One of the non-profit Asia Society’s most poignant acts was photographing the same spot in the capital so outsiders can judge for themselves what’s happening, at least visually. An air pollution index illuminates what the eyes can’t. A big part of the site is devoted to what occurred during the Olympics, when Chinese authorities recreated their own Potemkin Village to delude the world they’d gotten a handle on air pollution. The effort failed miserably.
Notice that much of the new information here halted right around the Olympics. You can go to the government’s Ministry of Environment for their spin. We’ll have much later. For now, we’re ecstatic that the Asia Society made contact here in the original Smogtowncooker – Los Angeles, California.
* When it comes to major California solar projects, these are not your parents’ environmental watchdogs anymore. From outside agitators to inside-the-system players, the green world is shifting, or shrinking. From the L.A. Times:
“April Sall gazed out at the Mojave Desert flashing past the car window and unreeled a story of frustration and backroom dealings … “We got dragged into this because the big groups were standing on the sidelines and we were watching this big conservation legacy practically go under a bulldozer,” said Sall, the (Wildlands Conservancy) director. “We said, ‘We can’t be silent anymore.’ ” Similar stories can be heard across the desert Southwest. Small environmental groups are fighting utility-scale solar projects without the support of what they refer to as “Gang Green,” the nation’s big environmental players. Local activists accuse the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council, Defenders of Wildlife, the Wilderness Society and other venerable environmental groups of acquiescing to the industrialization of the desert because they believe large-scale solar power is essential to slowing climate change …”
* Hydraulic fracturing is greatly understated here in California, according to the Times:
“State regulators say existing environmental laws protect the state’s drinking water but acknowledge they have little information about the scale or practice of fracking in California, the fourth-largest oil producing state in the nation. That has created mounting anxiety in communities from Culver City to Monterey, where residents are slowly discovering the practice has gone on for years, sometimes in densely populated areas. “The communities have been left on their own to figure this out,” said Lark Galloway-Gilliam, executive director of Community Health Councils, a health advocacy group that sued a Texas oil company and Los Angeles County over oil extraction near Baldwin Hills. “We are looking to our regulatory agencies to protect us, and they are scratching their heads and turning a blind eye …”
The Obama Administration isn’t ignoring the potential air pollution effects of fracking. It’s enacted rules … that will be applied post-election in a few years. MSNBCarticle.
* Shot across the bow in a looming, green-energy trade war or political theater designed for domestic consumption. You decide. From the New York Times:
“In a significant decision involving one of the world’s most sought-after industries, the U.S. is gearing up to impose duties on imports of Chinese solar panels after finding evidence that China’s government provided illegal subsidies to its export manufacturers. In a preliminary finding released Tuesday, the Commerce Department said it would start levying duties ranging from 2.9% to 4.73% on Chinese imports of solar panels, as well as panels made in other countries that have Chinese-made solar cells …”
* In case you missed the nostaligic, KCET article about “Smog in a Can” that yours truly appeared in, read on:
“ … In 1957 the “Smog in a Can” was introduced by Hollywood actor Carleton Young, best known for his line from the movie The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, “This is the West sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.” Establishing the Los Angeles Smog Corporation, Young and associate Hal Tamblin set about canning smog in colorfully designed labels for mass distribution. According to the label: “Genuine Los Angeles Smog. This is the smog used by famous Hollywood stars. Contains hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides, sulfer dioxide, organic oxides, aldehydes, formaldehydes. “Made in Los Angeles by Angels. To insure freshness and purity keep container tightly sealed. Beware of imitations! Accept none but the pure Los Angeles Smog. “No pollutants or irritants removed. Packed for Los Angeles Smog Corp,, Los Angeles 28, California …”
Of course, you don’t a story to learn about the sociological despair bottled up in those cans. You can just read our book, Smogtown: the Lung-Burning History of Pollution in Los Angeles. What’s a gimmick like packaged air pollution without the context, after all?
