http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/05/28/MNC61OOM6M.DTL
Sequoia once a beautiful park is now jeopardize by deadly smog. Forest fires are causing deadly smog. You used to be able to see about 100 miles out, but now the view is foggy. People are comparing Sequoia to the LA sky. There is almost never clean skies anymore. The smog also affects the trees turning the needles an icky yellow. It also affects the seedlings, and puts a lot of stress on them. Also, there is now some trails closed that are to dangerous to walk because of the smog. On top of that, on the government page there is a warning to work there. It worns future employees it is unsafe to work there because of smog. The smog causes heart problems, and cancer. This is very sad.
Reflections: This is very sad I have been to Seguoia, and have many memories there. My family has pictures of them trying to wrap there arms around the Giant Sequoia. People spend a lot of money trying to preserve the national park. It's sad I have strong emotions towards the park.
1. How do you think we can stop the smog in the park?
2. Have you ever been to a national park? How does this make you feel?
3. Do you think other parks should be worried about air pollution?
This is a very scary article. It is surprising that a national park, something people expect to be clean and healthy, is actually as bad air quality wise as a large, populated city. I think that after the pollution was linked to the fires as well as the farming and nearby industry, changes should be made to help keep the area preserved as well as possible. Although it would be very hard for famers and industries to completely change their ways and become more"green", they could at least apply filters to help get rid of some of the excess pollution.
ReplyDeleteTo answer number 3, I think all parks that are near industries or farms should be worried, because the same fate as Sequoia could happen to them. The government should make rules as to how far the farms or industries have to be from the parks to keep them clean and healthy
Extension:
DeleteOpinoin: When I went to Colorado, I went to the Rocky Mountain National Park. The animals, plants, and sights there were so amazing, and it would be awful if a park like that became so polluted. I remember how clear the sky and waters were, and the beauty would be completely depleted if there were citylike amounts of air pollution.
Question 3: Other parks should defniitely be worried. The people in charge of these parks and the EPA should work together to get people to know about these disasters.
This is really bad because if a park is getting destroyed by smog then what is going to happen to national parks if there were to be smog. Hopefully the smog will go away in Sequoia because we can't lose more tree's since we need oxygen and we need the environment to be better. Since the seedlings are getting put with so much stress then maybe we won't have so many trees.
ReplyDeleteQuestion: I will answer question 3 and I think that parks should worry about the air pollution because this could happen to them and have forest fires. The air pollution can also put stress on the seeds too so there will be less trees.
This subject is very dangerous and it seems to be a growing trend around the country. With our recent "drought" I know the risk for a fire was high because of the dryness and it could have happened in forests especially with the dry trees. The forests I pass on the way down to the beach recently had a forest fire and the damage was devastating. I can only imagine the smog hanging over national parks and how devastating it would be to have a national parks ruined by pollution. To answer question number 3 I do think that other parks should be cautious about forest fires because it could easily happen to them. The pollution could shut down their park and then the people would not be able to visit them. If they do not plan ahead then peoples jobs, national parks, and the countries beauty could be destroyed.
ReplyDeleteThis is such a sad story like you said dylan :( I've always wanted to go to the Redwood national park in California and that park is not too far away from this one so I assume that one is also effected by the smog. Visiting the Redwood national park is on my bucket list and untill I have the funds to travel there, I hope it stays alive and is not too effected by the smog or I will cry. As we learned in science class, the smog does not stay there forever. It can be removed by fronts and different weather patterns. Smog holds pollutants and CO2 is a pollutants and plants and trees need CO2 to live. So the plants and trees in the parks get a little extra amount of CO2 whenever the smog settles in. This is bad for humans and animals, but as for the trees this may be a good thing. This may not be all a bad thing, and I think it could be half and half.
ReplyDeleteTo answer number 1: I think we can stop the smog by having laws that prevent factories from producing certian levels of pollution, and to stop having wildfires if it is us that are causing them. Hopefully Obama can help this sitiuation because it is hurting our national parks and many other people too
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete