We can’t see it. This poison that claims seven million lives annually. It is an invisible killer that makes itself seem less dangerous than it actually is. It lures its victim in and in a blink of an eye, a live is lost. We are both the killer and victim.

Air pollution is created as a byproduct of industrial emissions, fossil fuels, fires, and sources of transportation. All of these are essential in human life. The car that we depend on to take us to work. The friday night bonfires that toast our marshmallows and graham crackers.  The factory that we pass on our way home is a producer of the metals used to shape our laptops. Day by day, it seems like the amount of pollution created by these things appear insignificant. However, the anthropogenic sources of air pollution create compounds that eat away at the ozone leaving us more vulnerable to UV Radiation. This does not even account for the respiratory issues and damge to reproductive organs, kidneys, livers, spleens, nervous systems, eyes, noses, and throats.

While it doesn’t seem like that we can live without our car and material goods, we have the ability to be conscious about the harm that we cause. This means saving those smores for the oven and carpooling with friends and family. Or it can be choosing to buy the electric car and not replacing our iphones everytime the new one comes out. Our earth is finite and we only have one of this beautiful, luminous planet. Earth is the real victim here and but we do not need to be the killers if we are conscious our decisions to protect it.