Chasing Clean Air

What happened to philosopher-kings?

When I was seventeen years old and a freshman in college, I was introduced to Socrates' idea of philosopher-kings: well-educated and wise philosophical men, who should rule society.

I'll add women, too.

As I write about my desire for clean air, miniature philosopher-kings float in my mind.

It's apparent that we need stronger leaders in business, and federal, state, and local governments to take effective action in order to have clean air.

We need wise thinkers.

Why do we nominate and vote for candidates that received poor marks in school and social behavior? It doesn't bode well for our future.

My hope is that wise thinkers with passionate voices, strong enough to carry them through airwaves, soundwaves, and others' unproductive thoughts, will emerge as modern 21st century philosopher-kings.

And queens.

Wait a minute, Congressman Waxman and his Safe Climate Act of 2007.

Rep. Waxman just may be a modern-day philosopher-king. He is a wise trooper working on global warming issues.

His scientific-based Safe Climate Bill is a blueprint for the U.S. government to create regulations to stop global warming. Thank you, Rep. Waxman. 

Moving Goods Movement & The New Clean Port Blog

The Los Angeles and Long Beach Ports receive 40% of goods coming into America.

I don't know if you can see the immense ship from China I captured through a Catalina Cruiser docked at Port of Los Angeles. I remember thinking about the coffee mugs, sweaters, and TVs made in China, and bringing pollution here.

While ship exhaust is thousands of times more lethal than diesel truck exhaust, around 30,000 trucks depart our ports daily, hitting local freeways headed to a community near you.

They bring goods and pollution.

Old and polluting trucks take their foreign cargo (buy local!), along our freeways, spewing poisonous fine particulate matter into the air, which is the cause of increased cancer and asthma rates for those living and working nearby main roadways.

As well, these diesel trucks, along with ships, are major contributors to carbon emissions, which effect global warming and our crazy zany new weather patterns.

We can and must clean diesel trucks.

One of the problems with cleaning diesel trucks--giving them the latest clean technologies --is that many truck drivers are individuals with no financial backing from shipping and trucking companies, as they should be.

We must support truckers for our health and theirs, and encourage industry that benefit from truckers to subsidize them, make them employees, do something.

A new blog called Clean and Safe Ports addresses solutions for the truckers, and goods movement.

The blog is well-organized and informative, which shines a light on the underbelly of what really goes on at our ports.

It's brought to us by The Coalition for Clean and Safe Ports.

This subject should be a concern to everyone breathing, especially those of us living in or near Los Angeles and Long Beach.

Los Angeles Times reporter Louis Sahagun wrote a piece about unsafe trucks streaming out of ports here.

The San Pedro Ports Clean Air Action Plan can be read here.

According to the California Air Resources Board (CARB), the agency that regulates air pollution in California,

Air pollution from international trade and goods movement is a major public health concern at the statewide, regional and community level. Adverse health impacts from the pollutants associated with goods movement include but are not limited to premature death, cancer risk, respiratory illnesses, and increased risk of heart disease . . . . Adverse birth outcomes, effects on the immune system, multiple respiratory effects, and neurotoxicity are additional potential health effects.

Update on EPA libraries

Why do we have an EPA?

Two years ago, President Bush closed one-third of regional EPA libraries in order to save money. He cared little about the valuable environmental reports boxed up, leaving many EPA scientists impotent and the public information seekers, such as myself, helpless to get previous "facts" and statistics.

Flash-forward to the future, now.

As a result of public pressure, Congress just gave the EPA $1 million dollars and demanded that they restore the closed libraries.

Government ineffectual.

I wonder who will watch EPA employees restore the libraries?

I wonder if the EPA employees will find those old dusty boxes of reports and books?

And if they can't find them, I wonder if I can have the money to open an environmental library?

Judging by his actions, Bush prefers to keep valuable environmental information away from EPA scientists and the public, which is in alignment with his desire to cut off EPA's power to create legislation to curb global warming.

At times like today, I think our tax dollars might be better served, decreasing EPA's almost $8 billion dollar budget, and giving money to state and citizen environmental protection groups instead.

$8 billion. That's a lot of money that could be put to good use, protecting the environment. What would you do?

To read more about Congress demanding that EPA reinstate their libraries, here you go.

Xerox Corporation Goes Green And So Can You!

If all companies and government agencies went green like Xerox did, our world would be a much better place.

There'd be more old growth trees. More oxygen, too.

