Page 519 - Essencials of Sociology

492 CHAPTER 15 Social Change and the Environment

offender. This country now emits more carbon dioxide than does the United States
(Rogers and Evans 2011). Of the world’s forty most polluted cities, thirty-six are in
China (World Bank 2007:Figure 5). Nine thousand chemical plants line the banks of
China’s Yangtze River, turning this major waterway into a snaking industrial sewer
(Zakaria 2008). Like the Russians before them, Chinese authorities imprison those
who dare to speak out about pollution (Larson 2011; Wong 2011). As China secures
its place in the industrialized world, its leaders will inevitably place more emphasis
on controlling pollution. However, the harm done to our planet in the meantime is
incalculable.
With limited space to address this issue, let’s focus on fossil fuels, the energy shortage,
and the rain forests.
Fossil Fuels and Global Warming. Burning fossil fuels to run motorized vehicles,
factories, and power plants has been especially harmful to our Earth. Figure 15.3
acid rain rain containing sulfuric illustrates how burning fossil fuels produces acid rain, which kills animal and plant life.
and nitric acids (burning fossil fuels The harm is so extensive that fish can no longer survive in some lakes in Canada and
release sulfur dioxide and nitrogen the northeastern United States.
oxide that become sulfuric and Global warming is producing many problems for Earth’s inhabitants, but with the
nitric acids when they react with limited space we have, in the following Thinking Critically section, we will consider just
moisture in the air)
one of them.

FIGURE 15.3 Acid Rain

Gases react with
moisture in the air
Acidic gases (sulfur to form acid rain
dioxide and (sulfuric and
nitrogen oxide) nitric acids)
are released into
the atmosphere

Acid rain kills plant
life and pollutes rivers
and streams

Source: By the author.