Yellow Headed Blackbirds – sold
These birds are like canaries in the coals mine in that they let us know if the air is safe. So far, their habitat is good, they have a wide range, and are not considered vulnerable. Let’s keep it that way. Birds suffer from air pollution just like we do and the emissions that drive climate change are an immediate health concern for them as well. According to the Audobo n society, birds are exposed to more airborne particles than humans because birds have a higher breathing rate and spend more time in the open air.”
Carried on the Wind
Starting in 1996, and for the following seventeen years, my catalog business took me to Hong Kong each January. I looked forward to the 14 hour trip because I escaped Portland’s cold, rainy weather and landed in the warmth and sun of the South China Sea. In the early years, the sky was a beautiful blue and people clipped along crowded streets dressed in short sleeved shirts. Eight years later, I noticed a change in the weather and had to alter my attire. Slightly overcast skies made me carry a spring jacket but it was still pleasant. By my fourteenth trip the clouds were so thick that the sun could not get through and I needed a winter coat. During my last visit, face masks were sprinkled throughout the crowd of walkers as they hurried to get inside. Yellow smog stung my eyes, making the trip much less enjoyable.
Hong Kong and Kowloon, it’s nearby neighbor, are not manufacturing hubs. They face the water and have gentle breezes washing over them. I couldn’t understand where the smog was coming from and why it didn’t just dissipate out sea. It took an excursion to the mainland before I discovered what was happening. During the excursion a friend took me to see the sights of Shenzhen. While riding in the backseat with my partner, I could not our driver navigating the streets. I mentioned the smog and rotten odors, and asked my friend if he was concerned. To my surprise he proudly answered, “That is the smell of money.” Factories lined the road belching black smoke from coal burning furnaces and since the winds have no boundaries, the foul air was drifting over Hong Kong.
2003 – The blue skies, short sleeved shirts
2012 – What a change!
2013 – Coats needed in the Bird Market
China’s economy has certainly improved, but at a tremendous cost to human health. There used to be hundreds of bicycles scurrying everywhere. These have since been replaced by automobiles and busses discharging black exhaust. The country is plagued with rising costs of treating people with asthma and lung disease.
I was horrified. How shortsighted I thought. They are crowding local hospitals with asthmatics and those suffering from lung cancer. I was happy to return home where the air is clear most of the time—or at least it used be. Knowing that there are certain days when we are warned to stay inside, I decided to investigate Portland’s air quality and discovered that our city is among among the worst polluted in the country. On hazy summer days, you can see toxic substances floating in the air and in some neighborhoods you can smell them through the year.
I was surprised and wondered where our protectors were. How do we clean up our nest so we are not drinking foul water and breathing polluted air? Who is concerned with my family’s health? I don’t have the luxury of being able to escape to a house in the mountains or beach.
This is why I became upset when the heart was taken out of the EPA, one of the few government agencies set up to help. Because of their work, over the past 50 years, automobile emissions standards have greatly improved. Since the Clean Air Act, carbon monoxide is no longer a problem. And, by removing lead from gasoline, lead pollution has decreased with the exception of those cities where there are still large lead-emitting industrial facilities.
EPA recently reported improvements in air quality but added that pollution remains unhealthy in a great many areas of the country. They warn that bad air can cause premature death, asthma, harmful effects on the cardiovascular system, and have an increased likelihood of heart attacks and strokes. Health Magazine confirms that, “Fine particles emitted by vehicles (especially diesel-powered ones), coal-fired power plants, and burning wood can penetrate deep into the lungs, while car exhaust, heat, and sunlight contribute to high ozone levels.” When I drive around town I no longer open the window on nice days because as automobiles crowd the streets the air from their exhaust bothers me.
Just as in China, our economy is positively affected when controls are enacted. Air pollution caused by energy production cost $175 billion in 2002 but that number decreased to $131 billion in damages in 2011. These numbers demonstrate that healthcare costs can come down if proper safeguards are enacted.
During the Obama years we were all protected by more stringent standards. I cry now that they are being reversed. The American Lung Association says that more than half the people in the U.S. breathe air that is dirty enough to cause health problems. I knew that cities like Long Beach, California and Denver, Colorado were at the top of the list but had no idea that areas I always thought of as pristine like Fairbanks and Anchorage, Alaska, are also at risk. You and I are at risk for nationwide pollution is carried on the winds to affect us all.
Are you prepared to just sit back and not cry out? Do you want coal powered plants operating in your city? any city? Would you send your son down into a mine to work? Would you live in a city where, because of fracking, fire comes out of the kitchen faucet instead of water? I bet you do care about the air your children and grandchildren breathe and the water they drink.
As far as I am concerned there isn’t enough money in the whole world to make up for the health ravages that will be caused by increased pollution. Sorry coal miners, and oil frackers, but these are changing times and you need to take the responsibility to get retrained to work in clean energy industries. Let’s not allow the economic concern of a few to take away the health of a nation. Let’s ensure that there are birds around to sing us awake each morning.
References:
Qin, Kenneth, Audubon Audublog, 2015, Birds suffer from air pollution, just like we do. http://ca.audubon.org/news/birds-suffer-air-pollution-just-we-do
Koberstein, Paul, Study: Portland Air among worst in nation, March 2, 2016 Koin 6. http://koin.com/2016/03/02/study-portland-air-among-worst-in-nation/
EPA, Clean Air Act OVerview, 2017https://www.epa.gov/clean-air-act-overview/air-pollution-current-and-future-challenges%20
10 Peoples, Lynne, U.S. Cities with the Worst Air Pollution , Health, 2017 http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20490855,00.html
Harvery, Chelsea, Jan. 29, 2016, The Staggering economic cost of air pollution, Washington Post,