9 thoughts on “Forbes: America's 20 Dirtiest Cities”
Houston has cleaned up a lot in the past twenty years.
In fact, I know for a fact that this data is out of date if not flat-out wrong. Houston is not eighth worst in ozone in the country. we have achieved the 80 ppb eight hour standard since 2009, and are in mild non-attainment for ozone.
Also, the “Toxics released” is overblown. The majority of these are simple VOCs released into the atmosphere as a result of flaring or fugitives which only contribute to ozone. Also, due to our higher monitoring requirements, the higher value is more accurate (and given our experience with flare monitors, everyone else is significantly under-reporting)
Amazed that I had to get to # 13 to find my former home town of Houston. Several years ago Lee P Brown ran for reelection of the premise Houston had the worst AQ in the country. And he won so it is little wonder Obama was able to win a second term.
Odd how Washington DC avoided this list. Seems to me the absolute center of pollution in the universe. But then, I count political hot air as pollution…
Hey off topic here,I don’t like what I see at the explosion of fu ku.Detonation,not explosion .Color of debri rising same as last tradgity,some thing fishy,color of explosion flames,NOT FUKIN STEAM!!!!!!! I AM NOT AN EXPERT,JUST NOT Satisfied on info,as this is VERY PERSONAL
Hey off topic here,I don’t like what I see at the explosion of fu ku.Detonation,not explosion .Color of debri rising same as last tradgity,some thing fishy,color of explosion flames,NOT FUKIN STEAM!!!!!!!
Air quality evaluations from the American Lung Association- a leading purveyor of junk science. And note that in the list, ‘dirty’ = chemicals, mostly. Otherwise, = unsightly, with pix obviously cherry-picked from the worst neighborhoods. In any city of decent size, you can get pix like that.
Remember when ‘dirty’ used to mean something having dirt on it? Well, I do, but then I’m older than dirt.
These choices are based on some sort of statistical analysis — but it doesn’t deliver a very reasonable result. All the California towns in the Central Valley (Sacramento, Fresno, Modesto, and Bakersfield) suffer from agricultural burning, particularly in the fall after field crops are harvested. Rice stubble left after harvest, in particular, “needs” to be burnt to control plant diseases — resulting in huge contributions to “particle pollution” in the air. Also, these cities also have other agricultural related “pollution” caused by pesticide use and dust kicked up in normal farm operations.
Los Angeles and San Jose both suffer from undesirable topography, where surrounding hills/mountains trap all forms of air pollution under a “heat inversion” layer in the atmosphere — exacerbated by normal wind patterns.
What this leaves out is how much cleaner the air is in all of these locations when compared to 30~50 years ago. The EPA (and related California board) have repeatedly tightened regulations, making what was once acceptable (and considerably improved from the post WWII era) to now “illegal” air quality. I note that I grew up living in California, attending elementary school during the 1950s — and I recall smelling and breathing severe air pollution that has all but completely disappeared from the skys of California.
Forbes was once a serious publication and had some respectable writers.
California is supposed to be a green paradise. Trouble in paradise???
Anywhere you congregate large numbers of people, you get messes. People are not known for keeping things neat and tidy–homes, cities, etc. Lazy people throw crap out car windows. Cheap people avoid landfills and dump garbage everywhere. Changing the acceptable amount of compounds in ground water can effectively make every bit of water on earth not fit to drink. One can pick up trash, find cleaner ways of manufacturing (NOT with government regulations) but there is only so much you can do about people’s bad attitudes.
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Houston has cleaned up a lot in the past twenty years.
In fact, I know for a fact that this data is out of date if not flat-out wrong. Houston is not eighth worst in ozone in the country. we have achieved the 80 ppb eight hour standard since 2009, and are in mild non-attainment for ozone.
Also, the “Toxics released” is overblown. The majority of these are simple VOCs released into the atmosphere as a result of flaring or fugitives which only contribute to ozone. Also, due to our higher monitoring requirements, the higher value is more accurate (and given our experience with flare monitors, everyone else is significantly under-reporting)
Amazed that I had to get to # 13 to find my former home town of Houston. Several years ago Lee P Brown ran for reelection of the premise Houston had the worst AQ in the country. And he won so it is little wonder Obama was able to win a second term.
Odd how Washington DC avoided this list. Seems to me the absolute center of pollution in the universe. But then, I count political hot air as pollution…
Hey off topic here,I don’t like what I see at the explosion of fu ku.Detonation,not explosion .Color of debri rising same as last tradgity,some thing fishy,color of explosion flames,NOT FUKIN STEAM!!!!!!! I AM NOT AN EXPERT,JUST NOT Satisfied on info,as this is VERY PERSONAL
Hey off topic here,I don’t like what I see at the explosion of fu ku.Detonation,not explosion .Color of debri rising same as last tradgity,some thing fishy,color of explosion flames,NOT FUKIN STEAM!!!!!!!
Air quality evaluations from the American Lung Association- a leading purveyor of junk science. And note that in the list, ‘dirty’ = chemicals, mostly. Otherwise, = unsightly, with pix obviously cherry-picked from the worst neighborhoods. In any city of decent size, you can get pix like that.
Remember when ‘dirty’ used to mean something having dirt on it? Well, I do, but then I’m older than dirt.
These choices are based on some sort of statistical analysis — but it doesn’t deliver a very reasonable result. All the California towns in the Central Valley (Sacramento, Fresno, Modesto, and Bakersfield) suffer from agricultural burning, particularly in the fall after field crops are harvested. Rice stubble left after harvest, in particular, “needs” to be burnt to control plant diseases — resulting in huge contributions to “particle pollution” in the air. Also, these cities also have other agricultural related “pollution” caused by pesticide use and dust kicked up in normal farm operations.
Los Angeles and San Jose both suffer from undesirable topography, where surrounding hills/mountains trap all forms of air pollution under a “heat inversion” layer in the atmosphere — exacerbated by normal wind patterns.
What this leaves out is how much cleaner the air is in all of these locations when compared to 30~50 years ago. The EPA (and related California board) have repeatedly tightened regulations, making what was once acceptable (and considerably improved from the post WWII era) to now “illegal” air quality. I note that I grew up living in California, attending elementary school during the 1950s — and I recall smelling and breathing severe air pollution that has all but completely disappeared from the skys of California.
Forbes was once a serious publication and had some respectable writers.
California is supposed to be a green paradise. Trouble in paradise???
Anywhere you congregate large numbers of people, you get messes. People are not known for keeping things neat and tidy–homes, cities, etc. Lazy people throw crap out car windows. Cheap people avoid landfills and dump garbage everywhere. Changing the acceptable amount of compounds in ground water can effectively make every bit of water on earth not fit to drink. One can pick up trash, find cleaner ways of manufacturing (NOT with government regulations) but there is only so much you can do about people’s bad attitudes.