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Yijhan Alejandra González Valoyes - Human beings are the biggest threat to the planet. 

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Yijhan Alejandra González Valoyes - Human beings are the biggest threat to the planet. 

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Over billions of years, the earth has gone through different changes and forms of extinction, such as the Great Oxidation Event (GEO) that occurred between 2.400 and 2.050 million years ago, where the atmosphere and the surface of the oceans were filled with oxygen. Another well-known extinction was the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction which marked the end of the age of the dinosaurs. However, the earth presents a massive extinction of species, which is caused by one of these species originating a profound impact on planet earth.

Humans overexploit all the resources of the place we inhabit because we need materials, supplies, or food, and also we extinguish species and the reason for the ambition of power. Earth can survive without us; a new life and; new ecosystem would grow in the places that humans built, like cities; all the waste and matter will decompose over time. When we finish exploiting all the resources of the place we inhabit, we extinguish species; we will face the consequences of our actions. What is happening with the planet; these affectations caused by human beings make me think that we are a new form of extinction for everything that inhabits the earth.

We have created technologies that, instead of helping the planet, do the opposite because of our misuse of technologies. One of the reasons why I dare to say this accusation is because man has created and sponsored the use of automobiles, motorcycles, and buses, among others, damaging the environment and generating pollution, because the system of these machines works through gasoline, which is a product that is derived from oil. Now, it’s true that there are these means of transportation that work electrically. But there is a big problem: how would man benefit if gasoline generates more capital than electricity? And this is one of the selfish thoughts of human beings, and another thing that characterizes us is the lack of ethics and morals; and dehumanization.

In conclusion, the planet has allowed the formation of cancer that acts quickly to reach the extinction of the same cancer and many more species that inhabit the Earth. And also, human beings could create a weapon that would end the entire face of the Earth, so this cancer could even end everything. I would leave two proposals that could provide a solution to this problem. The first is; to try to invite people to think a little more about what would be good for everyone, and not only for themselves, because the selfishness of thinking that we will not be there when the worst happens is what makes us not care about what happens to our planet. The second solution would be a virus that kills the human race because the pandemics have shown that the planet is breathing a little since energy consumption is down, and there are fewer planes in the skies and fewer cars on the roads. It may be a hard thing to accept, but then you find out that you are not giving to the Earth, but taking from it.

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Doris Xilena Caicedo Viveros - Stop, behind your gold there is poverty and deforestation 

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Doris Xilena Caicedo Viveros - Stop, behind your gold there is poverty and deforestation 

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Unlike traditional mining, which is characterized for extracting gold with an instrument called “batea”. Mining illegal industry has the equipment to exttract this valuable stone quickly and in huge quantities. How do they get it? They take out the rock, grind it and with the mercury they begin to extract the gold. For this process, it's required to have enough water, power plants and machinery.

Extracting gold like this way,  it's more quickly, profitable and gives earnings to owners as we can't imagine, but contradictorily nothing is for communities as owners don't invest it. In Addition to environmental damage, the people who live off this traditional activity are with no gold. Then the community will be without the river and resources from it, it mean without gold to collect. This causes in the cities a blockage of the development that it's evidenced in
chronic problems in those territories. Those problems are relationated with poverty, violence and no drinking water system like Chocó and Amazonas.

Like I mentioned previously, The rivers and forests end consumptioned because of the massive extraction of resources. A damage without return, a ilustrative example is the way to Cali from Buenaventura, nowadays it's a common landscape seeing dry rivers and deforested forest. Another victim it's fauna. Consequently, the fauna will be affected, because of the condition of their habitat. All this damage it's fault of illegal miners and their selfish. After they get what they want in a specific zone. they will be ready to get the juice of another.  all because of the love to tha money, so they will never stop

A massive damage like these caused by huge machinery can't be easily hidden from authorities. The reality is that if they would like to hide, they couldn't. Although the location is obvious of these illegal activities, it seems invisible to authorities. Even when it's located in protected zones. This tell us about a the possibility of a dirty deal between owners and the government. If not, why is the reaction too slow, and is it too late? Basically justice comes when the environment has already been affected and the robber took they wanted.

