Ladies and gentleman, if you are like me, you have for sure complained a little bit about

this city. That is

like this like that, polluted. But have you really thiught about what smog means? Today I will present you
the misfortune of a nation that had to learn this the hard way.

I’ve prepared short speech about our environment. You probably know something about air pollution
but I’m going to tell you something more.

We often hear phrase: ‘I’ll go out for a breath of fresh air’. But how many of us realize that this has
become irrelevant in today’s world, because the quality of air in our cities is realy bad.

The moment you step out of the house and are on the road you can actually see the air getting polluted;
a cloud of smoke from the exhaust of a bus, car, or a scooter; smoke billowing from a factory chimney,
fly ash generated by thermal power plants, and speeding cars causing dust to rise from the roads.
Natural phenomena such as the eruption of a volcano and even someone smoking a cigarette can also
cause air pollution.

Air pollution is aggravated because of four developments: increasing traffic, growing cities, rapid
economic development, and industrialization. The Industrial Revolution in Europe in the 19th century
saw the beginning of air pollution as we know it today, which has gradually become a global problem.

Smog

The term smog was first used in 1905 by Dr H A Des Voeux to describe the conditions of fog that had
soot or smoke in it. Smog is a combination of various gases with water vapour and dust. A large part of
the gases that form smog is produced when fuels are burnt. Smog forms when heat and sunlight react
with these gases. Smog can affect outlying suburbs and rural areas as well as big cities. Its occurrences
are often linked to heavy traffic, high temperatures, and calm winds. During the winter, wind speeds are
low and cause the smoke and fog to stagnate; hence pollution levels can increase near ground level. This
keeps the pollution close to the ground, right where people are breathing. It hampers visibility and
harms the environment. In fact, in the early part of the 20th century, heavy smog in some parts of
Europe resulted in a decrease in the production of natural vitamin D leading to a rise in the cases of
rickets. Smog causes a misty haze similar to fog, but very different in composition. In fact the word smog
has been coined from a combination of the words fog and smoke. Smog refers to hazy air that causes
difficult breathing conditions.

Acid rain

Another effect of air pollution is acid rain.

The phenomenon occurs when sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides from the burning of fuels combine
with water vapour in the atmosphere and fall as rain or snow. These gases can also be emitted from
natural sources like volcanoes. Acid rain causes extensive damage to water, forest, soil resources and
even human health. Many lakes and streams have been contaminated and this has led to the
disappearance of some species of fish and it also has extensive damage to forests and other forms of
life. It can corrode buildings and be hazardous to human health. Because the contaminants are carried
long distances, the sources of acid rain are difficult to pinpoint and hence difficult to control.
Fly ash

With the boom in population and industrial growth, the need for power has increased manifold. Nearly
73% of world’s population installed power generation, of which 90% is coal-based generation with
diesel, wind, gas, and steam making up the rest. Thermal power generation through coal combustion
produces ash that causes serious environmental problems.

Commonly known as fly ash, these ash particles consist of silica, alumina, oxides of iron, calcium, and
magnesium and toxic heavy metals like lead, arsenic, cobalt, and copper.

THE END

In many countries in the world, steps are being taken to stop the damage to our environment from air
pollution. Scientific groups study the damaging effects on plant, animal and human life. Legislative
bodies write laws to control emissions. Educators in schools and universities teach students, beginning
at very young ages, about the effects of air pollution . But it does’ t help. In the world there are still lots
of people who don’t care about our environment. We should encourage them to protect it. The world is
our home so we should take care of it.

We should encourage our family not to use car so often, whenever possible take their bicycle or use
public transport.

we also should reduce the use of aerosols in the household. and switch-off all the lights and fans when
not required.

It isn’t hard to do. If everyone do it, our environment will become more clear.

he Great Smog of London descended upon the city on Dec. 5, 1952.

A strange fog, yellow-black in color and thicker than even the native residents of the always foggy
London had never seen before. The smell of the fog was different too, a smoky, chemical smell. People
stuck outside as it appeared found themselves gasping for air, unable to breathe the thick, almost
opaque air.

