Problem-Solving Essay on Environmental Issue

In recent years, air pollution has been one of the top concerns of Hong Kong. Declining of air quality will lead to the decrease of visibility. The problem is getting more serious. According to the Hong Kong Observatory, low visibility occurred 18% of the time, which is the highest on record, in 2004. And the number of days in visibility which was less than eight km rose to 102 in 2005 from 40 in 1997. Not only does the air pollution have deep influence on environment, also citizens’ health. The Hong Kong Medical Association estimates that air pollution can cause asthma, impair lung function. And raise the risk of cardio-respiratory death by 2 to 3 percent for every increase of 10 micrograms per cubic meter of pollutants. There are three main aspects of the cause of the problem. The first aspect concerns the vehicle emissions. With the increasing number of private cars these years and the slow introduction of environmentally-friendly fuels, the amount of air pollutants released by vehicles keeps increasing, thereby worsen the air quality. Secondly, the improper design of buildings can also account for the problems. Due to the limited land supplied, Hong Kong tends to be densely populated while the buildings are usually designed to be as tall as possible. Therefore, all the buildings form a barrier blocked the ventilation of air. Consequently, pollutants like suspended particles are trapped in air, causing polluted air. Cross-border pollution is the third aspect. There are numerous of factories built in the Guangdong Province in Mainland. The industrial air pollutants such as nitro dioxide can be carried to Hong Kong by winds. More pollutants are brought by the northern monsoon in winter especially. The air quality becomes extraordinarily terrible. To tackle the problem of air pollution, we should focus on the causes and work out effective solutions accordingly. To deal with the first cause, the amount of vehicle emissions should be controlled