A look at the L.A. skyline at sunset on a clear day. (Photo: Nadia Yong, via ShutterstockNot everything’s been “doom and gloom” on social media during the coronavirus pandemic as trending posts have shown “Los Angeles without smog,” clear skies in India’s often-polluted airspace and dolphins swimming through the canals of Venice. But what can we actually learn about climate change during this virtually global, economic shutdown?
Palm trees with the smoggy L.A. skyline in the background. (Photo: J Dennis, via Shutterstock)OPINION: Californians know that climate change is here, climate change is real, and climate change is the biggest threat to our planet’s future. Less known but recently more proven is that racist and discriminatory policies of the past, like redlining, have locked in pollution exposure among low-income communities of color and dramatically increased their climate-related risks.
View toward downtown Los Angeles and surrounding communities on a hot, smoggy day. (Image: IM_Photo, via Shutterstock))OPINION: The Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency offered another boon to the fossil fuel industry when it announced its intent to ignore the scientifically-proven impacts of air pollution on human health. By minimizing and outright denying the health risks of air pollution, the EPA is recklessly devaluing the lives of children and families who are assaulted daily by pollution and climate impacts that threaten their health, safety, and life expectancy.
A bus powered by natural gas at the Los Angeles International Airport. (Photo: Digital Media Pro, via Shutterstock)OPINION: California’s leadership and its commitment to improving air quality has led to the adoption of new clean fuel technologies that have not only dramatically changed the vehicles on our state’s roads but also the air we breathe. I’ve seen first-hand how both the public and private sector have embraced the challenge to put new, clean-fuel vehicles into use.
A landscaping worker trims a bush with a gas-powered machine while a technician monitors the air quality for FairWarning. (Photo: Stuart Silverstein)New California rules aimed at curbing the surprising amount of pollution coming from leaf blowers, lawn mowers and other small gas-powered machines cleared a final hurdle Monday, and are set to take effect on Jan. 1. The requirements mark another step in the state’s long-running battle to reduce emissions from a category of small engines that have come to rival cars as a source of smog-forming pollution.
Pollution over Long Beach on a clear day. (Photo: Katharine Moore)OPINION: Now that it’s reconvened, the state Legislature faces critical decisions about where and how to spend over $1 billion raised by the state’s cap-and-trade program to fight climate change. Those decisions will affect the lives, health and jobs of millions of Californians, and will have an outsized impact on those facing pollution and poverty.
Smokestacks on a geothermal power plant near the Salton Sea in Southern California's Imperial Valley.(Photo: Tom Grundy, via Shutterstock)OPINION: Over 35 years ago, I came to pick up my fifth and third grade sons from school and found them making “Santa beards” out of the foaming toxic waste that flooded their playground. Later that night, I watched my youngest have a seizure at the dinner table as a result. Ever since, my Inland Valley community and I have been fighting for our right to live and breathe without getting sick.
The power plant in El Segundo, Calif. (Photo: Don Solomon, via Shutterstock)OPINION: One of California’s tools in fighting climate change and promoting clean air is the emissions reduction program known as cap and trade. Cap and trade is one part of California’s broader approach to growing clean energy jobs and investment — and it works best in concert with the state’s full suite of policies.
Solar PV panels used to power agricultural equipment in the Central Valley. (Photo: Shippee, via Shutterstock)OPINION: When we combined the separate maps, the result was pretty remarkable: Out of the 9.5 million acres in the stakeholder study area, the groups identified 470,000 acres of ideal, non-controversial land for solar PV development, or roughly 5 percent of the Valley study area. At a generic calculation of 1 megawatt of solar PV production from 5 acres of panels, that means the lands identified could provide 94,000 megawatts of renewable power.
A VW bus converted to electric power, displayed last year in Beverly Hills. (Photo: Phil Pilosian)If you’ve ever been behind the wheel of an electric vehicle, you know that they’re really fun to drive. Many Californians have discovered the joys of electric drive, as our state is nearing 200,000 plug-in vehicles sold, and accounted for more than half of all the EVs sold in the U.S. last year. But we need to ramp up sales of these advanced technology vehicles in order to clean up our air, reduce our dangerous dependency on petroleum, and stabilize the climate.