Bumbling hitmen. Burning corpses. A threatened son. Life in hiding. Jerry Schneiderman’s orderly world evaporated when his business partner was executed by an assassin in 1979 Los Angeles, and the buzzard-eyed ringleader came for him. Though the killers behind the murder-for-hire corporation were nabbed, the trauma annihilated Jerry’s family and strip-mined his trust. Recovery only came years later with Jerry’s improbable rebirth as a prank-loving activist who defended the weak by milking his scars.
* “In Chip Jacobs true-crime, The Ascension of Jerry, we are whisked back to LA’s Kodachrome world of the Seventies. Through the eyes of the protagonist, Jerry, the “bright colors and greens of summer” quickly change to the real life black-and-whites of mayhem and murder. But, this is not just another Hollywood Whodunit. In the end we find it is really about one man’s search and struggle to find his own personal truths and redemption. Well written and highly recommended.” –Steve Hodel, LAPD Hollywood Homicide detective (ret.) and bestselling author of “Black Dahlia Avenger: A Genius for Murder.”
* ”Jacobs delivers a seductive tour of an L.A. rife with murder-for-hire plots, political corruption and sociopathic schemes. Against this backdrop the young Schneiderman comes of age, to ultimately emerge as the last man standing. A terrific book – I couldn’t put it down! — Stephen Jay Schwartz, L.A. Times bestselling author of Boulevard and Beat.
* “Chip Jacobs’ chops as an accomplished newspaperman are on brilliant display in The Ascension of Jerry, a delightfully off-kilter true-crime tale of a hero (sorta) who is neither especially loathsome nor lovable … maybe just lucky to get out alive. Jacobs’ prose is intimate, darkly funny, and crisp as he follows the twisted path that leads SoCal businessman Jerry Schneiderman through a series of weird events – including crossing paths with some dumb-ass hitmen and some burning corpses – only to emerge as a merry prankster with a jones for social activism. (If you haven’t yet deduced that this book is not your Mama’s supermarket true-crime trash, then you’re doing it wrong. But here’s the thing: Jacobs’ ear for a good story is pitch perfect, and he tells it with all the smoggy pastel colors of post-noir LA. The Ascension of Jerry isn’t an old song in a new key, but an entirely new song about crime, fear, and a weird kind of redemption that could only happen in the general vicinity of Hollywood. Jacobs is a genuine writer, not a wannabe scribbler. He knows what makes us keep turning pages. So for those few true-crime readers who like their mayhem served up in a sumptuous story, seek this one out.” — Ron Franscell, celebrated true-crime author.
* a “wildly unpredictable mix of darkly humorous and highly dangerous events“— ”Killer Prose: With The Ascension of Jerry, Writer Chip Jacobs Reveals his Wildest Tale Yet “- Pasadena Weekly, March 23, 2012 (Note: the “murder corporation” referenced in this article was located near but not in the old Bullocks department store in Pasadena).
(Note: some bookstores are still listing incorrect information about the book that we expect to be remedied soon. Some minor production issues in the book will also be corrected soon.)
As the Los Angeles region’s smog control agency this year begins to update its plan to meet health standards for air pollution in this sprawling metropolis, there’s scant interest from the press or public for that matter.
Lack of interest may well be warranted, even though the remaining health toll of smog—as many as 23,000 deaths per year in California, most of them in the Los Angeles region—point to as much need to meet health standards today as at any time during the region’s historical effort to cleanse its skies. Throw global warming into the mix and cutting emissions from cars, buses, trucks, trains, planes, ships, power plants, and oil refineries is even that much more important.
While the regional smog control agency—known as the South Coast Air Quality Management District—can write plans, it can do little today to enforce them. After almost 70 years of ratcheting down allowable emissions from stationary sources—largely consisting of industries—today more than 70 percent of the remaining pollution comes from cars, trucks, and other mobile sources over which the agency has practically no power. Add shipping, refining, and pumping the petroleum products needed to fuel mobile sources, and you’re close to 75 percent of the pollution. Much of the rest comes from homes and small businesses not really capable of following complicated regulations, but that instead need to use clean paints, cleaning fluids, and other products that meet clean air standards.
