we do about air pollution. Can we live with it and can we live without it. It's certainly a most serious question indeed and one which you boys and girls

will still be wrestling with when you are adults. But now let's talk about ways in which people are trying to do something about air pollution. The responsibility for controlling air pollution is divided. The Federal Environmental Protection Agency the EPA as it is called is the main enforcing agency of the federal government. This agency sets the standards for pollution control in the United States. For example they tell the automobile manufacturers how much pollution will be tolerated from new automobiles and also set standards for manufacturing and industry. As far as the amount of pollution that they can release into the air. In addition the states have all also have some responsibility for setting standards and enforcing the laws. In Wisconsin the Department of Natural Resources has this responsibility. Now in the last five or 10 years a

great deal of progress has been made and a whole new technology designed to reduce air pollution. New automobiles are causing less pollution and are being designed to run on less gasoline. Manufacturing plants are installing what they call scrubbers on their smoke stacks which help to reduce the amount of ash and gases entering the air. But air pollution is still our number one environmental pollution problem. And a great deal more work must be done to solve the problem. For each of us in a sense is a polluter of the air. I am one and each of you is an air polluter. N fact everyone in the world is responsible to a certain extent for this. Every time we drive an automobile we pollute the air and every time we turn on an electric light we pollute the air for the electricity for that light is

generated in a power plant and power plants burn coal or oil and are polluters. When we heat our buildings we pollute the air. So everyone is responsible in a greater or lesser degree for air pollution. And that means that each of us can do something to reduce air pollution. We should think about the results of our actions. We should try to remember that snapping on a light or running hot water or turning on an electrical appliance causes pollution. Now of course we cannot live without these things. We need light and we need heat and power. But do we need as much as we use. Do we waste power and hot water and gasoline. Could we walk or take the bus or a bicycle instead of our car. Now industry can do its part too. There are ways in which gases in the tiny particles can be removed from smoke before it leaves factory chimneys

and industry can use fuel which has lower sulfur content and is less polluting. Now boys and girls I don't want to leave you with the idea that air pollution is a hopeless problem. It is not at all. Now let me tell you one remarkable success story. You remember my tale about London in 1952 when 4000 people were killed by air pollution. Well London went to work on its air pollution problem. And since that time they have prohibited the burning of soft coal in the city. For that was one of the main sources of their air pollution soft coal was burned in the open hearths of many of London's homes. The smoke in London since that time has been reduced by 75 percent. And the air in London is actually cleaner than the air in New York City at the present time. Another thing that they

found in London is that many birds have returned to nest in the city. Birds that had not been seen there for all of the years that the air was so badly polluted. But one of the most striking things about London today is the fact that the buildings look cleaner and the sun actually shines much more frequently. So something can be done about air pollution. We must learn more about it and then we must make a real effort to cut down on the sources of pollution. It will probably mean a change in the way we live and it will probably mean that we will also be more healthy. And now boys and girls. Until next week. So long. The wonderful world of nature is a weekly series prepared by Robert S. Heller son professor of wildlife ecology at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Next week his topic will be the Heath Family. These programs are produced in cooperation

with the educational communications board by W.H. a radio a service of the University of Wisconsin Extension.