Words: 1937
One such factor was World War II, from the late sass’s to 1 945, which rigged a boom in the population of California and the beginning of the urban sprawl. Increases in population such as this resulted in a massive increase in pollution but more specifically air pollution. TO counteract the drastic increase of air pollution in California, then Governor Earl Warren signed the Air Pollution Control Act authorizing each county in the state to create its own air pollution control (California Air Resources Board).
Since the inception of this “clean air” act many private and governmental organizations were created setting rules, regulations, and standards against pollution and writing them into law. While the average individual is able to make decisions which ultimately affect the quality of our air by making it less polluted organizations hold a far greater power in controlling the quality Californians air. Combining the organizational factors with the efforts of the individual has drastically decreased the rate at which we pollute our environment and increased the quality of the air here in California.
With the end of the Second World War California saw a massive urban sprawl and a population surge. This not only increased the demand we were placing upon Californians natural resources, but also triggered a huge crease in the quality of Californians air. Since population was increasing and the populated areas within the state were increasing as well, more people began purchased vehicles and/or added to the total Vehicle Miles Traveled on California roads. From 1940 to 2000 the population increased from seven million to 34 million; the number of registered cars increased from 2. 8 million to 23. Million; and the total Vehicle Miles Traveled (VIM) increased from 24 billion to 280 billion (California Air Resources Board). This increase was in large part one of the main causes of air pollution in California. A study taken in 2003 showed that motor vehicles alone accounted for 55% of the Knox present in Californians air (Stephen L. Johnson EPA). Knox is one of the main air pollutants and its compounds are made up of different quantities of Nitrogen and Oxygen. A few of the compounds created are Nitrogen Dioxide, Nitric Acid, Nitrous Oxide, Nitrates and Nitric Oxide (Stephen L.
Johnson EPA). Knox is also one of the main contributing factors to the production of Ozone. Combining Knox, Volatile Organic Compounds, which are generated from the burning of fossil fuels, and sunlight result in the production of Ozone. The pollutant Ozone is chemically identical to the Ozone which is present and very much necessary in our upper atmosphere; the difference is that we are exposed to Ground-level Ozone which is highly reactive and damaging to our health and to the environment.
Pollutants such as Ozone and Knox contribute to all of the different forms of air pollution such as acid rain, global warming, and many health risks. On the tenth of June in 1947 California Governor Earl Warren signed the Air Pollution Control Act, authorizing the creation of an Air Pollution Control District in each county throughout the state. This was an extremely important event as it gave governmental organizations the power to write and enforce environmental law. California then began to pass laws and create organizations to assist in restoring the quality of its air.
In 1 963 the First Federal Clean Air Act was enacted. This act allowed the Secretary of federal Health, Education, and Welfare to define air quality standards based on scientific studies. The Clean Air Act Was amended to many times as new studies and experiments were performed. Many organizations were formed such as the California Air Resources Board, the California Motor Vehicle Pollution Control Board, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (California Air Resources Board).
The Bay Area Air Quality Management District recently launched the Bay Area 2005 Ozone Strategy to assist in the continuation and improvement of Ozone emissions within and surrounding the San Francisco Bay Area. This plan was designed to assist the San Francisco Bay Area in meeting and surpassing the current state requirements and regulations regarding pollution and Ozone control. An organization called the Metropolitan Transportation Commission long with the California Air Resources Board is providing a great deal of financial and technical assistance to the Bay Area Air Quality Management District’s plan.
The strategy includes an advanced photochemical Ozone modeling program which will provide information about past and present Ozone emissions in the Bay Area and the transportation of Pollutants to downwind areas. This is an essential part of the plan as it provides a current standard of air pollution as well as informing officials of problem areas. This information will allow the organization to provide the most efficient and effective plan to improve the quality of Californians air. The new Ozone plan is set on a schedule to reach the national one hour Ozone standard by the year 2006.
The one hour Ozone standard has a limit of 0. 12 pump, which means that an Ozone monitoring site which takes a reading greater than 0. 12 pump of Ozone would be in violation Of the one hour standard. According to the EPA there has not been a violation of the one hour Ozone standard for a number of years and the amount of chemical pollutants present in the air in California is on the decline (Thomas Addison ABASED). Although most of the United States is lacking in affordable and convenient public transportation the San Francisco Bay Area offers many different forms of public transportation.