At the state level, the California Air Resources Board largely has power over these consumer products and over many mobile sources—particularly cars, trucks, and off-road equipment used in construction and farming. Yet, it finds itself mostly in the same boat as the SCAQMD. It has reduced the amount of allowable pollution from these sources to levels that are unlikely to get much lower, without moving to electric cars, which is the board’s plan.
But here’s the rub. Given the nature of the economy, work, and how Californians live, electric cars are not very practical for many folks. They cost too much and have a limited driving range, generally no more than 100 miles on a charge, and that’s being generous. Most people just can’t afford to have an electric car to commute in and a gasoline-powered model for weekend trips to see Grandma and get the kids to soccer tournaments.
Enter the plug-in hybrid vehicle, which combines the two technologies under one hood, with batteries and an electric motor for short-range driving and a gasoline engine for longer trips. That gives hope, but yikes it sure is expensive. The Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid is priced at more than $40,000. No wonder sales have been disappointing. I don’t know about you, but with kids to educate and a mortgage to make I’ll cut my emissions by taking public transit or walking before shelling out that kind of money. Evidently, I’m not alone.
And that’s reality, which points to another reality about political organization in Smogtown.
SCAQMD and CARB can talk and throw money at clean-fueled and electric vehicles, but that alone will never meet air quality standards or achieve the 85 percent reduction in greenhouse gases needed to stabilize the world’s climate. Instead, the major drivers of these emissions are land-use patterns, transportation, and the way the economy is organized. Components made hither and yon are shipped around the world for assembly on the global production line and then shipped to market by a network of ships, trains, planes, and trucks, emitting air pollutants and greenhouse gases all the way. Same goes for food. Most of us still have to commute to offices or travel to meetings, despite the miracle of modern telecommunications and information technology.
So the question is not what the agencies should put in their clean air plans, but instead whether they are the ones that should be writing the plans to begin with? Circumstances have changed and that requires rethinking how government is organized.
Indeed, the history of Smogtown shows that at various points achieving future progress on air pollution necessitated reorganizing government agencies. First, county air pollution agencies were formed. Then lawmakers created the statewide Air Resources Board to tackle Detroit automakers who for almost two decades eluded local cleanup efforts. Then regional air pollution control agencies—like the SCAQMD were formed—to broaden power over air pollution sources. Each of these reinventions of government brought some progress.
Here in Smogtown we posit it’s time for more reinvention. Here’s the plan.
First, move control of air pollution from stationary sources to newly formed county air pollution control offices, which would be closer to the people and guided by elected rather than appointed and unaccountable officials. Counties could run air pollution control monitoring networks as well. Samples of air needed to monitor compliance with health standards and to enforce rules for factories and other businesses could be analyzed by one of the four counties in SCAQMD’s jurisdiction on a contract basis after that county assumes control of the SCAQMD’s lab under this reorganization plan.
Second, shift the rulemaking function for stationary sources to the California Air Resources Board. There are not many more rules left anyway, and the state Air Board already is developing rules for greenhouse gas emissions that can and should go hand-and-hand with any additional air pollution control rules that are possible.
Third, transfer clean-fuel vehicle monies administered by the SCAQMD to the transportation authorities in each county, as well as other funds doled out for so-called mobile source projects. These agencies are closer to the people than the unelected officials at SCAQMD in Diamond Bar and are in a better position to integrate clean-fueled vehicles and related fueling facilities into the transportation infrastructure.
Finally, hand over to the Southern California Association of Governments the job of developing future air pollution cleanup plans. It has broader participation from local governments and more expertise when it comes to land-use, transportation, and economics—the major remaining drivers of air pollution and key factors influencing greenhouse gases.