Everyone loves big trees, so don't cut them down for phone directories that rarely get opened, or for scripts and books in the making (I used to be guilty!), and the unnecessary corporate memo.

Forget about it!

Use recycled paper, or paper from sustainable forests, and "unprinted" email instead. If you're a memo saturated company, consider setting up a corporate community blog instead.

What has your company done lately to improve its environmental record?

According to the Rainforest Alliance this is what Xerox Corp. did.

Xerox supported sustainable forestry and forest conservation, and got FSC (Forest Stewartship Council) Certification on operations in 17 countries, which means when you buy paper products from Xerox, you didn't hurt the planet. You didn't cut down old growth trees.

Other companies that increased FSC certified paper use include Simon & Schuster, Limited Brands (parent company to Victoria's Secret) Nordstrom, and William-Sonoma.

If your company or government agency needs green ideas, and help communicating your message, consider Go Green! PR. Go Green builds upon The Barnett Company, specializing in media relations. Clients have appeared in Forbes, Fortune, New York Times, ABC, CNN, and more.

Now more than ever we must communicate the positive changes we are doing to reduce natural resource abuse and global warming.

The wider the audience the better. So...

Be cool.

Cool the planet. And tell everyone how cool you are.

Let's learn from one another. Good perpetuates good.

And public companies...

According to a Goldman Sachs July 2007 Report, companies perceived as leaders in social and environmental policies, led in stock value performance by as much as 25%.

After driving around Washington State, amongst huge Douglas Fir trees punctuated with death mills, I mean, paper mills, it's heart-warming to hear that large companies are lining up now more than ever to buy paper made from sustainable forests.

Radon can lead to lung cancer

According to the U.S. Surgeon General, the invisible odorless gas Radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer in America.

Radon seeps into homes, and is more prevalent in certain geographical areas.

In Southern California, I read that Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties have the highest incidence of radon in homes.

1 (800) SOS-RADON you can call to test for it. I understand the problem can be fixed.

To read more:

http://www.epa.gov/newsroom/greenscene/index.html#radon

Ethics Reach Thy Hand Into My Corporate Culture

The Economist has an article about the rise of Corporate Social Responsibility Officers.

The reporter suggests that doing good is fine and well, but business is in it to make money, create jobs, and it's best to leave "doing good" to government creating regulations.

I disagree.

We all have to do good, and start-up and existing companies are in a great position to make incremental changes for the greatest good of mankind, global warming, sustainable living, and the planet.

In my experience, Corporate America is faster and more motivated than most government agencies weighed down by bureacracy and safe jobs that widdle "do good" incentives down to a shrug and manana attitude. Sure, they need to create laws and incentives but frequently they don't get around to it until forced to, and even then...

The federal EPA is still trying to implement the 1970 and 1990 Clean Air Act.

I testified at an EPA hearing last August 2007, demanding stricter ozone standards. And I wondered why?

Why can't the EPA make stricter regulations to protect me from breathing this smog?

Isn't that their job, and why they get $7.7 billion tax dollars each year?

This photo was taken from a flight in August 2007 when I was about to land at LAX.

The photo illustrates why individuals, companies, NGOs--everyone--must reduce their dependence on fossil fuel and stop passing the buck to the next guy.

I imagine EPA employees create reports, read reports, and enjoy paid holidays, but I don't imagine they deal effectively with the worst of smoggy reality. The EPA is one reason I don't count on government. Some say the EPA is ineffectual because of head administrator Stephen Johnson, a Bush appointee, but I don't know enough to know.

I do believe in government regulation and checks and balances, eventually, someday, hopefully, but I'll bet on proactive individuals and innovative companies to get on with cleaning our air.

Companies fueled by competition frequently create savvy solutions for today's needs.

Our most pressing needs are to reduce global warming, create sustainable products, get off of our fossil fuel diet, and insist on fair practices and trade.

www.gogreenpr.com for companies going green and proud to share their story. In addition to writing this blog, my passion, I'm set up to assist worthwhile companies and causes with their communications plans.

P.S.

As EPA works on creating stricter regulations to curb air pollution, such as you saw in above photo, note that 90 million plus Americans breathe polluted air right now.

Contaminants found in polluted air such as benzene, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, lead, nitrogen oxide, particulate matter, and sulfur dioxide can cause cancer, birth defects, brain and nerve damage, and long-term injury to the lungs and breathing passages.

Above certain concentrations and durations, air pollutants can cause severe injury or death.