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The air and water quality in the US used to be awful. Cities were choked with smog. The plume from the Four Corners Power Plant in New Mexico was the most visible man made feature for Apollo astronauts. The Cuyahoga River near Cleveland caught on fire in 1969.
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Rowan and Martin’s Laugh In had a joke that Lake Erie was so filthy because of all the dead fish. It used to be difficult to see all the way across the Grand Canyon, because of particulates coming out of the Navajo Generating Station. It used to be difficult to see across the Rio Grande Valley north of Santa Fe, New Mexico – because of particulates coming out of the Four Corners Power Plant.
Things are much better now because of government regulations. There was a time when government environmental policy was sane, and they focused on actual pollutants.
I remember in the 70’s we’d open the car window and throw the McDonalds bag out as mom was driving down the road. Everyone did it. The ditch was dotted with McDonalds bags, soda cans, other trash. Now, I hate it when I even see someone throws a gum wrapper out the window. Yes, mankind has evolved. 😉
I was behind a car from the 70’s yesterday. The exhaust smelled awful. To think, all cars smelled like that back then. I didn’t notice the gradual change in car exhaust over the years. It’s obvious man likes to make his environment cleaner. Some people are using global warming to try to force mankind to do something he is already doing—improving the environment.
And you’re right, government regulations have gone off the tracks by saying “greenhouse gasses are pollution”. Where do you even start with that one???
There was a time when government environmental policy was sane, and they focused on actual pollutants.
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That’s right Steve, sane. And there should have been a time when EPA just gave up the ghost and went into maintenance mode to keep us from slipping back, but their heyday is long past. Now if they would stop trying to create problems just to justify their existence.
Years ago in a different professional life, I had to visit one the coal burning power plants in the South East USA to work on a process control system.
I have to admit I was shocked at how clean the plant was. All four furnaces were going full tilt and you wouldn’t even know it. Very little smoke was coming out of the stacks and that was white smoke. (Of course, that doesn’t mean it was free of pollution.) Even when one of the furnaces caught fire (as the do just due to build up of particles inside the furnace), if it wasn’t for the water in front of the furnace, a layman would never have known there was a problem.
Things have changed for the better.
There was a time when government environmental policy was sane, and they focused on actual pollutants.
Correction – there was a time when government was sane. Environmental policy is just a subset of the insanity.