In reorganizing air pollution control in Smogtown, Sacramento lawmakers should reiterate that SCAG needs to develop plans that will cut greenhouse gases, as well as air pollution. They also should give the state Air Resources Board clear oversight authority over SCAG and the power to cut off state money to cities that do not follow the regional planning organization’s blueprints.
This will get attention from city halls, the media, and residents when it comes to land-use and transportation in a way that today’s SCAQMD doesn’t. In fact, I bet most people in city halls across SCAQMD’s area—as is the case with most residents and news reporters—barely know the agency’s name, much less what it does.
Time to get busy! Let’s get organized for the new realities of air pollution and global warming to improve life in Smogtown!
* Oh, Al. Here’s a story you probably haven’t seen about the man who might’ve been president in 2000 and the tech titan that at one point had more money in its kitty than the U.S. Treasury. We are big supporters of Gore here. At the same time, human nature can make hypocrites out of all of us. Interesting life for an anti-global warming crusader when he becomes an entrepreneur.
- From Newsweek’s Daily Beast: ” … Gore promises to be a topic of debate when shareholders gather in Cupertino on Thursday for Apple’s annual meeting. The issue, however, won’t be his compensation as an Apple board member or the atrocious, shameful treatment of those assembling Apple products on the former vice president’s watch. Instead, Apple shareholders are being asked to consider a resolution sponsored by a conservative, D.C.-based think tank that is accusing the company of letting Gore manipulate its policies for his own personal gain. The initiative is being championed by Tom Borelli, who wears the title of Free Enterprise Project Director at the National Center for Public Policy Research. Gore’s supposed crime? Near the end of 2009, Apple resigned from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce over the chamber’s high-profile opposition to “cap and trade” legislation then being debated in Congress—legislation that would have used economic incentives to cap carbon emissions. The chamber also fought the EPA’s efforts to (finally) limit greenhouse gases and ran a series of ads questioning the science behind global warming.
* From the U.S. Department of Duh: Latinos as a whole face a disproportionate share of air pollution health effects. Let’s see. It couldn’t have anything to do with general poverty that hamstrings where many Hispanics can live or go to school, could it? Freeways, factories and other places that cough up emissions are unsalutory to say the least. Anyway, somebody was paid to write up a study, or summarize a bunch of them, and promulgate the findings and this is a smog blog. Posionous air and health effects have been linked at the hip for half a century and counting now.
- From Emgazine: ” … According to the National Coalition of Hispanic Health & Human Services Organizations (COSSMHO), 80 percent of U.S. Latinos (compared with 65 percent of non-Hispanic U.S. blacks and 57 percent of non-Hispanic U.S. whites) live in so-called “non-attainment” areas where ambient air quality is worse than what the federal government considers safe. “Although Hispanics in general live as long as or longer than non-Hispanic whites, what morbidity data are available reveal that the quality of that life is severely impaired by a variety of chronic conditions, such as asthma,” adds the coalition …”
* Here’s a related story correlating exposure to diesel fumes with cancer. This subject, in our opinion, deserves a lot of scientific attention considering the ongoing debate about fuels in a warming world.
- From Ecowatch: ” … The investigators selected underground mines for their study setting because the heavy equipment used in these mines frequently runs on diesel fuel. In the fairly enclosed environments of these mines, exhaust builds up in the air to levels considerably higher than those found in other occupational settings—like trucking depots or shipyards—and many times higher than the air inhaled by the general population. The investigators selected only non-metal mines because of their characteristically low levels of other exposures that may be related to lung cancer risk, such as radon, silica, and asbestos. Health outcomes associated with exposure to diesel exhaust were reported in two complementary papers. The first documented the risk of dying from any cause, with an emphasis on lung cancer, using data from the full study population (the cohort study). The second (the case-control study) reported on the lung cancer deaths in the cohort study. In the case-control study, investigators obtained detailed information on lung cancer risk factors, including smoking, employment in other high-risk jobs, and history of other respiratory diseases. Both papers reported an exposure-response relationship with higher risks at increased exposure levels …”
If you want to check our cynical meter, please do by reading our book, Smogtown: the Lung-Burning History of Pollution in Los Angeles. Pages there are splashed with furrowed brows from the 1950s on about the biological consequences of breathing toxic-laced air.
