91–100 of 150 posts
Future generations will look back in horror at our air quality in the same way that we look back at medieval sewer systems
I have a friend who lives in an apartment near a major, major artery in Seattle. It's 6 lanes wide looking out from the balcony directly down onto the street. It's what they can afford in a somewhat close commute to work by bus (they can't afford a car). I lived in an apartment a block from I-5 for 6 years. I've made enough money to buy a house in a neighborhood away from traffic pollution. It was a major part of my…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Presumably, in that "Seriously, ..." quote, rather than asking an earnest question, the HNer was roleplaying their idea of the general population that's resistant to "reduce pollution" messaging.
Maybe. I've reread the comment and it can be read either way. Worst case scenario is that my comment remains correct but tone deaf, so I'm not going to retract it, but am open to a correction if GGP chooses to offer one.
The pictures of those lymph nodes are shocking. In the Methods section, they state that > LN tissues were obtained from [...] LiveOnNY, the local organ procurement organization for the New York metropolitan area. which makes it sound like the samples came from residents of NYC. NYC air quality probably isn't great , but those lymph nodes looked so bad that I assumed they must have come from a hyperpolluted megacity l…
NYC air quality is quite good, especially considering the density. I agree in principle re society's addiction to cars and I'd love if there were fewer in NYC, but, interestingly, the subway system actually has orders of magnitude worse air than street level: https://www.curbed.com/2021/02/mta-subway-air-quality-pollut... .
This is a map showing particulate pollution. Especially when fire season is on. The US is blanketed with a smoke layer. https://fire.airnow.gov/
but when watching air quality in my region, i’ve been finding myself more and more frustrated by a complete lack of explanation of what causes the plummeting air quality sometimes.
during wildfires the reasons are obvious, but outside of wildfire season i have fairly regularly seen the air quality just plummet and we’re just completely left in the dark why its happening.
Anecdotally, moving from India to North America really helped my health. I know this study is about long term effects but I believe even short term , it’s quite noticeable. It’s why I find it perplexing why so many people in the US want to do away with EPA regulations. Not only was pollution rampant in many Americans lifetimes, it’s completely observable how bad pollution is elsewhere in the world for people.
On a tangentially related note, it confuses me why so many people seem to think that the only reason to do away with fossil fuels as much as possible is climate change. Millions die prematurely from air pollution every year. Even if climate change was fake we should still be trying to use cleaner energy.
And I wanted to reply to that to say that we did used to be able to see exhaust fumes, and things were added so that we can't see them.
I have often thought that "the school run" would be different if everyone could see the cars pumping out exhaust outside the school, but history suggests that what would be different is people wouldn't want to see it, rather than being inconvenienced by getting rid of it. And that's a pattern which comes over from elderly care problems, homelessness and mental health problems, poverty problems, where the actions taken are often closer to sweeping under the rug than trying to solve the root causes.
> "Millions die prematurely from air pollution every year."
Especially including the radiation in the emissions from coal burning power plants, which kills more people every year than any nuclear power plant accident.
Why I run an expensive HEPA air filtration system 24/7 even though the air is relatively clean. Although I live near a busy highway, the air is effectively 0 ppm (undetectable) in each of 1.0, 2.5, and 10 um at home indoors. (BlueAir 680i with the better 2-part filters.)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't know about the others, but for the last one, "reduce pollution" only works if people, who aren't bike riding hippies by a large margin, see any point in reducing pollution. Why is pollution even bad, anyway? Seriously, factories have been working for centuries and nothing has gone wrong, so why should we regulate where they can pour their waste or make them pay for environmental nonsense like carbon capture?…
(See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33713513 ) > Seriously, factories have been working for centuries and nothing has gone wrong, so why should we regulate where they can pour their waste or make them pay for environmental nonsense like carbon capture? Pardon? Factories have caused all sorts of problems with discharge, intentional or unintentional. Here's some from the top of my head: https://en.wikipedia.org/w…
https://history.com/news/epa-earth-day-cleveland-cuyahoga-ri...
I have a friend who lives in an apartment near a major, major artery in Seattle. It's 6 lanes wide looking out from the balcony directly down onto the street. It's what they can afford in a somewhat close commute to work by bus (they can't afford a car). I lived in an apartment a block from I-5 for 6 years. I've made enough money to buy a house in a neighborhood away from traffic pollution. It was a major part of my…
How much would it cost to lower the PM 2.5 in his house? Even cut it in half? I don't know your friend but for some people they can afford air purifiers, running the A/C, and keeping the windows closed, but they feel it's not worth it. It's seen as a wasted expense. Especially true during Covid when many doctors could have retro-fitted their practices with HVAC filters. I think we really need an educational campaign.
In one room, plausibly reduce it by 99% for a one-off $70 air purifier and $30/year of electricity costs and replacement filters: https://dynomight.net/ikea-purifier/