In conclusion, the illegal mining have a relationship with poverty, deforestation, undevelopment, etc and moreover cause a lot famage to the environment. This iis a big problem that must be, somehow, solved. Unfortunately, the damage caused yesterday can't be restored, but we can take advantage of this new government and actual aware society to avoid it, and try to solve it.

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It would be amazing to watch animals with life like the dodo, the passenger dove and the quagga among other animals,if we had the magic to resurrect them. The first mention  of this idea can be  seen in the book “Journey to the Center of the Earth” by Julio Verne (1862); it says  that some dinosaurs live in the center of the Earth.This is called by the scientists De-extinction.With de-extinction, we could know about the the species and their  genetic.

The causes of which animals die in the world, first the climate change is due to human activity because every day the human being make ,produce and consume products to get more benefits ,for that reason the man destroys the habitats and kills the life forms that exist. Second, the introduction of invasive species to  the ecosistems,these species can enter voluntarily or invouluntarily and finish with the present species.Third, the pollution that we cause to the environment such as the trash in the rivers,the use of the chemicals and the destruction of the habitats.The most of the human beings see and search the ways to avoid more deaths of animals like for example:The dodo,a bird that was extinct for the humans and the invasive species which generated their fast extinction.

Other animals  like the passenger dove and the quagga are thought to resurrect due to their functions in nature were important to know the change of the seasons.

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Determinant factors to combat the air pollution’s effects

Air pollution is contamination of the environment by any agent that modifies the natural characteristics of the atmosphere and due to this one of the main effects is over human health. Respiratory diseases are the main problem produced by air pollution, having a big impact on the economy of the cities, wherefore the government and the sanitary authorities are responsible for developing strategies to combat this problem and reducing their social and economic impact.

The levels of air pollution has increased lately and it represents a high risk for the population’s health, producing respiratory diseases, reducing their quality of life and even causing death. Bogotá has grown both in population size and economic activity, this combined with the high flow of cars, has led to significant increases in pollution. A study of this year, mentioned that Bogota had more than double the average annual air quality parameters recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2021. According to this study, the PM2,5 is an indicator of urban contamination, and it is estimated that long-term exposure to PM2.5 particulate matter in Bogotá contributed to 3,400 premature deaths during 2021. If WHO benchmarks and guidelines for PM2.5 concentrations had been met, the number of premature deaths attributable to PM2.5 pollution could have been reduced by 64%, saving an estimated 2200 lives each year (Farrow et al, 2022). The consequences of exposure to high levels of air pollution are tragic for the people, converting the cause and aggravating factor of many respiratory diseases like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, and lung cancer. However, it also has wider implications for our society and economy.

Respiratory diseases represent economic costs for the cities, since those lead to shorter lives, higher medical costs, and lower productivity due to lost work days (HRAPIE, 2013). In 2017, a post of National Department of Planning (DNP) showed the health costs in Colombia, in which air pollution contributed 75% with 15,4 billions of pesos related to 15.527 deaths and 67,8 millions of symptoms and diseases. In other words, the impact on the economy is so big and difficult to control that it is urgent to intervene in the factors that produce air pollution. On the contrary, the footprint in the environment and human health will be unimaginable.

All the mentioned previously, could be avoided because the factors that produce air pollution can be reduced with different strategies. One of these could be targeting the largest emitters of fine particulates (PM2,5). For example, it is necessary that we reduce the use of private vehicles. In the study of 2017, the DNP director said that one of the recommendations to reduce air pollution was to explore, design and implement economic instruments to the control of growing automotor parks, vehicular congestion and promotion of alternative transportation. Finally, these strategies will help achieve good air quality in the short and long term and would contribute to reducing respiratory diseases and the economic costs.

Reducing the impact of air pollution is not impossible, the government is the main actor who has to develop strategies to combat air pollution focused on reducing the impact on human health and the economic area. The high risk represented in the increasing levels of air pollution lately, economic costs produced by the respiratory diseases and the facility to intervene in the factors that produce air pollution are enough reasons to start.

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Air pollution is a mixture of solid particles and gases in the air. Car exhaust, chemicals from factories, dust, pollen, and mold spores can all be suspended as particles. Ozone is a fundamental component of air pollution in cities. When ozone forms air pollution it is also called smog.

