Our lungs are made up of about 300
million capsules, or alveoli, and they are clustered around an alveolar
stem like grapes. We have lots of these clusters in our lungs and we
need them all to provide the surface area needed to come into contact
with the air. If you flatten the alveoli of our lungs out into two
dimensions, they would cover a tennis court. That is about how much
surface area is wrinkled up in our lungs. Each alveolus is lined by a
surfactant that reduces surface tension so that the air sticks to it.
Immediately carbon dioxide rushes out of our bodies, oxygen and whatever
else is in the air rushes in, and haemoglobin molecules in red blood
cells grab on to the oxygen so that each beat of our heart can transfer
that oxygen to every part of our bodies. And when you exhale you do not
exhale all the air in your lungs. If you did that your lungs would
collapse. About half of the air stays in your lungs even when you
exhale.
The point I am trying to make is that you cannot draw a
line that marks where the air ends and I begin. There is no line. The
air is stuck to us and circulating through our bodies. We are air. It is
a part of us and it is in us…
We think we are an intelligent
creature, but what intelligent creature, knowing the role that air plays
in our lives keeping us alive and connecting us to the past and into
the future, would then proceed to use air as a garbage can and refuse to
pay for putting carbon and all our pollutants into the atmosphere? We
have much to reflect on the way that we use this sacred substance. It
hurts me when I see young couples walking with a baby in a stroller and
the baby’s nose is right at the level of the exhaust pipes of our cars.
You might as well put a hose on the exhaust pipe and pump that stuff
right into the baby’s body. Why are 15% of children in Canada now
suffering with asthma? We are using the air as a toxic dump. We are air.
Whatever we do to the air we do to ourselves.
Wednesday, August 13, 2014
David Suzuki, Air, and Intelligence
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Thanks for such a wonderful post regarding the pollution because being working as a research paper writer in one of the leading online research paper writing website i too had thought, that the pollution has been getting increased in the world on each and every day. The very main reason for such increase in pollution in the world is because of the carbon monoxide and carbon di oxide released from the factories, industries, vehicles and dusts. So, at least hereafter the people in the world should take some steps in a severe manner so that we could be able to reduce the pollution to a smaller extent.
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