World Environment Day 2019: Air pollution (and making cleanup job 1)

A heads-up: June 5, 2019 is World Environment Day 2019. This year’s focus: Air pollution. As part of that in this thread, included is information on air cleanup. Introduction There isn’t a soul anywhere I can think of who doesn’t appreciate clean, healthy air. That said, on Earth, better than 90 percent of humanity is … Read more

Sierra Club’s 2019 electric vehicle guide released

The below Apr. 22, 2019 press release is from the Sierra Club. Today [Apr. 22, 2019], the Sierra Club released a newly updated electric vehicle (EV) guide at a time of increasing excitement around the expansion of the EV market in the United States. The evidence of growing user demand keeps mounting: 1 in 5 … Read more

Making more than a dent market penetration-wise: Electric buses

Buses are on the move … again. Though driving the revolution this time is electricity, not diesel fuel. That’s the difference. In Shenzen in China, as a matter of fact, the bus fleet is wholly electric, according to Clean Energy Canada in a press release issued on Mar. 21, 2019. And, just how many electric … Read more

Solar power: If it works for trains, why not food trucks?

Chuckwagons; you know, those food trucks that bring meals to the masses in place of the masses driving to a local fast-food establishment or eatery to obtain the same. So I was watching the T.V. news broadcast in my area the other day and in the news lineup was this article about a local food … Read more

U.S. energy consumption from 1950 to 2017 and the carbon connection

Energy use or consumption in the United States, when you think about it, how many people give this any serious thought? It’s not conversation that typically comes up at dinner time. But, this doesn’t mean the subject isn’t important. It’s good to take a look at American energy consumption from time to time just to … Read more

California, Texas high-speed rail: Better late than not at all

It has been reported that if high-speed rail were placed on the California ballot today the electorate would vote it down. While that may be true, it would not be a landslide defeat. There are still a considerable number of Californians that continue to support the project, myself included. So, keep in mind that California … Read more

Development-oriented transit – Now there’s an idea!

In the past on the Air Quality Matters blog and elsewhere I have talked quite a bit about transit-oriented development or TOD. But, I’ve yet to discuss – here or elsewhere – development-oriented transit or DOT. That stops right here, right now. Whereas TOD is development that is built up around transit stops and train … Read more

Greenhouse-gases reduction: A work in progress

Much painstaking work has been initiated to limit fossil-fuel burning so as to reduce the concentration of atmospheric greenhouse gases and therefore prevent any further related fallout. A complete moratorium on the burning of fossil fuels is the ideal. Being that this is not likely to happen anytime soon, it is, however, important to keep … Read more

At long last, a curbing-air-pollutant-emissions-and-greenhouse-gases focus

For the longest time, it has seemed like, air pollution and emissions of greenhouse gases were thought of in different contexts. Air pollution is thought of as being associated with poisons (toxic chemicals, toxicants or chemical pollutants) and haze in – or discoloration of – the air and poor – and damage to – health, hospitalizations and … Read more