Discourse for all interested in all things air-quality related
There’s been a lot of contentious debate along with swirling controversy surrounding a tax increase on gasoline. Nationally, the gas tax has been locked in at $0.184 (18.4 cents) per gallon since 1993 and it seems unlikely such will change anytime soon. The problem with the gas tax going unchanged for that many years is … Read more
Lately, there has been no shortage of news concerning air quality in the San Joaquin Valley of California. And, yet, another air-pollution-related news story from the SJV surfaces. For those unfamiliar, the California Valley region has notoriously bad air. The SJV has this country’s worst fine particulate matter pollution problem – both for daily and … Read more
The drought in the western U.S. is definitely making its impact felt. There are people letting their lawns go, lawn watering being done less often. Reservoirs are at historic lows. The danger of fires is extremely high and aquifers are being drained at exceptionally fast rates. I hesitate to use the term “exponential,” but this … Read more
California’s San Joaquin Valley is roughly 24,000 square miles in area. It is hemmed in by mountains on three sides and created is a perfect storm for air pollutants to collect and build. And, here, that pollution will stay until air-cleansing winds and/or rain blow and/or wash it away. Weather does not by itself create … Read more
On Thurs., Jun. 18th, posted on the Air Quality Matters blog was: “High temperature, high pressure, high ozone and clear skies? Yes!” With a title like that, it would seem that the air condition that existed in Fresno on Sun., Jun. 14th, was favorable when, in fact, it wasn’t. So, it could very well be … Read more
Every now and then, something comes along in life that can’t be explained – easily; that keeps us guessing and/or has us asking questions. It just so happens that on Sunday, Jun. 14th, local skies were surprisingly, uncharacteristically clear, for this area for this time of year, anyway – not what one would expect. Keep in … Read more
“Driving” as we know it, at one time, did not even exist. Then things changed, dramatically. Driving has for a long time been a part of mainstream American culture and society. The practice has become widespread, so much so, in fact, that per-citizen driving totaled approximately 9,487 miles in 2014 on average and, all together … Read more
Cooling It! No Hair Shirt Solutions to Global Warming, by Gar. W. Lipow is a roadmap showing us the way to become a more energy efficient nation and how relying on renewables-production processes like sun, wind, wave and tide (as opposed to dependence on fossil fuels) can not only help pave the way toward greater … Read more
Construction on California’s much-anticipated high-speed rail project gets underway on Tuesday, Jun. 16, 2015 the official launching point being on an elevated bridge spanning the Fresno River, Raymond Road and California State Route 145 in Madera County. This comes more than five months after the project officially broke ground during a rail-signing ceremony on Jan. … Read more
As of 2014, total U.S. population was 318.9 million, 18.9 million more people than what there were in late 2006 when domestic population reached the 300 million person mark. This breaks down to an average growth rate of 2.3625 million people per year, or a 0.7875 percent per-year growth. What the number doesn’t tell us, … Read more