Posts Tagged ‘smog’

Brown Clouds - Not CO2 - Melting Himalayan Glaciers

The legendary glaciers of the Himalayan and Hindu Kush mountain ranges have been losing volume at an increasing rate over the past twenty to thirty years. And over this same time period, much data has piled up confirming the role of increased CO2 emissions in global warming trends. Given this, it would be “natural” to assume that CO2-induced warming was also to blame for the glacial melting. But it turns out that much stronger evidence points to the [...]

Breaths of Fresh Air: Bush-Era Pollution Waivers Rejected By Courts

Power plants play a huge role in emitting pollutants that make up the ozone. This pollution browns and blackens our horizons. We call it smog. Smog has been linked to premature deaths, thousands of emergency room visits, and tens of thousands of asthma attacks each year. Pollution in the ozone is particularly dangerous to small children and the elderly, who are often warned to stay indoors on days with poor air quality due to pollutants.

Stretchable Salt Could Unlock Secrets of Smog

A tiny block of salt exhibits stretchable properties observed with an interfacial force microscope.

It’s “not supposed to do that,” but it is: salt has revealed a previously undiscovered talent for stretching.  The startling revelation was made by researchers from Sandia National Laboratories and the University of Pittsburgh, using a powerful Interfacial Force Microscope.  The discovery of stretchable properties in salt could lead to the development of more efficient desalination technology, and it could also provide more insight into the potential for alternative fuels to contribute to smog formation.

Blame-apportionment and Reactionary measures can not remedy Environmental Ailments

Much of environmental management has been reactive. Human action (excess or unwise use or both) created problems; overtime, the problems became apparent and need for solutions inescapable. Remedies had to be found and put in place.

Smog In Los Angeles

Picture: Smog in Los Angeles, Courtsey: Nathan via Flickr.com under creative commons license.

Delhi’s Air Pollution Levels Rising Again

When I was looking at Delhi’s environment almost a decade back, Delhi was entering its bitter battle against being the ‘fourth most polluted city’ in the world. Much thought and action (or shall we say reaction) was devoted to the problem. Delhi was able to remedy both its ‘fourth most polluted’ status and its air quality with unprecedented ‘hyper-activity:’ remarkable for being so well concerted across the different levels and different arms of the government.

Delhi Smog

Picture: Delhi Smog in January 2009

As I revisited the problem more recently, I was both shocked and saddened to see a decline so visibly and so quickly. Examining Delhi’s data, in January this year, I found an increase in vehicular pollution. I was not expecting this to happen in face of the phenomenal and difficult measures that Delhi had undertaken: like relocation of industries out of residential areas (something that had come about as a result of the developmental dream for Delhi in the 1950s) and conversion of the entire fleet of Delhi Transportation Corporation (DTC) buses into Compressed Natural gas or CNG (resulting in the largest CNG-operated public transportation in the world).

New Pollution Radar Exposes Urban Smog

Ever wonder just how much smog you’re bathing in every day? A new pollution radar developed by Surrey Satellite Technology, the University of Leicester, and EADS Astrium might be able to show you.

Take Action: The Road to Nowhere

Friends of the Earth’s “New Roads = New Pollution” campaign is calling for President-elect Obama to focus his infrastructure plan on clean endeavors instead of new road construction


[Creative Commons photo by Tobias Pro User]

Pollution from motor vehicles is responsible for 72% of nitrogen oxides and 52% of reactive hydrocarbons (principal components of smog). Cars and trucks are not the only culprits - road construction causes greenhouse gas emissions both during and after the work is done. A Sightline Institute analysis (pdf) found that building 10 miles of new four-lane highway construction is the equivalent of putting 46,700 Hummers on the road, once you account for factors like materials, maintenance, congestion, and new traffic.

China to Ban High Pollution Cars from Capital

Starting New Year’s Day, Beijing will ban high-emission vehicles from the city.

Beijing trafficBeijing will ban some 353,800 vehicles with high emissions from anywhere within the fifth ring road, which circles the city center at a radius of 10-15 km. One in ten cars and trucks in Beijing will be subject to the ban. But, say city officials, those vehicles account for 50 percent of the city’s notoriously bad auto pollution.

The vehicles on the banned list are those that do not meet the Euro I emissions standards set in Europe in the early 90’s. According to Ren Lihong of the Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Science, these cars are a big part of Beijing’s pollution problem.

Book Review: Smogtown: The Lung-Burning History of Pollution in Los Angeles, by Chip Jacobs and William J. Kelly

The tale of one American city’s epic struggle with smog may not strike you as the most interesting of reads. It sounds more like a government report than a page-turner. But when that city is Los Angeles, things become much more complicated…and, I might as well say it, sexy.

In Smogtown: The Lung-Burning History of Pollution in Los Angeles, Chip Jacobs and William J. Kelly provide a well-documented, highly engaging, and widely relevant account of southern California’s battle with “the beast,” as the authors lovingly refer to smog. Placed firmly in the tradition of good old muckraking journalism, Smogtown covers over sixty years of pollution making and pollution fighting in Los Angeles.

Jacobs, an experienced journalist and author, and Kelly, also a writer and former spokesman for the South Coast Air Quality Management District, dig deep in their quest of tracking the beast. From that fateful day of July 8, 1943, that it first rolled into Los Angeles and up to the present, smog has managed to define life in southern California in many respects. Simultaneously, the beast’s reign of terror and humanity’s response to it parallel our entire civilization’s relationship with the planet.

Despite its clear intention of making a case for environmental awareness and action, Smogtown is not your typical “green’s” diatribe against big business and weak government. No, Jacobs and Kelly are much smarter–and fairer–than that in this book.

Study Warns Against Taking a Deep Breath in Mexico

Mexico may be planting green roofs, but that may not be enough. A new study came out on Monday saying that the dense smog over many parts of Mexico is shortening Mexicans’ lives by a whole two years.

Mexico City Plants Green Roofs

The proposed 500,000 square feet of green roofs are part of Mayor Marcelo Ebrard’s $5.5 billion Green Plan, which also plans to reduce traffic in the crowded city.

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