The Bay Area is home to one of the more widely known public transportation systems within California called the Bay Area Rapid Transit, or BART. BART is a multi car electric rail powered system which travels from the northeast bay to the southeast bay and connects the east bay and Oakland with San Francisco. One downfall to the system lies in transportation to and from a desired BART station. The east bay area notation a bus system called the County Connection, which runs constantly to and from the local BART stations and most residential areas, shopping and business centers.
With a little patience one can get pretty much any. Veer in the east bay area using BART and the County Connection busses. A common benefit of BART lies in its convenience in heavily trafficked areas and/or during daily commutes and rush hours. BART offers a premier form of transportation to the Oakland and San Francisco airports, as well as to the many professional sports arenas located in the Bay Area. Each region within he range of BART has its own bus system and park and ride, or carpool parking areas, allowing people to minimize their travel by vehicle.
The Bay Area Rapid Transit system along with other forms of public transportation such as the county connection offer an excellent means to reducing vehicle emissions in the Bay Area (http://www. Bart. Gob/about/history/ systematic. Asp). There is currently a great deal of research being done in subjects which will attempt to provide new forms of energy allowing us to rely much less on oil and rely much more heavily on a cleaner burning and more efficient resource.
Vehicle manufacturing companies are working on Nitrogen burning engines for the cars of the future. These engines burn much cleaner since they do not burn hydrocarbons and their main emissions consist mostly of water (Departs, H. University of Washington). Before engines such as these can go into mass production more research needs to be done in order to tap into current Nitrogen stores and to obtain Nitrogen in a cost effective manner.
More and more people are purchasing gas electric hybrid vehicles in order to reduce emissions and to reduce dependence on fossil fuels. As an example he 2006 Honda Civic Hybrid was given a partial zero emissions vehicle rating and boasts a miles per gallon rating of 49 highway and 51 residential (Nobelium Oakmont American Honda Motor Company 2005). With the quickly increasing popularity of vehicles like this one, Motor Vehicle companies put more effort into increasing the efficiency, decreasing the emissions and decreasing the cost of the vehicles.
If more people drove vehicles such as these hybrid cars the Knox emissions would greatly decrease, resulting in much lower Ozone levels within California as well as the United States. There are many organizational and governmental agencies, commissions, groups and programs helping to clean up the air in the San Francisco Bay Area. They have provided us with many alternatives to our most pollutant causing habits. Although these programs take care of a great deal of our pollution problems we need to make the individual effort toward obtaining a new and clean environment.
There are many individual factors and personal habits in our current way of life that result in a more polluted environment. The government and many organizations have worked to provided us with arms of public transportation often near our homes and jobs which we should take full advantage of. Our public transportation systems are clearly not useful enough to allow everyone to use them however, if we show our support more effort will go into making them more cost effective and convenient to use.
Being a person who has traveled to other countries such as Europe, one can see the positive effect a more thorough branch of public transportation could feasibly offer California. BART, Amtrak, local busses and carpooling can greatly reduce the amount of miles driven in our motor icicles resulting in the much improved quality of Californians air. With the raising oil prices many more people are making these efforts, however, we should not base these decisions entirely on the current cost of oil.
Many more recreational areas, businesses, institutions and individuals are recycling as our environmental awareness is increased and we realize the importance of the individual effort. We can also look into the history of production or background of the foods and products we purchase and provide our support the companies which follow strict pollution guidelines in their production. We would also help in maintaining and improving current rules laws and regulations dealing with the environment and air pollution by being fully informed on local and regional policy and voting.
Many people believe that we are doing a great deal damage to our environment, however, environmental studies are becoming more and more prevalent on our college campuses and we are achieving a new level of understanding and education within the greater public dealing with matters of environmental protection. We need to think about our lives and put forth a greater effort to help maintain the environment for our children and future ancestors. Many people are choosing careers within the environmental world, and people are becoming less careless in matters of environmental preservation and protection.
Julian Simony’s opinion on pollution is that we should not worry too much about the environment because we will discover and invent new ways to clean up after ourselves. I feel that this is an extremely dangerous opinion to hold, however, science and engineering are bringing us in the right direction in terms of restoring our environment. We have an obligation to provide a healthy and stable environment for the sake f our future ancestors, which we can achieve by supporting organizations and also by believing that the single human can make a difference.