Introduction
The issue of environmental pollution is widespread around the world. People attempt to change the situation with their forces, but constantly developing manufacturing and production branches might disturb the ecological crisis. This problem touched upon the citizenship of Brooklyn, New York, people are concerned about the health and well-being of their children. Due to multiplying businesses, the environment became extremely polluted with gases and smoke from manufacturing. The local citizens cannot manage this problem alone; they seek help from federal organizations in the United States. It is worth mentioning that pollution’s effects influence public health; thus, the problem is national and should be addressed for a solution. It is vital to determine the issue, explain the situation and manage it for an answer to the elected official, identifying the specific governmental program to provide relief.
Issue
Brooklyn is a famous place with excellent sights, and many tourists dream about visiting this place. Few tourists know about the internal problems of Brooklyn, but the one is entirely unbearable for those who are located in the city. Air and water pollution, along with day-and-night noise, disturb people constantly. The problem of pollution is a concern in multiple areas of the U.S. For instance, districts of New York are extremely dirty, and citizens struggle with polluted air. It is worth mentioning that people have to waste their time and financial resources on purifying air and water and buying special cleaners. Many citizens cannot afford to purchase such tools, which becomes a concern for public health. People are afraid to drink water from their house taps, but some citizens have no other choice because of expensive cleaning equipment.
Factories and production facilities multiply every year, usually, these facilities are located outside the city. Indeed, as there is no place to build factories outside, businesses have to be inside the city. It touches ordinary citizens, as most of these factories are in dormitory areas. It was investigated that Brooklyn’s air, water, light pollution, and noise levels are higher than average (Numbeo, 2022). It is connected directly to the effects of factories’ activity.
Moreover, schools and kindergartens are nearby; mothers do not allow their children to go for a walk as they are afraid for their health. People attempt to find another way to deal with the situation; some citizens leave the city and go to the countryside. However, some people cannot leave their house for various reasons. Some are attached to children, and some have a job that requires constantly being in the city.
It might seem that the problem is affecting citizens of Brooklyn directly, but pollution might cause more significant issues in terms of worldwide safety. For instance, emissions and gases damage the ozone layer of the Earth, and emerging factories create deforestation, creating the greenhouse effect. Due to the delay of thermal radiation on the planet, the Earth’s average temperature begins to increase. It results in the melting of glaciers at the poles and expands the world ocean level. Scientists are already observing the constant flooding of some coastal zones. If the greenhouse effect is not stopped, many land areas will be flooded, eliminating animals and plants. Therefore, the problem is widespread, and it can affect every person.
Effects of Pollution on Citizenship
Health effects and medical considerations are vital in exploring the consequences of pollution on human health. It is critical to address the influence of pollution on people’s health, as it concerns the whole community or even the nation. It is known that pollution provokes many diseases, including skin and lung illnesses. Moreover, many people are infected with covid-19, which aggravates the health of their lungs and immunity overall. For instance, effects of covid-19 include decreased immunity, lung thrombosis, chronic lung illnesses, and other harmful consequences. It can affect the nervous system, provoking severe diseases such as confusion and strokes (Iadecola et al., 2020). It can be worsened by dust and harmful microelements that the person breathes in the air.
Furthermore, air pollution is one of the severe types of pollution because people constantly breathe, and toxic elements penetrate their organisms. For instance, a recent study has shown that air pollution might cause developmental neurotoxicity, leading to disorders such as autism spectrum disorder (Costa et al., 2020). This issue is hazardous for children and future mothers. They instantly receive dozes of harmful elements which impact the development of children.
Moreover, the violation of fine light pollution and noise might provoke problems with sleeping and cause insomnia. For example, many factories are located near schools and universities, and accordingly, pupils and students live nearby. The inadequate level of noise and light pollution makes sleeping unbearable. Indeed, it is vital to have complete rest and healthy sleeping at night, especially for students and children. Overall, the health of children is the government’s concern, and it is vital to solving the issue to prevent the development of diseases in future generations.
