Discourse for all interested in all things air-quality related
This post for me marks a milestone: it’s my 100th. Travels being one of the tags, I thought: why not devote my 100th to writing about a road trip? So, that’s what’s on tap. Following is a synopsis of my May 2012 California-Texas-California road trip in words and pics. All roads lead to the Lone Star State Late … Read more
It is obvious I have done quite a lot of writing on air quality matters in the San Joaquin Valley. The Valley is where I live and, sadly, it is among this nation’s most notorious or worst offender areas for polluted air. Both childhood and adult asthma numbers here seem disproportionately high compared to other regions. These … Read more
San Joaquin Valley air between Nov. 1, 2012 and Feb. 28, 2013 was considerably cleaner than it was this time a year ago. This is based on two metrics: fewer wood-burning prohibitions (bans) and corresponding citations issued. The San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District (SJVAPCD) in its Mar. 1, 2013 news release: “Better air quality, fewer wood-burning bans … Read more
Americans, more and more, are taking to the rails. In fact, in 2012, those riding Amtrak, the national passenger rail network, swelled to 31 million – a record. Relative to 1997’s Amtrak ridership stats, it’s an increase of 55 percent. Curtis Tate of McClatchy Newspapers in “Largest metro areas lead growth in Amtrak ridership, report … Read more
On Nov. 19, 2012, in “Air pollution: The enormity of it all,” I wrote: “More importantly, with the pollution already present, the very same that is causing a number of health issues for those people adversely affected by such, how does society effectively mitigate the impact, so that the numbers in this regard do not increase … Read more
I once saw a documentary called either “Super Trains” or “Supertrains” where I believe it was explained that one way of increasing the power output of a steam locomotive was, dimension-wise, to neither go broader in breadth nor higher in height (due to horizontal width and vertical height clearance limitations in effect at the time in the railway operating environment), … Read more
Number 15 in the Clean Air Technologies Series. Trash collection in one California city, is more than picking up; it’s cleaning up – as in cleaning up the air, that is. Manteca, located in the northern part of the San Joaquin Valley, has 25 garbage trucks to meet the trash pick-up needs of its more … Read more
Today’s thread: Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction. Being that on the world stage California contributes a sizable chunk of GHG emissions, I would like to think the state is among an amalgamation of front-lines leaders making progress on the fight against global greenhouse gas emissions. I believe California is and that is good. To understand the magnitude of the Golden … Read more
Regarding your next vehicle purchase, what’s it going to be? Will it be a hybrid? Will it be an electric (EV)? None of the above? As far as motorized vehicles go, hybrids and electrics are both, relatively speaking, economical, that is, once paid for. But there is the obvious trade off in terms of electric … Read more
If there is a more popular summertime institution than out-of-doors cooking I am hard-pressed to think of it. Staying with this train of thought, it turns out there just might be more to this outdoor culinary experience than meets the grill. “When [University of California at] Davis scientists collected air pollution particles in Fresno and then exposed laboratory mice to … Read more