Dirty Air

Yes dirty air. On a recent little driving trip I drove across the the south of Arizona and New Mexico. The visibility was worse than I remember it to have ever been. The air looked smoggy and often felt smoggy in my eyes, nose, and throat.

It can be windy in the area and some describe the air as dusty. Perhaps to some degree it is truly dusty and a campaign like the "Break the dust, raise the dust." one carried out in the last building boom would be in order.

Also in recent years there have been more wild fires. I used to suggest that in forest area that firewood gathering be allowed and small, frequent, natural fires be allowed to take their course. Now with drought and a warming climate I'm not sure what to suggest.

On an earlier recent trip I drove from Los Angeles, California to Carson City, Nevada and found the air to be opaquely polluted from LA into the Low Desert, up into the High Desert through Las Vegas and about forty miles to the north before the air began to clear.

The air in Carson City was good even with the product of my little Subaru added to it.

On the Arizona/New Mexico trip I talked with an older trucker who has been driving the rout for only about a decade and he claimed to have noted a deterioration of the air quality during that time even though he had been driving the rout weekly. He called the air smoggy.

So, much of southern California, Arizona, and New Mexico can be, and often is, smoggy. West Texas is still pretty good, but recent oil drilling activity has begun to change that. Most cities are doing plenty to cause their share of air pollution. Someone is kicking up a lot of old fashion dust just across the boarder from El Paso.

The really high country not far from Las Cruces still has air that looks and breaths like relatively pure atmosphere.

You can act to keep dirty air from causing the degeneration of humanity.