Let’s get to it, folks. Clean skies are a wastin’.
* Terrific commentary in KCET about how California dug its way out of a toxic, car industry/lifestyle fanned pollution epidemic through passage of landmark federal legislation opposed by a lot of big industrial states — the carmaking kind. (Cue “I’m shocked” smirk here from “Casa Blanca.”)
“Perhaps the key single factor is the 1970 federal Clean Air Act. “It was such a huge change in the law,” Larry Pryor says, nominating the Act as a Law That Shaped L.A, “because local controls were erratic and sensitive to industry costs rather than health costs.”Pryor is an associate professor at the USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism** and a prize-winning former editor and environmental reporter for the Los Angeles Times. During a recent interview, Pryor recounted the back story that led to the passage of the federal Clean Air Act, as well as the related creation of the California Air Resources Board to administer the Act at the state level. Signed into law by President Richard Nixon on December 31, 1970, eight months after the first Earth Day, the Clean Air Act set comprehensive emissions limits and allowed the newly established EPA to regulate seven harmful chemicals. The Act and its federal bully pulpit led to the expanded influence – or in some cases the creation of – local agencies such as the California Air Resources Board to administer the Clean Air Act. The Act was updated in 1977 and dramatically in 1990. “There were so many pressures around the country to clean up air, not just in Los Angeles,” Pryor says. “But I think the major impact was on Los Angeles because we were so far behind. We had by far the worst air in the nation and we also had all of the circumstance that were perfect for smog creation.”
* New research connects neurological damage with smog. From California Watch:
“It’s well established that dirty, sooty air is no good for your lungs and probably not great for your skin. But new research indicates it can damage your brain, too. A study in the journal of the Archives of Internal Medicine shows that air pollution accelerates cognitive decline in women …” Not surpisingly, here’s the bigger pitcture. Hint to link slackards: it’s the same old story. “Southern Californians are among those at highest risk of death due to air pollution, according to recent U.S. Environmental Protection Agency research published in the journal Risk Analysis … The study examined air pollution exposure based on 2005 air quality levels and projected there could be between 130,000 and 360,000 premature deaths among adults in coming years. The 2005 data was the best available for analyzing fine particulates and ozone, the EPA said. Among vulnerable populations like children, the EPA also estimates that fine particulate matter and ozone results in millions of cases of respiratory symptoms, asthma and school absences, as well as hundreds of thousands of cases of acute bronchitis and emergency room visits …”
* Not convinced that photochemical junk attacks pretty much every part of the body in some way? Consider this little nugget from MSBNC‘s health page:
” Short-term exposure to air pollution — just a day or a week in some cases — may kick off a heart attack or stroke, scientists now say. Two new studies reveal that the risk of heart attack or stroke can jump after high-pollution days, especially for people who already have predisposing health problems. Up to a week of exposure to most major types of air pollution may be enough to trigger a heart attack, a new analysis published in the latest issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association finds. Heart attack risk went up by almost 5 percent with high carbon monoxide levels and almost 3 percent with higher levels of air particles for up to seven days …”
* Beware Hong Kong. Angelenos — especially air pollution “downwinders” — feel your respiratory pain. From Reuters:
“Air pollution levels in Hong Kong were the worst ever last year, the South China Morning Post reported on Monday, a finding that may further undermine the city’s role as an Asian financial centre as business executives relocate because of health concerns. Worsening air quality in Hong Kong caused by vehicle emissions and industrial pollution from the neighboring Pearl River Delta is already forcing many in the financial community to move to Singapore … This was 10 times worse than in 2005, when very high readings were recorded only 2 percent of the time, it said …”
* London calling … for smog weather reports? With the Olympics coming. Nothing us Southern Californians don’t remember. But does the average Angelno know that England suffered the world’s deadliest smog attack back when we were just grappling with our self-made poisons? You better read our book, Smogtown: the Lung-Burning History of Pollution in Los Angelesif you’re scratching your head now. From the writing of a Green Party member in the Telegraph:
” … Those visitors will spend the day in one of the most beautiful, but most polluted cities in Europe. The weather will be great for sunbathing, but bad for anyone with a pre-existing respiratory or heart condition who spends time in central London … In the meantime, the Mayor must make people aware of what they are breathing in and the subsequent risks to their health, by publicising the details of the Airtext service which enables vulnerable people to get the information straight to their phone. Even better, why don’t we make it part of the weather forecast? That would soon wak the government from its appalling complacency.”