Air pollution can cause cardiovascular problems, allergies, bronchial diseases,It is estimated that approximately 3% of hospital admissions in our country are caused by aggravation of diseases related to the level of air pollutants, and that around 12,000 premature deaths could be avoided in developed countries. Environmental pollution affects a greater or to a lesser extent to all people, producing symptoms of greater or lesser importance among which are irritation of the respiratory tract, eye irritation, and decreased defenses in the airways.

The pollution in the air is creating the greenhouse effect and causing the destruction of the ozone layer,which on the one hand is helping to produce a faster warming of the planet with consequences such as: damage to existing ecosystems, climate change, desertification of large areas, rising sea levels, disappearance of lands that currently correspond to nations, proliferation of insects, extinction of many species. In turn, this damage is causing all the organisms that inhabit the earth to be more exposed to the action of ultraviolet rays, which is generating some types of skin cancer and burns.

The agriculture and farming sectors have an impact on air pollution. In the case of the agricultural sector, the exorbitant increase the number, with them, the raised  in bodily emissions of methane gas and carbon dioxide, are part of the causes of air pollution. This, together with agricultural practices such as the use of fertilizers and pesticides, represent significant damage due to their large-scale use on our planet.

In conclusion, several health problems that we are having these days are due to air pollution, for this reason we must start using clean energy to transport ourselves, such as electric cars, walking, running or using the bicycle, on the other hand, we must change our way to feed ourselves, because a large part of our planet is being used to feed cattle, all this meat in our bodies is making us sick, we must learn to recycle, use materials that do not pollute our planet anymore, remember that if we all make a little effort we will see great progress.

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The consequences of air pollution in our life

Our planet has been suffering a lot of damages like global warming, pollution, droughts, and fires. One of the most  important problems is air pollution, which affects the health of people in different parts of the world but especially in cities and the responsibles must face  the consequences of air pollution to reduce damage. This has an effect on our health and produces damage as increases the risk of respiratory infections, heart disease and lung cancer. On the other hand, the causes of this issue are different such as industries, transportation, forest fires and garbage.

Within cities the respiratory diseases have been rising as a consequence of air pollution. In Bogotá this year there have been alarms related to air pollution. In this city the PM 2,5 (particulate matter)  was 13,7 µg/m3 , more than double the quality parameter of air according to the World health organization. The risk of death that represents the exposure to PM 2.5 for someone that lives in Bogotá is double in comparison with traffic accident death’s rate. Also in specific places of the city this issue affects more than other places for example the points with big amounts of pollutants are Ciudad Bolivar, Keneddy and Bosa. It's important to highlight that the mortality for this issue impacts the specific baby population because 3400 died in 2021.

Governments have to act to reduce the air pollution and give alternatives for this environmental problem. One alternative is using transportation that does not use fossil fuels, for example electric cars. Also, they must create policies focused on the population that is most affected by this issue, and improve quality air across technology such as air filters and green buildings. In these policies it is necessary to implement one that is related to health for reducing the deaths as consequences of this issue, for example respiratory therapy.

The owners of industries that produces this problematic must respond for consecuences in health of people, furthermore to face the consequences in the environment. In Bogotá the most

responsibles of air pollution are transportation, restaurants and industries. It is necessary to change their ways of production which could reduce the carbon footprint and the contamination that their production leaves. Another alternative for responding to consequences is to give money to public hospitals near the places where their activity is contaminating. Finally, the industries must use eco-friendly materials in their process of production and recycling inside the process of packaging.

In conclusion, all people and institutions must give support to reduce the air pollution because this issue is something that affects our life, specifically our health. It is not enough that just one part is acting because our  actions affect each other. For this reason the governments that regulate the dynamics of the city must create alternatives that improve the environment and punish the contaminators across fees and social support.

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Recyclers and the environment

Recyclers have an essential role in environmental sustainability. Their work represents the improvement of collection processes, separation, classification and use of waste. That brings benefits to the environment like preserving natural resources and decreasing pollution and global warming. But, in spite of their contribution, most recyclers continue to live and work in poverty and bad conditions. Recyclers work brings benefits to the environment and should be a formal and respectable work.

Recyclers allow reuse and reincorporate materials into the production cycle to give them a second use. According to Jiménez (2022)°, a recycler collects between 2 and 4 tons of recyclable waste every month. As a result, more than 900.000 tons of solid waste can be restored and reincorporated into the production cycle every year. For example, in Colombia we have almost 12 millions tons of solid waste per year, of which only 17% are reused and it is thanks to this labor.

As a consequence, the exploitation of some natural resources decreases, because it is not necessary to get new raw materials. For example, paper recycling decreases deforestation; the less garbage we send to landfills and less volume of waste we have to remove, the less oil we need. This contributes to avoiding the damage of ecosystems derived from exploitation.

The incomes of recyclers depend on what they can pick in the month. For example, in the case of Leidy, she received $400.000 pesos per month, below minimum salary in 2021. Additionally, she received the “service fee”, which doesn't have fixed income and depends on the quantity of waste too, but that represents between $100.000 and $120.000 pesos more (Poussery, 2021)°. Despite the fundamental role for the environment, they have conditions of poverty because they receive incomes below the minimum salary.

Seeing the contribution that they make to the environment, reducing damage to ecosystems, decreasing pollution, promoting reuse and reducing the consumption of raw materials, it is important that we should recognize, defend and fight to give them the best working conditions to respect the meaning of their contribution: a culture of care.

°Yaneth Jimenez. Waste pickers and their essential role in environmental sustainability. Colombian National Radio. 2022. Taken from: https://www.radionacional.co/actualidad/medio-ambiente/cual-es-la-importancia-del-trabajo-de-los-recicladores#:~:text=2022%20%2D%2017%3A58-,Recicladores%20y%20su%20papel%20esencial%20en%20la%20sostenibilidad%20ambiental,y%20prevenir%20el%20calentamiento%20global.

°Lionel Poussery. Colombia: from recyclers to garbage entrepreneurs in Bogotá. France 24. 2021. Taken from: https://www.france24.com/es/am%C3%A9rica-latina/20210224-colombia-tarifa-aprovechamiento-recicladores-bogota-empresarios

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How affect the project “road brazo el salitre” to the locality of barrios unidos

The territorial management plan(Plan de ordenamiento territorial - POT) says to preserve the main ecological structure(MES) but if you watch on TV the meetings held by the mayoralty with the localities, you will find a lot of people complaining about this planning document. Many of these are related to environmental and urban problems. Between these localities, the locality of Barrios Unidos have not only complained to the mayoralty but also taken action through the creation of a group led by interdisciplinary people, from former employees of the town hall to environmental professionals to face a major issue that could not only affect the environment but also the quality of life of the people of the zone, the road “Brazo el Salitre”.

The neighbors made meetings that were held at the end of 2021 where I participate as attendee so I could hear the issues that trouble the community These were the troubles mentioned in most of them: Destroying the flora and the fauna in the area, make the life more expensive for the people and mobility problems.

The first issue is probably the most idyllic out of all the issues due not only for being  the motto of the marches but also the fundamental reason as to negative changes produced by the road. Thousands of trees and wildlife would be the main victim of the project. All this situation affects the air quality and peace of mind of the people as the project replaces the trees by buildings and the grass by cement, changing a natural landscape by one teeming with cars and people.

The second issue is related to the first one because the replacement of nature by urbanism will bring about a higher cost of life. Many people in the meeting was very preoccupied stating that the cost of life in the locality have been increasing fastly, and by the road the cost would skyrocket in a very abruptive way that would get out of hand and would make property owners have to sell their homes which they have been living for decades.

Finally the third problem as contradictory as it may seem because of the main purpose of the project is improve the mobility of the city, it will affect in a local scale the zone, this is because the project collaterally is bound to attract buildings, which would increase the population of the zone and draw the traffic of other areas. From the locals perspective, what currently is a pedestrian parkland will be a highway teeming with lots of buildings and traffic, reducing the number of pedestrians and augmenting the vehicles.

These three causal exposures are also the mottos in the marches which I have been to. People don’t want neither the neighborhoods nor the environment affected by this project and are doing what they can to change the future of the locality. The big question would be, is it worth destroying the environment and the peace of people in a zone for mobility?.

