News Roundup 04/22/20
Los Angeles has notoriously polluted air. But right now it has some of the cleanest of any major city
CNN writer Drew Kane reported on April 7th that Los Angeles currently has some of the cleanest air out of all major cities. Kane provided an imagine from IQair, a Swiss air quality technology company that monitors pollution levels in cities around the world. The imagine displayed Los Angeles’s air quality records from 1995 to today.The graph provided a key explaining AQI (Air Quality Index) levels that represent good to hazardous. It was apparent that the longest records of good air quality since 1995 started in March. According to Dr. Yifang Zhu professor of environmental health sciences at UCLA’s stated 20% in an overall increase in air quality in Southern California.
Source: CNN
Los Angeles air quality the best it’s been in decades, thanks to coronavirus
Within the article, Wray states “the environment continues to benefit from everyone staying at home”. With fewer cars on the road traffic has gone down 80% and Los Angeles is experiencing some of its cleanest air of any major city. Wray also provided the same charts as Kane from the U.S Environmental Protection Agency to showcase the change.
Source: Global News
These 8 maps show the massive drop in smog caused by the coronavirus
Adele Peter's article for Fast Company brought another piece to the puzzle when she addressed another huge contributor to emissions, Planes. Airlines have reported a 97 percent decrease in flights, as a result of helping the air pollution in Los Angeles and surrounding areas drop.
Peters states "In the Northeastern U.S., nitrogen dioxide pollution (the air pollution caused by internal combustion engines burning fossil fuels) fell 30% in March as lockdowns began according to NASA."
Peter then discusses how this has brought more attention to the public by allowing everyone to see that it is possible to clean up the earth by controlling emissions.
“When people see the world that could be, it is harder to take it away,” Gretchen Goldman, a research director at the Union of Concerned Scientists. “We already have all the tools we need that would allow us to have cleaner air all the time... We could be switching from coal to renewables. We could be adapting national standards for clean energy. We could get off fossil fuel subsidies... We know what the solutions are.”
Source: Fast Company
As Californians stay at home, air quality improves – for now.
"The statewide stay at home order has an unexpected benefit: fewer traffic jams and less air pollution. That's good news for Californians with health problems." This was the summary given by Julie Cart, a writer for CalMatters.org.
In Cart's piece, she notes most people that were bound to be struggling with COVID -19, were those who already had previous respiratory issues. For example, those with Asthma who are constantly affected by LA's terrible air quality actually might be able to feel a sense of relief. If they don't catch COVID-19 they should be currently having fewer issues breathing because of the shift of less pollutants in the air.
Source: Cal Matters
Cleaner Air in SoCal Not Just Due to Less Cars on Road
Medeoligist Robert Santos spoke on Spectrum 1 News about the effects the weather has with this new sense of clean air. Santos mentioned that a week before the stay at home order was declared, Los Angeles was already seeing a positive change in the air quality because of the help of the recent rain.
Santos says "on a typical smoggy day, offshore winds can clear out the smog over downtown Los Angeles. Unsettled or stormy weather can also improve air quality by mixing up the atmosphere and preventing pollutants from building up."
Santos also interviewed Philip Fine, AQMD’s Deputy Executive Officer who mentioned that over the years our cars have become less of the issue with emissions. The issue currently lies from equipment transportation like big rigs, and 40 percent of most emissions coming from our two shipping ports in Long Beach and LA.
Source: Spectrum News 1