* On the less smudgy-air side, there are some remedies. Most are very recognizable. It’s usually the lack of political will and citizenry commitment that makes them seem pie-in-the-sky unrealistic in places like L.A. Again, read Smogtown for evidence. National Geographicgets into it:
” … While Los Angeles has improved a great deal since the 1970s when smog alerts would often recommend that people stay completely indoors, it’s still no Mount Shasta. The City of Angels was the most polluted city in the middle of the 20th century, but it was also the first one to initiate the country’s first air pollution control program in 1947. This was monumental in addressing decades of air pollution, which was only getting worse, but what can be done now? Cars, people, and factories aren’t disappearing any time soon, so in an increasingly industrialized world, is smog just becoming a regular part of life or can the detriments of air pollution be tempered? Here are some ways that the authorities can continue to innovate and mediate the problem of air pollution. Note that complacency or adopting the status quo is not on the list …”
* What happened on January 28 should be emblazoned in green, not brown. Indeed, it was the most noteworthy news out of Sacramento that I can remember on the air pollution front for years, maybe decades. It’s the type of brassy, foresighted leadership reminiscent of the 1960s, when California’s legislature finally pressured the big American automakers to dramatically reduce smog-forming exhausts after years of their lying, industry filibustering and political dilly-dallying in the name of profits. You can read all about that watershed effort in our book, Smogtown: the Lung-Burning History of Pollution in Los Angeles.
From the L.A. Timescoverage: “California, long a national leader in cutting auto pollution, pushed the envelope further Friday as state regulators approved rules to cut greenhouse gas emissions from cars and put significantly more pollution-free vehicles on the road in coming years. The package of Air Resources Board regulations would require auto manufacturers to offer more zero- or very low-emission cars such as battery electric, hydrogen fuel cell and plug-in hybrid vehicles in California starting with model year 2018. The board also strengthened future emission standards for all new cars, making them the toughest in the nation. The rules are intended by 2025 to slash smog-forming pollutants from new vehicles by 75 percent and reduce by a third their emissions that contribute to global warming. “Today’s vote … represents a new chapter for clean cars in California and in the nation as a whole,” said Air Resources Board chairwoman Mary Nichols …” Time to take the smog meters to the shop? India and Bangladesh, according to a new World Economic Forum study, has more severe air pollution that L.A, the San Joaquin Valley, China (oh, please) and other industrialized, air-trapping mega-metropoles. Yale University has a telling map, whatever one thinks of the readings.
* From the Department of Don’t-Make-Me-Laugh-California-Is-A-Fale-Green-Ecoland comes this humdinger: “Wind energy now supplies about 5% of California’s total electricity needs, or enough to power more than 400,000 households. That’s the word from the California Wind Energy Assn., which said that California put up more new turbines than any state last year, with 921.3 megawatts installed. Most of that activity occurred in the Tehachapi area of Kern County, with some big projects in Solano, Contra Costa and Riverside counties as well. “The total amount of wind energy installations in 2011 created a banner year for wind generation in California and is helping to drive California closer to reaching its goal of 33% renewable energy,” said Nancy Rader, executive director of the California Wind Energy Assn …” Link. Why so skeptical? Have you ever compared California’s consumption of alternative/renewable sources with places with Germany? When you do, you’ll see we’re still tilting at windmills, metaphorically speaking.