Furthermore, citizens of Brooklyn face problems with drinking water and food. It becomes impossible to wash vegetables and fruits in the usual tap water, as it contains many dangerous elements. In addition, many mothers are afraid to cook for their children using house water. Children and older adults are the most vulnerable targets for the effects of pollution. Citizens appeal to volunteer organizations and eco-activists to seek outside help. However, the people of Brooklyn might lack proper facilities and governmental authority to change the situation without external contribution. Therefore, citizens strive to find an authorized personality to appeal to and address environmental issues for urgent solving.
Explanation of Policies and Actions
The primary concern of citizens in Brooklyn is the city reformation. It will enable people to live calmly without day-and-night noise and constant disturbance from factories. It is necessary to manage proper land usage and prohibit the development of production facilities within dormitory areas. One of the possible solutions is the reformation of factories’ buildings and offering to move these facilities outside the city. Reviewing and reshaping factories’ locations in dormitory areas will allow people to stay in their native houses without forceful moving to the countryside. Furthermore, people will not spend money on expensive purifiers for air and water and save most of their salary for more important things. It is not right to make costly equipment a necessity for daily life.
Moreover, it might be an excellent decision to run a campaign on purifying the environment in the districts of Brooklyn. Probably, citizens could organize it themselves, but the lack of authority is the issue stopping people from taking practical action. A small group of people is not enough to argue with large corporations and their factories. Therefore, people may lack an effective leader who will gather citizens and make a solid statement to protect the environment. Accordingly, people are not happy with the rights disparities in front of ordinary citizens and businesses. The forces are not equal, and unfortunately, people lack the authority to manifest themselves. Thus, the situation might be shifted to defend human rights properly with the contribution of an efficient leader.
It is possible to propose addressing the elected official through an advocacy letter with the invocation to action. It is necessary because the power of ordinary people is not enough to resolve the problem. Therefore, the policy will involve attracting an official who deals with environmental issues within Brooklyn and then appealing to the governmental organization to receive an effective resolution. The offered policy will consider citizens’ interests and the claims of business organizations. It is proposed to move factories away from living areas by appealing to the federal agency under an elected official’s leadership. Accordingly, the factories might negotiate with the government and decide how to reconstruct the production safely.
Appeal to Benjamin Solitaire, an elected candidate from Brooklyn, New York. He is highly concerned about his native land’s faith and the United States’ ecological conditions. Solitaire represents a person who is not satisfied with the current environmental situation in the city. He has been working for Participatory Budgeting for several years and currently focuses on city planning. Furthermore, he led policy initiatives in Brooklyn Food Coalition and represented a progressive standpoint on the issue.
It is essential to denote why this elected official should help resolve the problem. It is known that Benjamin Solitaire is participating in the election for the position of Brooklyn’s city council (Glesby, 2021). His contribution to Brooklyn’s ecological situation might benefit his job, as he will enlist support from Brooklyn’s citizens in case Solitaire helps solve environmental issues. Probably, many people will gratefully perceive his facilitation and vote for him.
There are several ways how the candidate can help people in several directions. For instance, he is a proficient specialist in land reformation, so it might be helpful to create a particular reformation program to move factories from dormitory areas to enable people to live freely. Moreover, Solitaire supported non-commercial development and contributed to creating more affordable living conditions (Glesby, 2021). Solitaire manifested as a supportive leader, and there is a suggestion that people might trust his reliability.
There is one more method of receiving relief and resolving the issue of polluted air. In 2016, a group of scientists from the Netherlands generated a specific invention to purify street air. This tool is a giant vacuum cleaner, which is assumed to be located on the roof of the building (Envinity Group, 2021). The company which produces this equipment provides agriculture scopes, airports, and heavy industry with cleaning facilities to control pollution and harmful emissions (Envinity Group, 2021). The invention received an official patent and is ready to implement in city industries. Citizens of Brooklyn cannot appeal to the company and purchase these unique cleaners, as the process requires official negotiating and involves complicated processes of delivery and setting. Therefore, it might be possible to deal with Envinity Group through Benjamin Solitaire to receive the governmental approval and funding for several items.