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Noise pollution is a big problem in our society. This can cause a lot of problems like: headache, hearing problems, lack of concentration, stress and high blood

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Noise pollution produced by airplanes has upgraded considerably in the last 50 years due to new technology, new designs of aircraft, and better piloting process. Currently, there is neither airplane that not emit any kind of noise, this is because aircraft need a lot of engines for giving energy enough to take off, which in turn generates a lot of noise pressure toward the environment. On the other hand, the population growth of Bogotá has been increasing over the years, and in addition, they are positioned close to the International Dorado Airport which in turn agglomerates large amounts of people in areas where noise levels are the highest. The International Civil Aviation Organization (OACI) said that aircraft noise is the most significant cause of adverse community reaction related to the operation and expansion of airports, it’s happen because the high noise levels heard by people can be far very upset and if people are exposed to this level for a long time their quality of life will be very affected.

According to civil aeronautics of Colombia, since the year 1955 when the airport began to be built, there weren’t people living around the airport, in this time this place was considered like a place outside the city. But, this started to be an issue when the next local administrations of Bogotá decided to give endorsements for building new houses and builds near the airport. Especially when Luis Garzón was the mayor of Bogotá in 2004 he approved the Land Use Plan for Bogotá, this law had the challenge of reorganizing the land uses and localities. These had to take into account all kinds of activities without mixing land use incompatibilities that probably could bring trouble in the future. However, the lack of planning during these years has worsened the situation because many people have been establishing around the airport but without the governments and people realized the big amount of noise that could hear in these places. The problem has been in this condition for 17 o 18 years, but nowadays there is an issue bigger than before, for example a resident of Fontibon that is a neighbor of the airport bought a floor at luxury built in 2020, when most people were in their house and the aircraft operation were almost zero due to we were in a pandemic for COVID-19. After two years, the resident felt the whole aircraft noise in these places and she decided to put the house on the market, but when the evaluator was at her house he said her that this floor was devalued due to this area was into impact noise area of the airport and she has to sell this apartment for a lower cost than before.

As a result, the communitie around of airport have a set of issues not only economic and environmental also, healty issues which could cause a lot of problems like headaches, hearing problems, lack of concentration, stress and high blood pressure. For me, the main cause of this is a lot of people cann’t sell their house so buyers would provide fewer money, further that some of these locations doesn’t have streets, services and transport in shipshapes. Even tought the civil aeronautics have been working to implement new strategies for noise control is impossible don’t affect to close people to the airport, therefore, no one want to buy in the most of areas around the airport. For this reason, communities close to the airports can be forced to live in this places despite that they are exposed to high noise levels diary, which could produce mental and hearing loss diseases.

In conclusion, the inhabitants who are in areas near the airports have a great impact of noise which, with the bad planning of the government, has generated a succession of problems that affect the quality of life of the inhabitants. Excluding the obligation of the government to order land use and control the construction of new residential areas, it only depends on the individual income of each inhabitant to be able to control the noise generated by air operations and have a quality of life only a bit better. This ends up being a problem that is increasingly difficult to solve and for which no one responds.

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Deforestation

Uncontrolled logging and its impact on the environment

About 8.000 years ago our ancestors cleared trees and bushes to allow light to reach the ground. As soon as the man was improving his skills and tools they realized this land expansion allowed them to use it for building roads and eventually urban developments.

This revolution led to an increase in population and economy, which gave way to the creation of empires, which was the case in the Roman Empire, in part of prehistory and ancient times. It was one of the main causes that contributed to deforestation around the Mediterranean.On the other hand when the Industrial Revolution came,it brought with it uncontrolled logging to supply with fuel and building warships and steamships.

The “development” of deforestation brought with it the birth of civilization and new technologies, but uncontrolled logging has had  a great impact on the environment such as flooding, climate change and increased greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere. This is a huge problem since all of us, animals and human beings depend on the oxygen that the trees  produce to survive.

We must do our bit using certified products to reduce the demand for wood, creating awareness in the way we recycle responsibly and reduce the consumption of meat, livestock and agriculture, those are activities that trigger deforestation.

