Chasing Clean Air

American poet Stephen Crane

American poet Stephen Crane (1871-1900) is known for realism and I like his work. Excerpts from The Mentor Book of Major American Poets.

• I Saw A Man Pursuing

I saw a man pursuing the horizon;

Round and round they sped.

I was disturbed at this;

I accosted the man.

"It is futile," I said,

"You can never__"

"You lie," he cried,

And ran on.

• A Learned Man Came To Me Once

A learned man came to me once,

He said, "I know the way come."

And I was overjoyed by this. Together we hastened.

Soon, too soon, were we

Where my eyes were useless,

And I knew not the ways of my feet. I clung to the hand of my friend;

But at last he cried, "I am lost."

• The Wayfarer

The wayfarer

Perceiving the pathway to truth,

Was struck with astonishment.

It was thickly grown with weeds.

"Ha," he said, "I see that none has passed here

In a long time."

Later he saw that each weed

Was a knife.

"Well," he mumbled at last,

"Doubtless there are other roads."

17 million people. 11 million cars. And Growing. Take Metro.

REALITY CHECK

17 million people. 11 million cars. 13,000,000 pounds of pollution per day in 10,000 square miles.

That's OUR South Coast Air District facts and figures brought to you thanks to SCAQMD.

I read these figures on "SCAQMD" paper that wasn't recycled. They frequently do better than that and I suggest they remain consistent. It should be law to only use recycled paper.

So visualize from Santa Clarita through Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino Counties all 17 million people and 11 million cars squished into 10,000 square miles.

I can't.

And an additional 6 million more people are expected to join our ranks by 2030. Broken down if I stuck around, and I won't, in the next 10 years, there'd be close to 3 million more people and another 1.8 million more cars.

Even if everyone drove a hybrid, where are we putting these cars and people?

Why do people care if we lose business at the ports to container fees? We can afford to lose business and people.

We can't afford haphazard growth.

One solution would be if everyone who can does take public transportation.

I grew up taking buses in San Francisco, and in my twenties I took Washington, DC's metro.

It was great not having a car. I didn't buy my first car until I was thirty-five living in Los Angeles.

To find your local bus schedule in the South Coast Basin, check out:

www.mta.net

www.octa.net

www.riversidetransit.com

www.omnitrans.org

REALITY CHECK

Above photo Los Angeles on smoggy day due to cars and trucks. Same day EPA web site declared we'd had a good air quality day. And I'm twenty-years old.

Clean Air Conferences 2008

I really enjoyed Faster Freight Cleaner Air. Sharing ideas. Hearing what others are up to on the slow march toward cleaner air.

At conferences, you hear first-hand about the challenges that arise on the road to cleaner air due to competing interests, such as taking place at our ports right now regarding how to replace 16,500 trucks. To read more, L.A. Times did an informative piece here.

A number of friends ask how I hear of all the conferences I attend. So I thought I'd share a few upcoming this year in case you'd like to check them out. There's more beyond these conferences but I like these sponsoring organizations.

Globe 2008, Vancouver, Canada - March 12 -14 http://www.globe2008.ca/

Faster Freight Cleaner Air Puget Sound in Seattle, WA - Sept. 17-18th (one of my favorite areas in the world--water, sky, trees, gorgeous!)

Faster Freight Cleaner Air in New York City  - July 8-9, 2008 (vibrant city, culturally diverse, but too many tall buildings block the sun, not enough green)

Low Carbon Fuels 2008, Sacramento April 14 & 15th, 2008 www.lowcarbonfuels2008.com (I haven't been in so long I forgot what Sacramento's like though I remember gray days)

Regional Transit Summit, Los Angeles, March 20, 2008 www.scag.ca.gov

CAPCOA Conference and Expo on New and Emerging Clean Air Technologies and Innovations, Sept. 14-16th 2008 at Long Beach Convention Center. www.capcoa.org  (If you travel to Long Beach, check out their great aquarium)

A small thing you can do to feel good and alleviate someone's suffering

I mentioned too much violence in L.A. the other day, everyday the newscasters lead with murder.

A very nice man suffered a huge loss when a gunman walked into his home and killed his wife and child, and another child is in critical condition in the hospital. He needs money. The car wash where he works is doing a fundraiser car wash tomorrow. I can't go so I'm sending a check, if you'd like to as well, here's his information.

