Discourse for all interested in all things air-quality related
Getting into the railroad business, like venturing into any other can be a hit and miss proposition. The successful railroads often get others’ attention, both those inside and outside of railroad industry circles alike. One of the rail endeavors that got my attention is the Central Light Rail Link operating in and around Baltimore, Maryland, … Read more
With repeated calls for improved average vehicle fuel-efficiency ratings of American made automobiles over the years, one would be inclined to think those improvements would be a given and would already have been realized. The question is have they been? To help lay this all out, in the “U.S. driving popular way back when, even … Read more
The below Dec. 15, 2022 press release is from the California Environmental Protection Agency Air Resources Board.* The California Air Resources Board today approved the final proposed 2022 Scoping Plan, a world-leading roadmap to address climate change that cuts greenhouse gas emissions by 85% and achieves carbon neutrality in 2045. The 2022 Scoping Plan provides … Read more
The world view is that what we as humans need to do to avoid a climate-related meltdown, if you will, and meet short-, medium- and long-range climate goals, is to forgo dependence on combustion of fossil fuels – hook, line and sinker. We’re talking about an across-the-board transition to clean energy here to power all … Read more
The below Sept. 10, 2022 press release is from the European Society for Medical Oncology.* A new mechanism has been identified through which very small pollutant particles in the air may trigger lung cancer in people who have never smoked, paving the way to new prevention approaches and development of therapies, according to late-breaking data … Read more
Action is underway in Congress to avert a rail-workers strike and keep America’s trains on track. The underlying issues between labor and management whom, as it had been reported, had failed to reach complete agreement, appear to be over paid time off for sick leave as well as worker pay. Absent a binding agreement the … Read more
The 27th Conference of the Parties (COP27) came to a conclusion on Nov. 20, 2022 after convening for a total of 14 days. If global warming is to be limited to a 1.5 degree Celsius rise by the end of the century compared to what the global mean surface temperature was when the Industrial Revolution … Read more
The below Nov. 20, 2022 press release is from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The United Nations Climate Change Conference COP27 closed today with a breakthrough agreement to provide “loss and damage” funding for vulnerable countries hit hard by climate disasters. “This outcome moves us forward,” said Simon Stiell, UN Climate Change … Read more
Revised data shows California reached its GHG emissions-reduction goal in 2014; not in 2016, as previously thought. The change was explained in the California Environmental Protection Agency Air Resources Board’s “2020 saw steepest drop in carbon pollution due to the pandemic,” Oct. 26, 2022 news release as follows: “[T]he 2022 Edition of the [Global Warming … Read more
The below Oct. 27, 2022 press release is from the United Nations Environment Programme.* As intensifying climate impacts across the globe hammer home the message that greenhouse gas emissions must fall rapidly, a new UN Environment Programme (UNEP) report finds that the international community is still falling far short of the Paris [Agreement] goals, with … Read more