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Animal mistreatment is a sad cultural legacy in Colombia due mainly to a lack of quality education in the people and poor intervention of authorities. In 2021, The Animal Protection Institute reported more than 5.000 mistreatment cases only in Bogotá. Foundations from the rest of the country reported daily many cases without attention by the Animal Protection Institute or the police. Educational policies could change this scenario.

In Colombia, especially in rural zones, the bad treatment of animals has been constant due to lack of an appropriate education for people along the country. Sadly, people or communities are getting used to seeing this kind of thing as a normal process in life.

It’s common to find in rural communities that all female puppies are thrown into rivers to be drowned, but only a few are saved. Most cases are due to legacy practices and the lack of proper education to people since their childhood. I was wondering if with a strong education to animal and environmental protection campaigns we would give the first step to change this scenario.  The difference would be our society if the schools included projects to work on animal welfare.

In General, we need to switch treatment to animals. The priority must be teaching to new generations about how to keep harmony interspecies, being absolutely necessary to keep in mind values than important as: respect, solidarity, compassion and love. Each species in the world has a specific function inside of nature, each one has a specific role in the ecosystem working like a gear with the other one keeping a strict assessment. If humans destroy the environment’s harmony, everything will change drastically how we are beginning to watch nowadays.

For instance, last July an elephant seal arrived in the Colombian pacific, this species can only be seen in the south cone, in Malvinas Islands. This Elephant seal was considerably far from his usual migration routing. Unfortunately, last week this marvelous animal was killed in Buenaventura port thanks to the people's ignorance[1].

The animals whose abuse is most often reported are dog, cats, horses and livestock[2]. In Colombia we have a long trip to work educating whole communities and doing strong our weak protections laws.

In Colombia, change our culture about animal treat will take time, however, we need development strategies mainly educating from home to children about the respect to other species, emphasizing the important to keep harmony inter species, and in general educating and empowering all people to do little actions that can reduce mistreat cases; reduce the abandonment animal, campaigns creating awareness in the people who will take decision in the future.

[1] Taken of https://www.eltiempo.com/colombia/cali/hallan-muerto-a-elefante-marino-que-estaba-extraviado-en-el-pacifico-717520

[2] Taken from: https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/04/1061082

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Pollution is the least insignificant environmental issue in the world, it affects our health in different ways that we don’t realize easily so we have to know how to prevent those effects.  According to the World Health Organization, most of the worldwide people breathe air that surpasses the recommended limits by this organization and it contains high levels of contaminants.1

Most of us have already noticed that in the pandemic our hair and skin changed when we were stuck in our houses for months, that fact was so brilliant and healthy. However, it was not the only benefit of being in house most of the time. The World Health Organization claims the pollution not only affects our respiratory and cardiovascular systems, the low air quality also causes fatigue, headache, anxiety, eye irritation, damages in the reproductive system, affectations in our blood and nervous system.2

Those symptoms decrease the quality of life while the time is passing, for that reason WHO recommended worldwide governments including this environmental issue to their planners, because the levels of contaminants are increasing rapidly around the world. Everyday we are getting more exposed to being ill without knowing if the countries have been looking forward to a solution for the entire world population to not suffer those effects to a greater or lesser degree.

In fact, another reason why pollution is the principal environmental risk to public health is because we are exposed to the low air quality in our houses too. We always think we aren’t breathing unhealthy air from the streets because we aren’t near cars, buses and the industrial companies, but that’s a lie because it is present in our houses’ inner activities. For example, using fuel for cooking, old air conditioners, cooking technology in bad conditions, not having a good house design for a good ventilation and others, are some of the reasons that explain why we also are exposed to diseases related with unhealthy air.3

As we can see, pollution is a difficult problem to manage. The governments can’t control it globally and it has many effects on our health to a great extent, therefore it is an expensive environmental issue to manage. Having power over the pollution’s consequences not only includes keeping an eye on the outer activities in the streets to stop the air contamination, also the governments have to implement directives towards making a change in the household air. The worldwide population is exposed every time, however it 's time for the countries to carry out actions to improve the air quality around the world.

