Dear next president, air pollution is a big problem. Many people in the U.S. or even the world don’t think about pollution too much. People don’t pay attention to to big causes of pollution in the world or effects it has on them or the environment. In a recent article from The Economist called ‘Breathtaking; Air Pollution’ it says “In London, during daytime, the concentration of NO{-2} exceeded the WHO’s limit by 41%”. Air pollution is bad because it causes people to have bad health and to live shorter lives.

People don’t realize that things they may do on a daily basis affect them and other people greatly in certain places. Things such as smoking cigarettes can harm humans and many other animals. It is a big factor of air pollution considering the amount of people that smoke everyday. It can hurt people by contaminating the air or harm people just directly from smoking cigarettes. In the same article from The Economist named ‘Breathtaking; Air Pollution’, it says; “ SMOKING a whole pack of cigarettes in a day once or twice a year would certainly make someone feel ill, but probably would not kill them. Smoking even one cigarette every day for decades, though might do so. That is the difference between acute and chronic exposure, and it is a difference most people understand. What they may not understand is that the same thing applies to air pollution”. Smoking contributes to air pollution a lot. The polluted air is then inhaled by humans and harms them. Air pollution affects people's health and just overall isn't good for anything.

Air pollution causes many people to have health problems and not live as long. Polluted air is causing people to die early because of the health problems they receive from the air. In another article by The Economist, called ‘Cleaning up the data; Air pollution’ it states; “The city’s air pollution exacts an equivalent toll on each resident, cutting short the lives of nearly 10,000 people each year and damaging the lungs, hearts and brains of children”. Air pollution harms children's important organs and cuts people's lives short. Air pollution is just an effect of carelessness. People are dying earlier than they should because a lot of people just don’t care about pollution.

There are ways we can reduce air pollution. The things we do to cause air pollution may affect the future, but we can help reduce it. In a recent article by The Economist called ‘Of woods and trees; Washington state’s carbon tax’ it says; “ ASK an economist how best to reduce pollution, and the chances are that they will recommend taxing carbon emissions”. Taxing carbon emissions could help reduce air pollution greatly in America. You the president could set carbon taxes on large companies that produce a lot of carbon emissions such as factories that produce a lot of smoke. This will help reduce pollution and will save lives in the long run. Another thing that you could have people do is make commercials about stopping smoking and how it affects people.

In conclusion, air pollution is harmful to humans and the Earth. It causes people to live shorter lives and damages people’s health. We humans cause the air pollution, doing the stuff we do every day, but we don’t realize it. But we can change that.

Sincerely, Nate B