* Marvelous opinion piece in the Washington Post by Michael Gerson about the enlistment of the environment in America’s wedgy culture wars.
“… What explains the recent, bench-clearing climate brawl? A scientific debate has been sucked into a broader national argument about the role of government. Many political liberals have seized on climate disruption as an excuse for policies they supported long before climate science became compelling — greater federal regulation and mandated lifestyle changes. Conservatives have also tended to equate climate science with liberal policies and therefore reject both. The result is a contest of questioned motives. In the conservative view, the real liberal goal is to undermine free markets and national sovereignty (through international environmental agreements). In the liberal view, the real conservative goal is to conduct a war on science and defend fossil fuel interests. On the margin of each movement, the critique is accurate, supplying partisans with plenty of ammunition …”
* Had I not been on book deadlines, this is the story I would’ve pounced on in a heartbeat. It deserved barrels (or bytes) more coverage than the diminishing L.A. press corp could give it. Talk about pitting a money fountain against environmental health.
“Environmental regulators will be allowed to enforce air quality laws on the Cabazon Band of Mission Indians reservation in the Coachella Valley, an agreement reached seven months after noxious odors from a recycling facility sickened nearby schoolchildren. Under the agreement announced Wednesday, inspectors from the South Coast Air Quality Management District will have the authority to enter sovereign tribal land to monitor environmental laws on a reservation industrial park and issue violations. In May, an investigation by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency determined that Western Environmental Inc., which recycles toxic soils on the reservation site, was the primary source of noxious odors that sent teachers to the hospital and sickened children at an elementary school in Mecca. The EPA ordered the company to cease accepting hazardous materials and reduce two, four-story mountains of contaminated soil on the site …”
* Speaking of underplayed stories, the advancing studies corroborating the long-held medical belief that living next to freeways severly endangers peoples’ health should one day become public policy writ and not just quiver on the edges. As we chronicle in our book, Smogtown: the Lung-Burning History of Pollution in Los Angeles, this correction was first theorized by researchers in murky, car-loving L.A. of the early-1950s. Shockingly, there’s a dearth of monitoring to gauge how bad it is. It surprised us. From the L.A. Daily News:
“… Air monitors could show that air quality near freeways is even worse than estimated, environmental advocates say. And that data could affect government decisions about where apartment complexes and schools get built — or whether roadways can be expanded. The lawsuit comes as research increasingly shows roadway air pollution is associated with disease. Over the past 15 years, studies have linked near-roadway pollution to asthma, lung disease, bronchitis, emphysema, heart attacks and even autism, among other health concerns. The smallest, “ultrafine” particles in air pollution — which are unregulated — can pass through the lungs and bloodstream into the brain. A study released earlier this month suggests near-roadway exposures could increase the risk of diabetes and hypertension in black women in Los Angeles.There’s even an emerging scientific consensus that exposure to freeway pollution can actually cause asthma in children, not just exacerbate it, according to Dr. Rob S. McConnell, a professor at USC’s Keck School of Medicine.”The composition of this near-roadway mixture is toxicologically quite active. They’re nasty chemicals,” McConnell said. The primary cause of that dirty air is no surprise: vehicles, especially diesel trucks. Vehicle exhaust in part keeps Southern California ranked among the worst areas in the nation for air pollution …”
* A little stroll down hydrocarbon lane by one of our favorite historians, D.J. Waldie. If you haven’t read him, you should, because he brings, with a buttery, meditative touch, searing insights of surburbia and things lost and found. And that includes the San Gabriels. Meet D.J. and his pal, Randy, in his KCET post.