1 “Air pollution.” World Health Organization, https://www.who.int/es/health-topics/air-pollution#tab=tab_1. Accessed 22 November 2022.

2 Barchilón, Miriam. “¿Cómo afecta la contaminación a la salud de las personas?” La Vanguardia, 25 May 2021, https://www.lavanguardia.com/vida/junior-report/20210525/7476568/como-afecta-contaminacion-salud-personas.html. Accessed 22 November 2022.
3 “Household air pollution and health.” World Health Organization, 27 July 2022, https://www.who.int/es/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/household-air-pollution-and-health. Accessed 22 November 2022.

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Water is a natural resource so essential for the world, especially for human survival being necessary for different activities like hydratation, domestic use and food production. According to the UN General Assembly, everybody have the right to access potable water, however at least 2.2 billion people don’t have the opportunity to take safe drinking water acquiring multiple infectious and parasitic diseases. Water pollution is mostly caused by industrialization, agricultural activities and few access to  sewage treatment facilities. Since water pollution is estimated to cause 485.000 deaths each year, we must do sustainable activities for the environment.

On the earth more than 70% is covered in water even so the access of clean water is limitated in many areas of the world. By the moment only 0.007% of the water is freely available to feed the world population and 1 for 3 people have access to safely managed drinking water. This is due to geographical and climatic conditions, the competition for resources and debilitating pollution, making clean water even more difficult to get and have a high cost. Another important point is the water-stressed areas, where the demand for water is higher than the access, increasing the prevalence of water-borne illnesses.

The contaminated water ingestion is the root cause of the spread of illnesses like diarrheal diseases, acute respiratory infections and neglected tropical diseases, until infant mortality. These water-borne illnesses are caused by pathogenic micro-organisms or chemical residues present in high amounts in the water. There are different pathways to be exposed including using infected water for drinking and food preparation, among others.

In several countries around the world, people use drinking water source that is contaminated with feces but other sources includes chemicals from industrial activities. Most of the time, industries are the largest contributors to water pollution. The presence of chemicals like solvents, petroleum products, heavy metals, arsenic and fluoride, pesticides and fertilizers make up for the majority of the sources of industrial waste. The industrial waste runs trought wastewater and this untreated wastewater can contaminate the ground water. This problematic contributes to the progressive depreciation of water available for consumption.

There are measures to reduce water pollution and make it drinkable and all of them consist in reduce, recycle and eliminate. At first, It’s necessary to reduce the waste produced, so that the wastewater will help lesser number of contaminants in it. The second one, it’s recycle the water by the way of the adoption of a water treatment plant, it’s an advanced method but helps with a responsable production. The last one and not less important it’s eliminate completely the dangerous materials used in the production process, both helping to reduce the incidence of water-borne illnesses.

Reduce the watter pollution is a global necessity. As inhabitants of the earth, it is necessary to be critical of the use of a resource as valuable as water and how to use industrial technology wisely. The challenge to face is find different procedure to effectively conserve, manage and distribute the water.

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DUPONT'S PROFITABLE POISON

Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) is a chemical compound based on carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and fluoride atoms whose chemical formula is C8HF15O2, it has a structure of carbon chains, which is why it is also known as C8. It is a chemical compound used in various industrial applications, such as the manufacture of carpets, upholstery, clothing, floor wax, textiles, fire fighting foam, and sealants. C8 has been used as an auxiliary agent in the synthesis of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), another chemical compound that is very famous for being used as a non-stick coating for pans and other cookwares due to its low friction and resistance to high temperatures. Both PFOA and PTFE are chemical compounds that have been produced since the 1950s by the American multinational chemical company Dupont under the trademark Teflon. Although PTFE-coated cookwares prevent food from sticking to pans during the cooking process and are easy to clean, people should avoid using them because some studies report the release of PFOA (a highly carcinogenic substance)  at normal cooking temperatures. Its production can cause serious damage to the environment, and the company that patented it has been involved in several scandals related to environmental hazards. To understand this let's look in more detail.

