Discourse for all interested in all things air-quality related
An article in the Spring 2023 Cal Poly Engineering Advantage magazine issue caught my eye. It’s title: “Combating Climate Change on a Green-Sand Beach.” The “green sand,” in this instance referring to refined olivine (the mineral), meanwhile, in its natural or unaltered state, is produced during volcanic eruptions. Its natural color is, more or less, … Read more
The United States at one time had one of the grandest railroad networks on Earth. At its 1916 peak, operations of U.S. freight and passenger trains were conducted on a total of 254,000 route-miles of mainline track; today that number weighs in at around 140,000, or a reduction in said trackage of almost half (45 … Read more
Wow! Have you heard? The average global temperature for June was somewhere on the order of 62 degrees Fahrenheit – making this the hottest June on record. That yet another temperature record has been broken, doesn’t just lend credence to the notion our planet is warming and there is widespread fallout connected with the planetary … Read more
In his Jul. 2, 2020 “Explainer: How the rise and fall of CO2 levels influenced the ice ages,” article, CarbonBrief’s Zeke Hausfather made quite clear that: “The global average temperature was around 4 [degrees] C cooler during the last ice age than it is today.” What is it today? 1.2 degrees Celsius or C higher … Read more
It shouldn’t come as a shock, but lately, the bulk of the discourse on climate centers around temperature rise – not temperature decline. And, it’s for reasons that are not too difficult to imagine. For the past century-and-a-half, what’s known as the Global Mean Surface Temperature, or GMST, has been tracking mostly positively, which means … Read more
SAN FRANCISCO, CA — Conservation organizations have filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) seeking to halt the unlawful drilling of multiple oil and gas wells in California’s San Joaquin Valley. The agency rushed the approval of the well permits in the Mount Poso oil field near Bakersfield without allowing … Read more
WASHINGTON – Today [Jun. 21, 2023], the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a final rule under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) program that establishes the biofuel volume requirements for 2023 to 2025. This final rule builds on the RFS program’s progress over the previous two years and reflects the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to strengthen the … Read more
Helena, MT — Trial in the landmark youth-led constitutional climate lawsuit Held v. State of Montana drew to a close today [Jun. 20, 2023], marking the end of a week and a half of expert testimony and firsthand, often emotional, accounts from the 16 young Montanans who filed the lawsuit three years prior. The proceedings concluded … Read more
You might not think so but climate has a complicatedness about it. I gotta tell you, though. As much as I know about climate there is much on the topic I still haven’t learned. All of which has got me thinking today about how the Air Quality Matters blog can be an added and invaluable … Read more
Canadian Pacific Kansas City [CPKC] today [Jun. 8, 2023] announced its commitment to develop a greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction target aligned with a 1.5⁰C future and supporting the global economy to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. With this commitment, made following the combination of Canadian Pacific (“CP”) and Kansas City Southern (“KCS”), CPKC joins … Read more