I spent Sunday through Thursday in Salt Lake City on a marketing trip for work. Browsing the headlines with my Einstein Bros. bagel and coffee I see the Utah House of Representatives is discussing banning gay-straight alliances in high schools, President Bush delivered his State of the Union address and is received with mixed reactions, and Park City's Sundance Film Festival is drawing praise and criticism for the content of some of its short films. The front page is alive with perspectives and emotion.
On the bottom corner next to the paper's directory is a blurb titled "Red Burn Day". It reads, "Poor air quality in Salt Lake, Davis, Weber, Utah and Cache counties, with a health advisory for sensitive people, including the young, the old and people with heart or lung problems. "
1. Minimize driving
2. Wood burning prohibited
3. Limit outdoor exertion
A dense haze has settled in the Utah valley. This haze is a result of two things- an inversion in which cold air has settled in the valley floor and pollution. The result is a health hazard for the people of Salt Lake. It was terrible. You couldn't even see 200 yards in front of you in some places. The image above I pulled from the web. Salt Lake City was twice as bad as the photo.
The Iraq war, helping students understand their sexuality and understanding what is appropriate in film are all very important and newsworth items. However, it's amazing to me that this doesn't seem to be a crisis. It was a crisis for me! Is the apparent lack of alarm a function of incremental change? Was there a slowness to the change that lulled folks into believing that this smog filled valley is just the way things are? Is it like the way a frog in a jar of water will not respond to increasing temperature until it dies? I am sure there have been many articles written about this issue, and am confident (is this naive?) that action plans are in place. I am sure if I interviewed any Salt Lake resident they would report unhappiness with the problem. But as an outsider, and one who lives in a place with a much less severe pollution issue (at least it's not as in your face), I was alarmed. Perhaps I'm sheltered and am unaware of trends in air quality, but I believe it is a basic human right to be able to breathe clean air and not worry about damaging one's health by going outside for a brisk walk.
As I and my colleagues drove back to the Tetons (and burned 15 gallons of gasoline) we struggled with coming to terms with our carbon footprint and our responsibility to the Earth. I hope it snows in Salt Lake City. I hope tomorrows paper's headlines are as passionate about clean air as they are about war policies, sexual orientation and movies.
On the bottom corner next to the paper's directory is a blurb titled "Red Burn Day". It reads, "Poor air quality in Salt Lake, Davis, Weber, Utah and Cache counties, with a health advisory for sensitive people, including the young, the old and people with heart or lung problems. "
1. Minimize driving
2. Wood burning prohibited
3. Limit outdoor exertion
A dense haze has settled in the Utah valley. This haze is a result of two things- an inversion in which cold air has settled in the valley floor and pollution. The result is a health hazard for the people of Salt Lake. It was terrible. You couldn't even see 200 yards in front of you in some places. The image above I pulled from the web. Salt Lake City was twice as bad as the photo.
The Iraq war, helping students understand their sexuality and understanding what is appropriate in film are all very important and newsworth items. However, it's amazing to me that this doesn't seem to be a crisis. It was a crisis for me! Is the apparent lack of alarm a function of incremental change? Was there a slowness to the change that lulled folks into believing that this smog filled valley is just the way things are? Is it like the way a frog in a jar of water will not respond to increasing temperature until it dies? I am sure there have been many articles written about this issue, and am confident (is this naive?) that action plans are in place. I am sure if I interviewed any Salt Lake resident they would report unhappiness with the problem. But as an outsider, and one who lives in a place with a much less severe pollution issue (at least it's not as in your face), I was alarmed. Perhaps I'm sheltered and am unaware of trends in air quality, but I believe it is a basic human right to be able to breathe clean air and not worry about damaging one's health by going outside for a brisk walk.
As I and my colleagues drove back to the Tetons (and burned 15 gallons of gasoline) we struggled with coming to terms with our carbon footprint and our responsibility to the Earth. I hope it snows in Salt Lake City. I hope tomorrows paper's headlines are as passionate about clean air as they are about war policies, sexual orientation and movies.
4 comments:
This is exactly why Bridget and I have decided to purchase a Hybrid car. Not that we wanted to save gas money, but because it is the right thing to do. We need to continue to push our government to support these vehicles that our better for our environment, because I can stand too many more days like we have had in Upstate New York (60 degree days in Decemember & only 2 inches of recorded snow).
Forgive me for my mis-spellings in the previous post. I am just returning from a fun night of consuming alcoholic beverages. "...support these vehicles that "are" better....." and "because I 'CAN'T' stand...."
Sorry :-(
once Laura's subaru dies we'll head the hybrid route as well. she is familiar with the ongoing debate about what to do about the smog. solutions have ranged from reduction of pollution to building huge fans to blow the pollution away from the valley.
I'm in Chengdu right now, a city with about 10 million official residents, and perhaps another 2 or 3 million migrant workers. Chengdu makes NYC look small, but it is only the sixth largest city in China.
I saw a blue sky today, the first I've seen in months. The pollution in China is so intense it is difficult to describe. My lungs and eyes burn on a daily basis (and I live in what is regarded as a clean, “underdeveloped” place). This is a nation with booming cities and essentially no environmental regulation.
It will be nice if more Americans buy hybrid cars. I'll buy another, if I buy a car, when I return home, and will encourage others to do so as well. But I compare these acts of responsibility to the hundreds of millions of cars Chinese will buy in the near future as people move out of poverty and into the cities. If EVERY American stopped driving in the next ten years, perhaps we would counter-balance the damage the Chinese will do in their effort to industrialize.
We need more than a national change: we need international leadership.
Or a war in Iran. That would help, too.
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