Governmental Agency
One more way to resolve the situation is to appeal to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). It is a federal organization that seeks to control and resolve environmental issues that affect United States citizens. EPA is responsible for solving pollution problems in regions of the United States; it has headquarters offices around America. Moreover, the concern of the EPA is to measure and control organizations following established standards on pollution and the explosion of harmful elements.
EPA is capable of executing control over businesses and factories. EPA has multiple acts and regulations published, and it enables citizens to use the federal rule as an argument. For instance, the Clean Water Act of 1970 is one of the most prominent documents to prove inconsistencies created by organizations, if there are any (EPA, 2021). Moreover, the EPA’s mission is to promptly protect and promote public health and the environment, preventing the spreading risks connected to pollution and the explosion of harmful elements. It is essential to identify which issues EPA addresses and what environmental problems it can solve:
The specific way to provide relief for people is the cooperation with the Environmental Protection Agency volunteers jointly with Benjamin Solitaire. He can address severe issues to be resolved by the EPA; it will generate a strong reason for the invocation of official volunteers. There is an assumption that Brooklyn’s people cannot do it efficiently solely due to the absence of authority in front of many business organizations.
Moreover, many people appeal to EPA and ask for help, so the address might take a long time to be reviewed. With the help of an effective leader, it is hoped that the organization will scrutinize the issue faster. Accordingly, companies that run businesses in Brooklyn are meant to move their factories away from dormitory areas of the city through a unique program of land reformation created by Solitaire following EPA acts and recommendations. It is hoped that the process will not negatively influence the businesses, as there are many opportunities to preserve the productivity of manufacturing operations outside the city.
Furthermore, there is a way to avoid moving factories from their locations. For example, some governmental policies suggest multiple factories and production facilities shift to ecological manufacturing (Zou et al., 2020). It assumes the usage of recyclable products, substituting gas power with solar batteries, and many other actions to improve the environmental situation. Therefore, it can become the action that provides relief for businesses and citizens.
Conclusion
Overall, there is a significant pollution problem from businesses in Brooklyn, New York. It was investigated that citizens are concerned about the pollution, which affects people dangerously. Indeed, there are specific methods to overcome the problem; as the power of the people is not enough to solve the issue, it is necessary to appeal to the elected official. Benjamin Solitaire represents the figure of an elected city council; he majors in city and land reformation. With his initiative, it becomes possible to reorganize the production safely for citizens. Moreover, appealing and cooperating with the EPA is one more way to contribute to Brooklyn’s ecological situation. Therefore, many methods exist to resolve the problem jointly with the facilitation of the elected official and help from the governmental organization.
References
Costa, L. G., Cole, T. B., Dao, K., Chang, Y. C., Coburn, J., & Garrick, J. M. (2020). Effects of air pollution on the nervous system and its possible role in neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders. Pharmacology & Therapeutics, 210, 107. Web.
Envinity Group. (2021). State-of-the-art air purification system. Web.
EPA. (2021). U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. US EPA. Web.
Glesby, L. (2021). Crowded field competes to represent Brooklyn waterfront in city council. Gotham Gazette. Web.
Iadecola, C., Anrather, J., & Kamel, H. (2020). Effects of COVID-19 on the nervous system. Cell, 183(1), 16–27. Web.
Numbeo. (2022). Pollution in Brooklyn. Web.
Zou, L., Liu, Y., Wang, J., & Yang, Y. (2021). An analysis of land use conflict potentials based on ecological-production-living function in the southeast coastal area of China. Ecological Indicators, 122, 107-297. Web.