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Bad Air Days

Andrew | 18 July, 2008 08:48 | (89)

Stay inside, and if you do go out, don’t breathe. That's our government's advice today for people in Hillsborough and Rockingham Counties. Stop and think on that for a minute.

It’s the sort of warning you’d expect after a major chemical or nuclear accident. Such things happen. Not often, thank goodness.

Unfortunately, we have allowed our air to be so polluted – even by the notoriously lax standards of the United States government – that such warnings are now routine.

Fortunately, our government is kind enough to warn us when the air is unfit for human consumption. New Hampshire residents can get breathing advisories from the state Department of Environmental Services.

I fail to grasp why more people are not outraged. What human right could be more basic than breathing? Bad air kills Americans by the thousands every year, and yet we allow this madness to continue.

Violent insurrection and terrorism would be an appropriate response, but for one niggling point. We're well acquainted with the enemy; it’s us.

Above all else, it is our insatiable and insane demands for energy that spoil our air. Can you believe, for instance, that in response to recent increases in the price of gasoline, some people have seriously proposed that we pump and burn more oil, rather than less? If we, as a species, are that stupid, we deserve to go extinct. Unfortunately for other living things, the human species is so adaptable and widespread, we will probably take most other life forms with us when we go.

We really have no choice but to breathe. You can hold out for a few moments, here and there, but a constant supply of purified, bottled air is beyond the reach of the even the average American (who is wealthy beyond the wildest dreams of the average human).

We do have choices about how much energy we consume, and how it’s produced. All we have to do is exercise our minds, our rights and our ability to chose. God knows, we need the exercise.

Share and enjoy.

[Reply]

Thanks for including all those links to information sources, editorials, etc. And thanks, too, for covering the topic of air pollution.

Posted by: Betty Wolfe | July 19, 2008, 15:03

Re: Bad Air Days [Reply]

The air is NOT getting worse...it is the EPA tightening these so-called air quality standards so low that compliance is now virtually unattainable. They do this to keep their jobs and careers in perpetuity. The EPA's ultimate goal is an air standard of 100% pure unadulturated oxygen...ain't going to happen - but it will make car ownership such that only rich people will be able to afford cars.

People forget that catalytic converters on vehicles existed since 1975...for 33 years now, closed loop engine management systems since 1981 and electronic fuel injection since 1988.

The new EPA standards in effect now makes Theodore Rosevelt National Park...one of the most remote places in North America in violation of those new air quality standards because of the vegetation there. Is that area now in need of smog alerts? Hardly. The EPA and its lobbyists meed to be reined in or else the economy and quality of life will collapse in the USA. We will no longer have freedom, but damn...we will have clean air (ya right...not at a standard of 0.0000000000000001 parts per trillion).

Posted by: Skiggley | July 21, 2008, 09:18

[Reply]

It is a particularly sad and irksome fact that air pollution travels (by air, no less), so that our national parks sometimes have some of the worst air in the country. The air is often unhealthy to breathe in many places around the world, to the point where air pollution literally is killing people. It is also a fact that deniers such as Skiggley are among the reasons why it remains such a problem. Equating pollution regulations with an attack on personal liberty is simply nuts, unless you are such an anarchonihilst that you claim a right to harm others.

Posted by: andrew | July 21, 2008, 12:17

Re: Bad Air days [Reply]

So in other words, what you say that the air is much worse today that it was in 1970 by virtue of the fact that MORE areas are deemed in "violation"of air quality standards..despite the fact that in real absolute numbers the pollution levels have fallen dramatically. The reason the belief that the air is getting worse is BECAUSE the EPA keeps moving the goal posts closer and closer to zero and right now we are achieving the law of "diminishing returns"? Perhaps you have not been aware, but car emissions dropped DRAMATRICALLY from the 1970 model year to the 1975 model year, and then dropped even more at the 1981 model year...but the "greenies" would not have you believe that. So basically if i was elected "king" I can go on and declare a "standard" of 0.0011 parts per million...THERE!! now Chelsea, Vermont by my newly set declaration has VERY BAD air now that over half of the days in the year violate "my" standard!! That is what is happening. You don't get what I am saying do you?? Forever, TRNP has very good air. In fact it is one of the most remote places in North America. Now that the EPA - which started as a safe standard of 0.12ppm, then dropped it to 0.75 and now to (what is it) .70ppm (TRNP has measured 0.72ppm and deemed "clean for so many decades)...now by the stroke of an EPA pen, the goal post gets lowered "once again" (and trust me...it WILL get lowered again and again in the coming years) now TRNP has smog?! It it the TREES and the LEAVES that is causing this "smog"...decomposing vegetation, pollen etc. causes carbon emissions etc. Even if we force every car off the road, shut down every factory and tell every person in this world to stop heating their homes, there will STILL be air quality violations at TRNP. And yes...pollution regulations DO attack personal freedom. Hot rodding and building custom vehicles used to be legal. Try doing it to ANY vehicle made in 1996 and later and just go TRY to get an inspection sticker?? Oh yes...that Edelbrock just added to that 1996 Mustang is deemed "tampering" by the EPA and huge fines result...especially if it was one NOT certified by the California Bureau of Auto Repair! Now they want to go after Joe Sixpack who wants to repaint the fender of his old Camaro at home in his garage by forcing him to spend tens of thousands of dollars to be "certified". That is a personal liberty taken away I hate to tell you. Why do you thing the pre-1975 cars (and their resale values reflect that) are the desired choice for hobbyists? It is because they are grandfathered from EPA restrictions for so-called "tampering" for the most part. Another freedom lost is now you are being forced to pay DOUBLE the money every year to get your car inspected by a test where it is proven that over 95% of cars pass this test easilly. I know this for a fact first hand because I test vehicles for NH emissions at a Nashua inspection station (we LOVE getting the extra money for doing this BTW because we ding each person $45 per inspection) and you would be surprised to know that many of these "emissions" failures are from "check engine" errors that have nothing to do with emissions, but the state mandates we fail them for "emissions". Millions of your tax dollars now go to a Kentucky corporation which profits from this new mandate...whuch NH adopted because of the fear of the EPA'sanctions and being sued by action groups such as EarthJustice, Sierra Club, Earth Liberation Front et.al and whatever groups that have lots of money, lots of lawyers and lots of time to siphon dollars away from us if we do not bow to their demands. The next thing is being villafied by the liberal media if we DARE question or dispute their agenda by labeling us as enemies of the "environment" if we do not agree with their agenda. You should watch the BBC documentary "The Global Warming Swindle" on Youtube. See how scientists that counter the "agenda" are punished. If we are forced down this CO2 reduction road, you might as well say goodbye to US manufacturing. Why do you think that so many companies pulled up stakes and went overseas to China? The cost to comply with onerous EPA requirements have forced manufacturers to leave the US because it is now too costly to do business here. Posted by: Skiggley | July 22, 2008, 09:07

[Reply]

Skig (may I call you Skig?), first of all I'm sorry that your comments got canned as 'spam.' I fixed that. Second, you're a dope. Decompostion does not cause smog. I never said anything about the air in 1970; it would surpise me if it isn't cleaner now, given better regulations, but that doesn't change the fact that air pollution still kills people... lots of people... and it would be better for our health and our economy to seek out cleaner sources of energy. Environmental groups are shoe-sting operations compared with the multinational corporate propaganda machine, and health care and labor costs are the reason most businesses site for moving elsewhere, not environmental regulation.

Posted by: andrew | July 22, 2008, 21:12