” … Because of smog, Randy and I grew up not seeing the mountains that ring the basin except on exceptional days when, after rain and strong winds, for a day (or only a few hours) you could stand at the end of the Belmont Pier in Long Beach and see Catalina to the southwest, Saddleback Mountain in the Santa Ana range to the east, San Gorgonio to the northeast, the San Gabriels to the north, and the headlands of Palos Verdes to the west. And now and with increasing frequency and on the least exceptional days, some or most of this gigantic panorama can be seen from the streets that I walk each morning. Something has changed. It isn’t enough – not even very much much, really. Still, you can see the mountains, purple, moss green, and lunar gray. And I suppose that means something …”
* As Chip prepares to release his next book, as un-environmental as they come, he reminisces with this photo about the wonderful event the L.A Public Library’s Aloud program threw for the book. Warm nostalgia aside, he is still un-worthy of running a competent Power Point. Photo from Flicker.
* Is there a more powerful way to capture warming CO2 gases? USC researchers think so. Sand and plastic are looking possibly heroic, here. From the L.A. Times environmental blog (run by the smart and friend Dean Kuipers)
” … The new process, detailed in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, claims to have the highest carbon dioxide removal capacity for real-world conditions, where humidity and other factors often hinder common capture methods. This has huge implications for carbon removal, as well as for new carbon products. “Right now, the short term is that we’re making CO2-free air from this technology. For our applications in fuel cells and batteries and things like that,” says G.K. Surya Prakash, a professor at USC and director of the Lokar Hydrocarbon Research Institute there who is part of the study. “Ultimately, I think that these kinds of materials, if they are developed on a massive scale, it can extract CO2 from point sources like coal-burning power plants, cement plants, breweries and stuff like that” …”
* Curious this issue doesn’t grab more mainstream media attention. It pits the demands of big Agriculture against the socioeconomics of migrant and poor workers subjected to a pretty ravaging environment – pesticides, old-fashioned smog, diesel particulates, infected water, etc. And we used to think Burbank, epicenter of water pollution, freeway fumebanks and toxic ground, was dispiriting. From California Watch:
“If New Year’s resolutions could apply to places, perhaps no place is as worthy of concerted change as the San Joaquin Valley. Home to nearly 4 million people, the nation’s breadbasket is described as “a patchwork pattern of separate and unequal places” in a report by the UC Davis Center for Regional Change. Titled “Land of Risk/Land of Opportunity,” the report confirms what community members and advocates have long suspected – that environmental hazards tend to be clustered around low-income populations with low levels of education and English literacy. These include urban neighborhoods like West Fresno, which has borne the brunt of slaughterhouses, waste dumps and other undesirable land uses, as well as unincorporated rural communities like Earlimart, where pesticide drift prompted years of citizen activism and ultimately new legislation. The report, linked here, is well worth reading. It’s chief finding may be that “one-third of the nearly 4 million people in the region face both high degrees of environmental risks and high degrees of social vulnerability.”
* Other news of note:
- The last word on the Solyndra controversy from the Washington Post.
- Wind-power as alternative energy is no longer just about tilting. It’s about practicality. Got a roof? Read about it here in Slate via MSNBC.
- Not everything that web juggernaut Google embarks on turns to gold … or even energy. Talking Points Memo nails it well with this piece.
- Finally, from the Department of We Already Knew That (Hereon referred to as the DWAKT) , this about America’s most gridlocked byways being in Los Angeles. Have you been on the Harbor Freeway lately, or noticed a hovering orange-brown film still clinging to the lower atmosphere? If you have, DWAKT is going to sound superfluous and gang-piling. Good old car culture. It begat smog, and smog begat environmentalism. If you doubt it, check out our acclaimed Smogtown: the Lung-Burning History of Pollution of Los Angeles.We leave the obvious in the chemical dust to tell the full story.
