air pollution

Umbra on air quality and temperature

Dear Umbra, Is there a relationship between air quality and temperature? I thought about this on my bike ride to work this morning when the smell of exhaust from cars seemed more potent, and the fumes were certainly more visible in the 32-degree air. I know that air quality in Los Angeles is worse during […]

Environmentalism’s confusing accounting

The L.A. Times published an interesting if somewhat odd piece in last week's magazine about efforts to coax the business community into loving the environment by assigning a dollar value to our natural resources, or "ecosystem services."

So, for example, we learn that dung beetles provide $380 million of waste management services to the U.S. cattle industry. One mile of coastal wetland provides $2.4 million of storm protection. A nice fern is worth $4, or you can get 3 for $9.99.

I made up the last one.

The odd part of the article is that it wraps together these efforts to place a concrete value on natural resources with a very different phenomenon: the use of pollution markets to curtail environmentally damaging activities.

Umbra on burning yard waste

Dear Umbra, Your recent column seemed to be discussing mostly the burning of trash. What about yard waste? Each year I pull out tons of non-native and invasive honeysuckle. There is far too much to take to a landfill, and it would take years to rot down if left in some kind of compost pile. […]

Umbra on which wood to burn

Dear Umbra, I live in Maine, land of many loggers. My home is heated by an oil furnace, and I try to keep the temps down with thermostat timers to use as little oil as possible. I supplement my heat with a wood stove, as many Mainers do, and in my travels I have noticed […]

Umbra on burning trash

Dear Umbra, We recycle and compost as best we can, but we are still left every week with some trash. Up to this point we’ve dutifully hauled it to the local dump, which then trucks it away to some landfill. My husband has recently discovered that, since we live outside of city limits, we are […]

Carbon offsets that go to developing world forests rule

Here's an uplifting article by Rhett Butler over at Mongabay. It enables my personal eco-fantasy. It's titled, Avoided deforestation could help fight third world poverty under global warming pact. $43 billion could flow into developing countries:

When trees are cut greenhouse gases are released into the atmosphere -- roughly 20 percent of annual emissions of such heat-trapping gases result from deforestation and forest degradation. Avoided deforestation is the concept where countries are paid to prevent deforestation that would otherwise occur. Funds come from industrialized countries seeking to meet emissions commitments under international agreements like the Kyoto Protocol. Policymakers and environmentalists alike find the idea attractive because it could help fight climate change at a low cost while improving living standards for some of the world's poorest people, safeguarding biodiversity, and preserving other ecosystem services. A number of prominent conservation biologists and development agencies including the World Bank and the U.N. have already endorsed the idea. [Even the United States government has voiced support for the plan.]

The article also arrived just in time to support my argument presented here. Don't you just love it when you find people who share your point of view?

Umbra on toxic schools

Dear Umbra, My four-year-old daughter is attending a brand-new preschool program in a brand-new building this fall. Nothing was missed in setting up the school for the best possible education for young minds. Unfortunately, it’s filled with all those toxic “new” smells. When we toured the building, I developed a headache within five minutes. Are […]

Umbra on running and pollutants

Dear Umbra, I am a runner, and in the summertime it is difficult for me to run during the day because of the heat. Unfortunately, it’s a no-no for me to run in green spaces late at night because they are dark, deserted, and thus quite unsafe. So this leaves me the option of running […]

EPA plan would give political officials more say over air-quality standards

Who should decide what level of air pollution is safe — scientists or political appointees? Plume and doom. Photo: iStockphoto. A counterintuitive answer came from top officials at the U.S. EPA last week. Bill Wehrum and George Gray, EPA’s highest-ranking air and science officials, respectively, issued recommendations that some enviros and agency staffers fear could […]