Though they didn’t know it yet, the residents of London were experiencing what has come to be known
as one of the deadliest environmental disasters to date. Before the smog lifted, 12,000 people would be
dead and it would take almost 65 years for experts to figure out why.

The Great Smog of London, a mixture of smoke and fog, was the result of a series of several unfortunate
coincidences.
Several days prior to the great smog, a cold front had moved in which caused Londoners to use their
coal-burning stoves more often than they had been. Thus, smoke was being cranked out of chimneys at
a higher rate.

Additionally, Dec. 5 was a particularly still day. Rather than the usual 5-10 mile per hour gusts that the
riverside city usually experienced, there was almost no wind, causing the smoke from the chimneys to
linger above the streets rather than be blown away.

On top of the chill and the stillness, the city was directly under an atmospheric anticyclone, which
creates a circle of circulating air with an area of dead space in the center. The anticyclone above London
effectively created a bubble around the city that prevented fresh air from getting in and the smog from
escaping.

The Great London Smog was so thick it essentially shut the city down. Visibility was reduced to almost
nothing, causing residents to abandon their vehicles in the middle of the roads. The poor quality of the
air made walking outside almost impossible, as the levels of pollutants had created a toxic atmosphere.

Those who were outside during the fog, nicknamed the “pea-souper” for its yellowish-black color,
suffered numerous health effects. Cases of respiratory tract infections, hypoxia, bronchitis, and
bronchopneumonia were all reported by doctors, and the death toll soon reached 12,000. A later study
revealed that high levels of sulfuric acid in the smog greatly contributed to the deaths.

How exactly the sulfuric acid found its way into the air that day remained a mystery for almost 65 years.
It wasn’t until November 2016 that a global team of scientists announced that they had finally solved
the mystery.

The scientists claimed that the sulfur dioxide entered the atmosphere mostly through coal burning.
“People have known that sulfate was a big contributor to the fog, and sulfuric acid particles were
formed from sulfur dioxide released by coal burning for residential use and power plants, and other
means,” said research project leader Dr. Renyi Zhang, a professor at Texas A&M University.

“But how sulfur dioxide was turned into sulfuric acid was unclear. Our results showed that this process
was facilitated by nitrogen dioxide, another co-product of coal burning, and occurred initially on natural
fog.”

The scientists are now hoping that their research will lead to other environmental breakthroughs and
help solve problems in countries with high air pollution rates, such as China. The fog, though deadly, did
force parliament to look into the impact of humans on air pollution. Just four years after the Great Smog
of London, the U.K. enacted the Clean Air Act of 1956, banning the burning of all pollutants across the
United Kingdom.

Fish rain

The Legend Of Lluvia De Peces: The Traditional “Rain Of Fish” That Befalls This Small Honduras Town —
Or So The Locals Say

Yoro, Honduras is known for little besides some agricultural exports and, oh yeah, their yearly "rain" of
small, silver, fish.

ometime in the 1850s or ’60s, the Spanish missionary Father Jose Manuel Subirana visited Yoro,
Honduras. After he witnessed how poor and hungry the locals were, he prayed for three days and three
nights that God would provide them with food. A dark cloud soon formed in the sky and in answer to his
prayers, fish began to rain from the sky and feed the town. This was the first recorded instance of the
phenomenon of lluvia de pesces or Rain of Fish — at least, that’s how the legend goes.

But according to the modern-day residents of Yoro, the fish rain is very much real continues to this day.
Allegedly, smatterings of little silver fish rain from the sky at least once a year in the months of May or
June. But do these accounts have scientific roots or more mythological ones?

Records Of The Rain Of Fish

Yoro is one of 18 departments in Honduras. The northern-central region is for the most part
impoverished. It has fertile valleys and is largely known for producing grain. But Yoro is most infamously
known for its alleged fish rain.

The locals say that the Rain of Fish happens every year, sometimes more than once, at the end of the
spring. The “lluvia de peces” (literally, “rain of fish”) only occurs after a heavy and devastating storm —
that is, when everyone is huddled inside. But when the storm passes, the villagers know to eagerly grab
their baskets and head into the streets where sardine-like fish have been littered. Weirder still, those
fish have been found to not even be indigenous to Yoro’s local waterways.

