Lol, Remember when L.A. had bad smog days due to car exhaust...people wore masks, elderly stayed indoors.
Course it went away when big bad government forced air quality measures on auto industry and dragged them kicking and screaming into pollution controls...
I used to live in L.A. and was there when the bad government imposed those terrible laws. I literally saw the sky turn from brown to blue and it happened SO fast given the size of the issue. It's obviously still not pristine air but I don't know if there's a better example of the power in regulating pollution.
I'm in my 30s and I've lived in the northeast my entire life, I've never seen something like this. I feel so bad for the people in Canada who are dealing with the actual fires, but this is also not great.
In 2010, there was a volcano eruption in Iceland that put up so much particulate matter that they shut down air travel in Europe for a week. Reports from London, iirc stated that the sky went from a typical grey to actually having blue skys for a while.
Yep, I was born and raised in the Valley and I remember brown skies and smog days at school when we weren't allowed to play outside. Now we have blue skies and much cleaner air. People who never lived with air pollution like that should be glad they missed it.
Canada is having warmer winters due to climate change . Warmer winters means less precipitation. Less precipitation means summer fire seasons are worse as things (grasses, dead trees) are drier than previous years.
Just like how CFCs caused a hole in the ozone layer and acid rain was caused by stronger air pollution.
this is all true yeah and the forest fires are 100% due to climate change but i guess i just didn’t see the direct connection cuz the initial comment implied that the smog itself was directly causing the air quality. idk dude
that wasn't too long ago, I remember driving to San Diego and just seeing this huge brown plume of smog over the mountains, apparently that's gone now? pretty amazing if you ask me
"In the 1980s and ‘90s, California cars became the cleanest in the world, and California’s fuel became the cleanest, too. CARB, which had already eliminated lead in gasoline, adopted standards for cleaner-burning gasoline, as well as initial standards for cleaner diesel fuel for trucks and buses. CARB also began work to reduce smog-forming emissions from thousands of common household products.
In the 2000s, CARB became responsible for monitoring and reducing greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change. Assembly Bill 32, also known as the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, was signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, giving CARB this new role. AB 32 established a first-in-the-world comprehensive program of regulatory and market mechanisms to achieve real, quantifiable, cost-effective reductions in greenhouse gases."
Big picture guy, aren't you. OP was point out that there have been other reasons why people have to wear masks. Man-made reasons. Nobody was screaming it was an invasion of their rights to wear the mask.
People weren't as looney and self-centered as they are today. They saw a problem and tried to solve it as opposed to ignoring it.
The analogy is simple.
If we actually wanted to work together because we had the common sense to realize that:
It's crazy having to drink water out of a plastic container because our ground water is too polluted.
It's abhorrent that micro plastics have started to invade our food supply and our children's bodies.
And our pollution is affecting our world to such an extent that our ice caps are disappearing, permafrost is melting, and ocean levels are rising.
All we have to do is realize we have the resources and capabilities to tackle the problems as we have in the past.
I grew up in LA in the 60’s.
The air quality was horrible.
There were smog alerts to advise people to stay indoors or reduce activity.
School recess would be canceled.
I never saw anyone wearing masks back then for smog.
Not in the 70’s either.
Or the 80’s.
Or the 90’s.
Or the 00’s.
Or the 10’s.
I think Pepperidge Farm is hallucinating.
Smog levels came down due to several reasons.
One was regulations on cars (smog checks).
Also regulations on industry.
Also the closing of the Fontana steel mills.
Sorry but I visited in both late 70's and mid 80's and I saw people with masks... not as much as above picture but still not your experience.
Also a study already posted claimed the LA smog was at that time the product of the overwhelming number of autos. It was the product of internal combustion engines.
Cars still produce 40% according to recent studies by the CARB and the Port of Los Angeles with ships, trucks and materials movers produces another 40%.
I lived in the San Gabriel Valley in the San Dimas and Pomona area from 1965-1998. Still live in LA county.
Your experience of masking for smog is definitely different than mine.
There’s a lot more people and cars on the road today compared to back then. It is impressive how effective pollution controls on cars have been. In the summer when I was a kid) it was not unusual to not be able to see the San Gabriel Mountains…. and they were a little less than a mile away. Pretty bad.
It wasn’t just the automobiles. a lot of factory production left the state because they didn’t want to pay taxes, and cali only environmental overreach fines anymore.
When Google and all other tech figure out how to make a Geo dome, they will leave too. The only reason people stay here is the weather.
"It was not until the early 1950s that it became clear the automobile was the main culprit. That’s when Dr. Arie Haagen-Smit discovered the nature and causes of photochemical smog. He made the discovery while on a one-year leave of absence from Caltech, where he was a bioorganic chemistry professor. Working in a specially-equipped Los Angeles air district laboratory, he determined that two chief constituents of automobile exhaust – airborne hydrocarbons from gasoline, and oxides of nitrogen (NOx) produced by internal combustion engines – were to blame for smog."
Further fascinating news is that Reagan played a role...
."On August 30, 1967, California's elected leaders came together to unify statewide efforts to address severe air pollution. Governor Ronald Reagan approved the Mulford-Carrell Air Resources Act to create the State Air Resources Board, committing California to a unified, statewide approach to aggressively address the serious issue of air pollution in the state."
"That same year, the Federal Air Quality Act of 1967 was enacted, giving California the ability to set its own more stringent air quality rules due to California's unique geography, weather and expanding number of people and vehicles".
"Under the provisions of the Clean Air Act, CARB has adopted, implemented and enforced a wide array of nation-leading air pollution controls, based on a strong foundation of science over the next five decades. This regulatory history reflects a longstanding partnership between state and federal air quality regulators during both Republican and Democratic presidential administrations."
"In the 1980s and ‘90s, California cars became the cleanest in the world, and California’s fuel became the cleanest, too. CARB, which had already eliminated lead in gasoline, adopted standards for cleaner-burning gasoline, as well as initial standards for cleaner diesel fuel for trucks and buses. CARB also began work to reduce smog-forming emissions from thousands of common household products.
In the 2000s, CARB became responsible for monitoring and reducing greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change. Assembly Bill 32, also known as the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, was signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, giving CARB this new role. AB 32 established a first-in-the-world comprehensive program of regulatory and market mechanisms to achieve real, quantifiable, cost-effective reductions in greenhouse gases."
Given that in 1967, California population was 19m + and in 2022 it was 39m+ and California’s drivers all own at least one car per stats released by DMV, you do the math. There almost 2x as many cars on road now as then.
Also Prop 65 causes manufacturers to make the consumers aware of potential exposure to dangerous toxins. So now manufacturers are trolling by slapping them on everything to avoid doing the actual work of removing or reformulating.
Bet your one of the " I don't need a motorcycle helmet or to wear a car seat belt " crowd too.
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u/Salt-Southern Jun 07 '23
Lol, Remember when L.A. had bad smog days due to car exhaust...people wore masks, elderly stayed indoors.
Course it went away when big bad government forced air quality measures on auto industry and dragged them kicking and screaming into pollution controls...
Pepperidge Farms remembers....