Archiving my Twitter, Facebook and other social network activity
I saw a billboard lamenting that Los Angeles has the worst air in the US, but spends the most on clean air.
Yeah…because it used to be a LOT worse. Compared to LA smog in the 80s – or worse, the 50s & 60s, today’s air is amazingly clean.
(At least on days without wildfires.)
The hour grows late, and Los Angeles rises out of the palm trees, preparing for another night. 😉
Seriously, though, I was trying out different settings on a camera with a good zoom lens.
In response to KemoNine asking about the haze:
By LA standards, for 11 miles away, that’s crystal clear!
We’ve actually had some really clear days over the last month or so, especially after the winds have blown all the smog out to sea (before they bring all the dust out from the desert a day or two later), interspersed with smoggy days and days when the sky is full of smoke from wildfires in the mountains or canyons. The smoke from the massive fire raging in Ventura is mostly being blown the other way from here.
It’s a lot better than it used to be 20 years ago. A couple of years back on a visit to my parents’, I noticed that I could see the mountains from their front door. I had never noticed that the whole time I was growing up there!
And even that was better than their stories of LA smog in the 60s: outdoor school activities cancelled due to smog, being unable to see the end of a block, observing sunspots directly…
Air quality laws have made a huge difference!
Worth noting that LA’s air continues to get better, and the region has seen a *90% reduction in particle pollution* over the 17 years the report has been running.
LA Still Has Nation’s Unhealthiest Air, But There’s Reason to Breathe Easier
Los Angeles continues to earn its reputation for smog, but air pollution dropped to the lowest level in 17 years of monitoring.
Interesting graph of LA smog trends from 1976 through 2012. Note the general downward trend despite the fact that we have *more cars* on the road now than we did 40 years ago.
Source: Q&A: 25 years and counting of Metro Rail, part two
Comment from Tal:
Hey, people who don’t like the EPA: This is what we’d have without it. Because, as the article points out, it’s what we *did* have *before* the EPA.
NASA snaps pics of China’s ‘Airpocalypse’ pollution disaster
Interesting: Air quality started clearing up within minutes of closure, and a huge percentage of LA’s smog comes from cars.
L.A.’s ‘Carmageddon’ Produced Dramatic, Instantaneous Air Quality Improvements
California having the highest air pollution is why we’re so above the curve on pollution standards. Chewable air is a good motivator to do something about it.