The villagers hold that the fish must have come from none other than the sky in a miraculous show of
divine intervention. “It’s a miracle,” one local reported. “We see it as a blessing from God.”
Indeed, for many, it is a blessing as it is the only time of year that they are able to afford and eat fish.

Poverty is still prevalent in the region. Families live in small mud-brick homes. For some, whose usual
diet consists of corn, beans, or other crops they have grown themselves, this is the only time of year
they get to eat fresh seafood. For them, the Rain of Fish is, indeed, a miracle.

“It is a secret that only our Lord knows. It’s a great blessing because it comes from our skies.”

Audelia Hernández Gonzalez, Evangelical pastor in La Unión, Yoro.

The Science Behind The Miracle

In the 1970s, a team of scientists from National Geographic were fortuitously on assignment in Yoro
when they experienced the Rain of Fish.

The team didn’t witness the “rainfall” per se, but they were able to observe the fish on the ground
following a large storm. From this, they provided what is the most likely explanation for the so-called
annual phenomenon.

Curiously, the team realized that all of the washed-up fish were completely blind. The scientists
hypothesized, then, that the fish must live in underground rivers or underwater caves where their
inexposure to light had rendered them blind. They figured then that the intense rainstorms and
subsequent flooding would have forced the subterranean fiAnother theory to explain this rain of fish
posits that waterspouts are responsible.

Waterspouts are funnel-shaped clouds that form over bodies of water and rotate around an axis point
like a whirlwind or a tornado. The waterspout sucks condensation into the air and they are powerful
enough to lift small animals from the water and then carry them onto the mainland. This theory is thin,
though, as waterspouts aren’t known to be able to carry fish long distances and the fact that the fish
that flood Yoro’s streets aren’t from their native waterways.sh above ground.

The fish could possibly come from the Atlantic Ocean, more than 100 miles away, which is way too far
for a waterspout to have traveled with them in tow.

“Fish rain” or “animal rain,” has been reported in other parts of the world too, including Mexico, China,
Thailand, and Australia. Fish and frogs are most common, but there have also been reports of spiders,
birds, snakes, mice, and jellyfish.
There are no photographs of the phenomenon taking place and this is because, according to the
residents, no one would dare go outside during such serious weather. So while there is no photo
evidence of the fish rain as it’s happening, there are photos and videos of the strange, slimy aftermath.

Indeed, considering the lack of witnesses to attest to actually having seen the fish fall from the sky, it
seems flooding rivers or underwater caves may be the most logical explanation for why all these little,
blind, fish have appeared on the streets of Yoro after heavy rain the last 100 or so years. But this
explanation, of course, is far less fun for the residents.

Celebrations For Lluvia De Peces

Whether the people of Yoro don’t know much about these scientific justifications for their lluvia de
peces, or whether they just don’t care, the community continues to take immense pride in their
uncanny local tradition.

“When we identify ourselves, we say, ‘I’m from the fish rain place,'” Luis Antonio Varela Murillo, a man
who has lived in Yoro his whole life once told the New York Times.

Every year the town, which has a population of about 93,000, has a festival to celebrate the Rain of Fish.
The date depends on the first major rainfall.

The subsequent activities include a carnival, a parade and a competition amongst the women for the
title of Senorita Lluvia de Peces — or, Miss Fish Rain. The winner will ride one of the parade floats
dressed as a mermaid.

Many of the locals’ explanation for the Rain of Fish remains close to the story of Father Jose Manuel
Subirana in the 19th century.

“It’s a miracle,” said local Lucio Perez, in 2017. “What we say here in Yoro is that these fish are sent by
the hand of God.”

Locals are prohibited from selling the catch as the fish are believed to be a blessing of the lord. Instead,
the community shares. Those who collect more fish than others redistribute some of their catch to
families who didn’t make it in time to the streets and fields.

The remains of Subirana are buried on Yoro’s central square in the city’s main Catholic Church. The
spiritual wonderment of his tale, and the generous spirit he represented to the people of Yoro, clearly
lives on.