In bright sunlightEssentially, when we use motors and engines on bright, hot, days, the fumes they emit yield a lot more actual pollution, compared to the fumes themselves, thanks to basic chemistry.* nitrogen oxides
* hydrocarbons and
* oxygeninteract chemically to produce powerful oxidants like ozone (O3) and peroxyacetyl nitrate (PAN).
These secondary pollutants are damaging to plant life and lead to the formation of photochemical smog. PAN is primarily responsible for the eye irritation so characteristic of this type of smog. - Kimball's Biology Pages
Follow me below the fold for some zero-cost things we can all do to nudge our communities in the right direction on air quality.
We cannot all work from home on bad air quality days, though some of us can, and do. I received permission from my boss to work from home on Code Red days this summer during the recent heatwave. But we all can choose to put off mowing or running the leaf blower until another day. (I'm looking at you, Prius owners with perfectly manicured lawns! :) So if it's going to be hot and humid, leave the leaf blower and lawn mower in the garage, and think of the growth of your lawn as your protest against climate change.
There are a few more things we can do as well. The first, of course, is the aforementioned working from home on bad air quality days. A lot of folks in northern Virginia, at least, can probably do their job from home at least some of the time, so before you head home today, ask your boss for permission to work from home on Code Red air quality days. They get announced on the radio just like school closings, and are officially designated by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments. The whole point of the designation is to inform people when it's better for us all to not drive, so let's make that happen.
Another thing we can all do is ask our homeowners associations and local governments to refrain from powered landscaping (i.e., mowing and blowing) on bad air quality days. You can contact your local representatives and ask them to implement policies delaying landscaping on Code Red and Orange days. Take a moment to email your local representatives, letting them know that you'd like the Town and County to adopt a policy of avoiding powered landscaping on Code Red and Code Orange days. We should have our local governments lead by example on this.
Little things like this are not going to solve the big problem that is climate change, but they will help with the small problem of local air quality. And it will get our organizing institutions (governments, businesses, households) thinking about air quality as a quality-of-life issue worthy of action. It's a start, and we have to start somewhere. Not all of us can buy a Prius and live in Arlington like Lowell. ;-)
(Crossposted, generally, from Leesburg Tomorrow.)
Confession: I own a leaf blower, electric, that I do use to blow out the A/C units and behind the pool pumps and filters, then I rake the leaves once they are on the grass or mulch.
This Prius owner lives in the woods - so I frequently skip lawn mowing except just before hosting a fundraiser; that way folks can park on the septic field.
1. Less pollution on the worst days should reduce the multiplier effect. Like I said, it's not enough, but it's a helluva lot better to mow on a non-Code Red day than a Code Red day.
2. Getting people to THINK about mowing and blowing as contributors to climate change is the first step down the road to changing behavior. Start with a couple days a summer, then the next summer, they may buy a push-reel mower (I did), then the next summer, ask their bosses to work from home more often (I did).
The diary is really my story of coming to live my life a little more environmentally, every year. If I can do it in small steps, others can too.
For somewhat larger yards an electric mower works fine too - the cord thing is an issue, but once you get used to it you can get the job done without slicing the cord with the mower...
Environmentalism is the new religion and its zealots can be as obnoxious as the wing-nuts of the religious right.
FYI, during the most recent heat wave, when COG predicted code orange and red days, the MSA only experienced code yellow and that's only because two of seventeen sampling stations registered slightly elevated ozone levels. The other 15 stations registered code green.
After the 1995 CAA amenments, many non-draconian changes were made to the way business is conducted in the MSA to help reduce VOCs, and with it surface ozone on hot days but the biggest impacts were (i) incorporation of improved auto emissions technology in new cars, and because of the economic prosperity of this area, the passenger fleet turned over faster than would otherwise happen in other MSAs and (ii) improved emissions controls at power plants in the Ohio Valley.
If it makes you feel better to fill your gas tank after dark on 90 degree days, knock yourself out but save the proselytizing for those nearest and dearest.
The population of China not only will not care if you do but its choices will have far more impact on the planet than the puny collective efforts of every person who reads this blog.
Yeah, stopping coal power and reducing the emissions in Asia are critical, but leading by example matters, even in small ways. I'm not saying we're going to cure climate change with this idea, I'm saying we're going to start getting people to think about climate change, and the choices they make.
I'm not trying to lecture, nor be a zealot, merely share some ideas I had. You know, the whole point behind community blogging?
See the landscape company that you want my HOA to shut down on days "predicted to be code red" mostly use day labors. If they don't work, they don't get paid and their families don't eat. Even if it turns out to only be a code yellow day.
So that marginally ineffective, symbolic gesture has real consequences for poor people who can't "work from home."
When the local and state governments of the Metro area were trying to comply the requirements of the 1995 CAA amendments, the single biggest employer refused cooperate with any of the local governments proposals while at the same time encouraging local and state governments to impose truly draconian restrictions on the other employers in the region.
Of course, you know that condescending, hypocritical and duplicitous employer was the Clinton administration.
Zealotry in support of any cause almost always winds up hurting real people.