Oscar Mata

C/O Azusa Car Wash

859 S. Azusa Ave.,

City of Azusa, CA 91702

Toxic beauty & labored breathing due to smog

Usually, I'm a fast hiker capable of quickly walking up a steep incline, no problem, no labored breathing. It rained three days ago, so I didn't consider smog as I went later than usual (5:00 p.m) with a friend on my hike. But ozone and fine diesel particulates, known for their dark color, filled the sky and my lungs, making breathing difficult, so much so I didn't hike.  I couldn't hike. It made me very sad. Not that I couldn't hike but that I couldn't hike because of smog, hurting my lungs and chest, and, in fact, making it impossible to go higher. Rest assured this is the final kick I need to go over the edge to... finally, yes... I can... live in clean air.  The air is horrible, inexcusably bad, despite Air Now (EPA web site) listed a forecast of good air quality for ozone and good air quality for particulate matter. My photos alone tell a different truth.

Air Now rarely tells the whole truth, I wonder if it ever does.

Monday and Tuesday this week, I'd started to feel my lungs labored at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

The L.A. Convention Center is located between two major freeways, an area considered a toxic hotspot-- high incidences of cancer/cardiovascular disease--according to health impact air pollution specialists.

The Convention Center has layers of parking.

Lots of trucks and SUVs lumbered about, spewing emissions as I found parking in the building's South Hall garage. I walked quickly through the garage because the air was thick with poison and I found a large steel door that led into the lobby of the Convention Center.

The large steel door remained open all day.

No ventilation.

It was as if the Los Angeles Convention Center was set up to suck toxic auto emission fumes into otherwise elegant halls, which, in this case, housed government, NGO, and activist clean air leaders, discussing how to clean up the crap in the air.

How about starting in our own backyard like get ventilation outside the Convention Center, not inside. And let's work toward international standard agreements so we can breathe everywhere.

A lot of talk about clean fuels. So make mandates already, create gas stations that dispense clean fuels, get electric cars on the road, and then invite me back to the convention center and see if I can breathe.

Before I left my hike of a few steps, I took shots of toxic beauty. Sunset in the Santa Monica Mountains.   

  That's me flying away unless I drive. To be determined.

Faster Freight Cleaner Air 2008 Day Two

I'm running late. Oh my God! Not again. Applying make-up, I hear the rumble. It doesn't abate. Please go away. Not now. Rumble. Rumble.

I'm surprised I want to return to the Faster Freight Cleaner Air Conference for day two. I look in the mirror, and wonder why. No one pays me to go to these clean air conferences. I frequent them. I love to learn everything I can about what's being done to clean the air, what can be done, and I enjoy communicating the message coupled with a passionate dose of helpful tips to clean our air, and

rumble! Rumble! RUMBLE!

An old diesel truck is fuming fine particulate matter outside of my window. Polluting my air.

Rumble.

Polluting my Los Angeles air more than it already is.

RUMBLE!

I'm rumbling now, and far from the first time, I bee-line downstairs to confront the stealer of my sort of clean air, the thief of my time and well-being, the truck driver who looks like an underpaid Mexican (nothing against Mexicans) sitting in the front seat of an old diesel-powered truck, idling the engine.

I won't let him. Rumble.

I march down the stairs, close the door behind me, ready for a confrontation if need be, and I rumble.

And then as if the polluting truck driver heard my rumbling a-coming, a shadow cast ahead of itself giving fair warning, he nonchalantly drove off as if he hadn't disturbed my lungs, my well-being, my schedule, which he had.

I've confronted other truckers idling their diesel engines under my window, to which I've heard,

"I have refrigerated goods on board, I have to idle the engine."

"But I have to breathe! I can't breathe when you idle your diesel engine under my window."

"Too bad, I've got a job to do."

"I've got to breathe!"

And in the end, they're bigger than I am and I leave, and I get myself to thy next clean air conference, and learn and share whatever I can.

Day Two at FFCC Conference, here are my highlights:

Canada is ahead of us in protecting the environment. This was the vibe I got. The idea of conference is that we learn from each other, so if your work is to protect the environment, I suggest you check out Environment Canada because across the conference's panels on shipping, trucking, and what's being done to clean the air, Canada came out ahead. So did what I learned about Singapore, regarding sane solutions for insane environmental problems.

Paul Laundry of British Columbia Trucking was quite refined and rather soft-spoken but what he said had greater weight than what others shared on the Tackling the Transition to Greener Drayage Operations panel. 

