Woohoo! We're Number One, Again

(via Drudge)

According to this AFP report, Southern California has retaken its rightful place as having the smoggiest skies in America.

Of course, the article doesn't mention a few factors that might influence these numbers. Firstly, we had one of the hottest Julys on record. Weeks of record and near record temperatures meant power plants working overtime.

Also, the Day Fire (a great flickr photoset here, by Doc Searls) continues to blaze and it started on Labor Day. It's nearly under control, but so far it has burned 250 square miles (for comparison, the land area of New York City is 303 square miles and the country of Singapore is 265 square miles). That has had to have generated a great deal of particulate matter and decreased the air quality for the entire month of September.

The air around here is vastly better than it was when I grew up in the 70s.

I just don't understand how the air could get worse considering all that fellow Santa Monican Laurie David does. She's going to have to redouble, retriple or even requadruple her efforts to get everyone to drive a Prius and fly around the country and lecture folks on how to reduce their carbon footprint.

If we really want clean air, we'd demand that a nuclear power plant be built right here in Santa Monica.