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Our live for today and hope for tomorrow attitude will soon catch up to us unless we can clearly recognize and understand the imminent environmental crisis.
For example, our love with automobile has had and will have enormous effects on our air quality. Our obsession with driving has proved lucrative for various corporations affiliated with the automobile industry thus satisfy lust for money. However, the collateral damage of this love or obsession is virtually invisible. Consequently, mobile sources contribute significantly to air pollution. On a daily basis thousands of cars line the roads in Utah, each one doing its part to pollute and contaminate the air we breathe. In fact, driving a car is probably a person's single most polluting daily activity. On a national scale mobile sources are accountable for nearly 75% of carbon monoxide pollution. Statistics show that persons residing in the Weber County area are 90% more prone to develop cancer as a result of poor air quality. For many people this statistic would be horrific but for the ignorant or apathetic, it's just an acceptable part of life (Scorecard). .
Direct industrialization is also detrimental to the environment as we know it. Point sources which include chemical plants, steel mill, oil refineries, power plants, and hazardous waste incinerators literally emit tons of pollutants and toxins into the atmosphere. Our rivers, lakes and oceans have been contaminated and a recent study has shown that nearly 40% of our water is unsuitable for swimming (Scorecard).
War is also catastrophic to the environment. The government squanders billions of dollars in the research and development of sophisticated weaponry and in doing so puts millions of individuals at risk of becoming infected by chemicals used in the production of the weapons. During the first war in Iraq, the Persian Gulf region was transformed into a disaster zone.
