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The LA Times reports today that the Environmental Protection Agency has proposed the nation's strictest-ever smog limits this morning, a move that could put large parts of the country in violation of federal air quality regulations. The EPA proposed allowing a ground-level ozone concentration of between 60 and 70 parts per billion, down from the 75-ppb standard adopted under President George......read more
Ozone from Asia is wafting across the Pacific on springtime winds and boosting the amount of the smog-producing gas found in the skies above the Western United States, researchers said in a study released Wednesday. The study, published in the journal Nature, looks at a phenomenon that has puzzled scientists in the last decade: Ground-level ozone has dropped in cities thanks to tighter pollution......read more
President Obama, under mounting pressure from business groups and Republicans in Congress, has withdrawn a plan to strengthen emissions rules for smog-causing chemicals. The abandoned Environmental Protection Agency standard would have dramatically reduced emissions of ground-level ozone. For American eco advocates, the announcement is salt in a wound opened by a series of White House decisions......read more
President Obama's environmental concessions (read: cave-ins) continue to pile up, and American environmentalists are rightly losing faith. His latest retreat, on ozone regulation, comes just days after the State Department gave the go-ahead for the controversial Keystone XL oil sands pipeline from Alberta to Texas. The smog announcement was conveniently released on Friday before......read more
This just in from the New York Times: Obama's environmental decisions are being driven by electoral politics, not by any sort of clear vision. Shocking news, we know, sorry to upset you. From John Broder's article: The full retreat on the smog standard was the first and most important environmental decision of the presidential campaign season that is now fully under way. An examination......read more
It was the late 1960s when early satellite images of earth revealed a planet that seemed largely untouched. The picture today is much different. Sure, the imaging technology is much more powerful, but more important, global population is double what is was back then, and the portion of it driving cars and devouring energy is a lot bigger as well. Contemporary satellite images show just how much......read more
The artist formerly known as Smog travels through the solar system in the strange animated video for "Javelin Unlanding," from last year's excellent Dream River LP. The clip, laden with analog effects, was directed by Hanly Banks and Chris Rusch, and stars the deadpan singer as the moon, an apparent homage to the 1902 silent film Le Voyage Dans La Lune. Watch above. Dream River is out now on......read more
BEIJING -- As world leaders tussled over the fate of the climate in Paris, Beijing residents struggled to make out the silhouettes of buildings. The multi-day pollution emergency -- dubbed “Airpocalypse” by English-language media -- signaled the start of smog season in one of the most polluted capitals in the world. On Tuesday, indices of PM2.5 particulates -- the small......read more
The winning entry of this year's coveted Young Architects Program at MoMA PS1 is a massive, bright blue installation that absorbs air pollution. Dubbed "Wendy" by architects HWKN (HollwichKushner), the 5,000 square foot structure will sit in the MoMA PS1 courtyard during the museum's Warm Up summer music series. The star-shaped structure combines common materials (scaffolding) with......read more