There are studies with animals where researchers have observed a connection between PFOA dose and cancer, delays in physical development and in occasions and sometimes stillbirth. Other studies have shown that this compound can affect growness and affect the immune and hormone systems.  In big animals, tumors have also been found in the pancreas and liver. These effects have been observed in several species which suggest that could potentially cause serious  damage to human life. Some of these symptoms were observed in a big population exposed to the chemical. Finally, although it has not explicitly demonstrated the causal connection between the mentioned symptoms and the presence of PFOA in humans, there is no study that rules them out either, while there is much evidence of the former.

Robert Bilott is a lawyer that in the year 2000 won a court order against DuPont Company that forced it to share the documentation related to PFOA compound. As a consequence of this, it was later found that DuPont was aware of the affections caused by the waste produced by the company and the materials used in their activity. One of these findings was that in 1993 DuPont knew that PFOA can cause cancerous testicular, pancreatic and liver tumors in lab animals and the company began to investigate alternatives. However, because products that contain PFOA generated revenue of up to $1 billion annually, they chose to continue using it.

DuPont has faced fines for the release of PFOA into the environment at its Washington and West Virginia headquarters. As recounted in the movie "DarkWater" and the New York Times article "The Lawyer Who Became DuPont's Worst Nightmare," drinking water was contaminated with PFOA, causing increased levels of the compound in the bodies of residents living in around. A group of scientists concluded in 2011 that there is a likely link between PFOA and kidney cancer, testicular cancer, thyroid disease, high cholesterol, preeclampsia, and ulcerative colitis.

As can be seen, the Dupont company and its PTFE-based products have generated a chain of effects on the environment and on people that still continues to have repercussions, and which, however, has been defended by economic interests. The use of utensils containing PTFE is life threatening both directly and indirectly. Therefore it depends on the people that its use continues to enrich many businessmen who are not interested in dispensing with resources even if it costs the lives of animals, plants and humans.

References:

Christopher Lau, Katherine Anitole, Colette Hodes, David Lai, Andrea Pfahles-Hutchens, Jennifer Seed, Perfluoroalkyl Acids: A Review of Monitoring and Toxicological Findings, Toxicological Sciences, Volume 99, Issue 2, October 2007, Pages 366–394, https://doi.org/10.1093/toxsci/kfm128

Dark Waters (2019 film Directed by Todd Haynes)

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Could friendly inks be a way for the Graphic art industry to get performances and profits?

Friendly inks are products made of natural materials which we can find in our farms and natural landscape, and we must use them to avoid pollution by plastics. Those types of products can help the Graphic art industry to take the opportunity to develop an environmental process to produce friendly vegetable-based oil and produce natural pigments with fruits like strawberries, and vegetables like carrots. This process uses less energy and it can help farmers in the agroindustry. Could we paint and put environmental color in our lives?

Nowadays the Graphic art industry uses inks containing mineral-based additives and oils from petroleum. Those elements and substances have damaged natural resources like rivers, forests and wildlife. In fact, people could not imagine how oil extraction and mining have negative effects on ecosystems and life on the earth. In addition, the manufacture of these additives and oils use a lot of energy and it has combustion operations in its process, this is why a substance such as manganese in these processes emits harmful particles into the environment, affecting our health.

Additives are one of the most important components in inks because it gives protective and adhesion qualities to inks when we print in some materials like plastics, metals, and special papers. Furthermore, some scientists suggested those friendly inks to the Graphic art industry as a way to help the environment and health issues in society, so they can create and print new friendly products. Some advantages about those kinds of inks are that they use less energy in their manufacturing process, as mentioned, air pollution is reduced with substances that are harmful to health and natural resources, and it enhances the use of plant products to increase the peasant economy. An example about this new manufacturing process is that a fruit drying process is carried out with the use of ovens for food, in contrast to a foundry or boiler process that generates more emissions of harmful gasses.

In conclusion, this innovative product can form a real bond with nature, printing new ideas using substances and materials that can reduce pollution and make less damage to wildlife, our lives and the environment, but at the same time help people to get profits working in this economic activity.

2020 - ECOINK, INKS AND PIGMENTS EXTRACTED AND PROCESSED FROM FRUITS AND VEGETABLES.
By: MARIA PAZ ESPEJO MOLINA
BAYRON EDUARDO RIAÑO OICATA
LUISA ALEJANDRA SOSA