Burning Garbage!

So apart from landfills, how else can we get rid of garbage? We could burn it? But this would release countless toxic chemicals into the air including dioxins, furans, and polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). And I can’t even imagine the smoke! If there are toxic chemicals in garbage, the smoke would probably be thick and black, and cover the sky. Beautiful! The article below states that these chemicals that are released can have major side effects including cancer, disorders of the nervous system, and can interfere with child development.

http://www.bcairquality.ca/topics/burning-garbage.html

So let’s say that each country decided to burn their garbage to get rid of it. Would anyone want to visit these destinations anymore? I know that I would never visit a country that featured large black smoke filling the air, and a chance to contract a deadly disease while I am there. Burning garbage would drastically reduce the amount of visitors to an area and probably persuade the residents to even move away. There would be many negative side effects that add onto each other, such as closing of businesses, cancellation of flights due to poor visibility, medical centers would be overflowing with patients with problems caused by the pollution. Sometimes when we visit a certain country we have to get a vaccine that will protect us from a disease or other harmful substance in that area. I don’t think there would be a vaccine to prevent the burning garbage from harming us!

 

This picture is taken from the Responding to Climate Change website, and is from an article that highlights that black carbon is the second most significant contributor to climate change. A major source of black carbon? Landfill fires!

http://www.rtcc.org/black-carbon-second-largest-global-warming-source/

Destinations that market themselves on their beautiful scenery and clean outdoor spaces would have to rethink their strategies! Vacations for tourist who want fresh air and clear blue skies would be no more! Businesses that rely on sunny, warm weather to attract their customers would need to adapt their target markets to consumers who like dull, grey days all year round, and don’t mind thick polluted atmospheres.

Next time I will look into educational opportunities that deal with garbage and pollution and the tourism industry, now that we all have a beautiful picture in our minds of what our world could look like if we burnt out garbage!