Drayage? I vote for a better word that we all understand. That would be a good start for the entire community getting behind ways to clean the air. Cleaning the air is all of our problem.

Anyway, Mr. Laundry recounted what's being done in Canada, which to me seems superior to what's not being done here. Yet. Let's catch up.

In Canada they're phasing out owner-operated trucks because, as Laundry put it, "that model is too fragile." But owner-operated truck drivers (like the guy outside my window) that are already in Canada's system can stay.

Laundry said Canada is getting money to make cleaner trucks from a carbon tax this year. The first effective carbon tax ever to take place in North America.

Cameras. Lights. Action! Carbon Tax.

In the U.S. a lot of talk goes on regarding carbon tax versus cap and trade.

Meanwhile, Canada implemented a carbon tax, which so far raised 2 billion dollars! (Schwarzenneger, that windfall could help California, currently slated to go third world, excuse me, I mean, help keep parks and health clinics to remain open)

Canada charges 9 cents a gallon for carbon (2.4 cents a litre). Once the money is collected by Environment Canada, it goes back to corporate and individual tax payers to use.

It was pretty much agreed on by truck panel that our truck driving model must change.

Many truck drivers are close to be indentured servants, and given a choice, a financially strapped $12/hour truck driver will choose his family over fixing his truck or buying more expensive clean fuels.

The question was posed:

Can alternative fuels be used effectively?

Paul Laundry of B.C. Trucking Association said that by 2010 biodiesel will be Canada's standard.

Matthew Schrap, of California Truckers Association, a man I couldn't help but not be impressed with, said, "Mandating fuel is not a good idea, leave it up to the truckers."

I disagree.

We need mandates like Canada's to use clean engines and clean fuels, and we must figure out how to share the financial burden with manufacturers and distributors that benefit from truckers work.

Maybe a carbon tax to help owner-operated truck drivers fund clean engines, fuels, and maintenance costs? A container fee is expected to pass legislation to raise billions to be put toward cleaner technologies but what I'm not clear on is how will that money go to the poorest owner-operated truck drivers?

Regarding shipping, I learned from Bryan Wood-Thomas, Associate Director of Office of Transportation and Air Quality at the EPA, that ships make approx. 20 % of Nox in the world; a huge amount, which is a precursor to ozone, the stuff asthmatics choke on.

Conversely ships create only 2-3% of CO2 or greenhouse gas emissions. And their SOx and PM can be reduced with better fuels, which are on the way.

Ships shall soon benefit with better engine designs and low sulfur fuels.

In fact, I heard a bigger push for cleaner fuels over the popular idea of off-shore electrical-powered ports to reduce current ship idling, and therefore reduce pollution.

But...

A number of panelists spoke of potential dangers of these electrical ports: accidents, oil spills, and electrical outages that could lead to spoilage of goods and lawsuits as a result.

On a different note, Captain Yoh Huat Tey of Singapore, an impressive man with valuable insights and compassion, said his company takes corporate social responsibility seriously, giving 10% of profits to less fortunate people in the community, and ships he noted will have to go electric, with better designs. "Most ships are waiting for regulations before making major changes."

Those changes are coming.

Stay tuned to new international shipping standards to be made by Oct. 2008 by the International Maritime Organization.

Lastly, while eating my vegetarian lunch in the conference ballroom, I had the pleasure of sitting next to Janet Gunter, who just happens to be an activist star! And so unassuming.

Well, she represents the San Pedro and Peninsula Homeowners Coalition, and a few years ago she took on a China shipping company that wanted to expand its terminal, which would have contributed to more detrimental health impacts for area residents. And against the odds, Janet and her coalition won a multi-million dollar lawsuit. Wow. A super clean air activist.

Today as much as I'd love to brave the particulate elements and be part of Day Three of FFCC conference, which includes a port harbor cruise to see how things really work, I don't want to breathe the Nox, Sox, PM2, and Ozone toxic soup: A symphony of suffering air thanks to ships from all over the world, and thousands of diesel trucks converging to take goods to a store near you. FFCC conference goers will be "stuck" on a boat in a harbor, breathing a witches brew of toxic emissions, the unspoken part of the tour, which is why FFCC exists.

Call me human. As interesting as the cruise sounds, I'll pass until cleaner ship and truck engines, and lower sulfur, lower diesel fuels, and proper maintanence of 'em all takes place at our ports.

Signing off for now, clean air seeker.