6/30: Haze pollution

[Slithy_Tove]

Originally posted by Tony Shepps
All that noted, air pollution is much better today than it was 30 years ago.

Nationwide, that's true. There's a lot of local variation, though. LA, for example, is much better. Fast-growing cities like Las Vegas may be much worse. Driving into Vegas from the south, as you crest a range of low hills, you can see the city spread out below in the valley, half-obscured by a thick haze of pink smog. It's really pretty appalling. The Vegas metroropolitan area is, I believe, the fastest growing area in the nation. But they're really paying a price for that growth.

Washington D.C., as someone else noted, may be relatively smog-free. But that's because the growth rate is nil, or even negative, and there is little industry; the business of D.C. is government. Not everywhere can be like that.

Philadelphia, according to the last census, is in serious negative growth. Wonder how our pollution is doing?