Air Pollution
Many Americans cities, however, are doing little to combat air pollution. There are many steps that can be taken to combat air pollution, and many cities are failing in this regard. There is underinvestment in transit, a focus on carbon-intensive power, and there are many cities that are designed in such a way that carbon pollution is a fact of life. Air quality can vary within an area, so sometimes there are cities that perform well in terms of air pollution that ultimately still might have local pollution issues – an overall good score can negate the motivation for civic officials to pay attention to local problems (Koetsier, 2018).
A lot of the inaction is also at higher levels of government. One example is that the EPA, even before it was utterly neutered by the orange White House resident, struggled to enact strong policies against air pollution. The San Joaquin Valley suffers some of the worst air pollution in the country, and residents there have had to sue the EPA to spur action against the worst polluters in the area (Krasner, 2016). Despite on paper having strong anti-pollution policies, there are often practical trade-offs that are made, which have the effect of leaving substantial pollution burdens on Americans.
Conclusion
Cities around the world have taken different steps to combat air pollution. Some of Asia’s most polluted cities have addressed the issue at the level of power plants. In Europe, ideas like rapid transit or rail everywhere – even in the smallest towns – or congestion pricing, are uncommon or non-starters in the United States. There are many areas where American cities are starting to improve- encouraging bicycle use, for example, but these are still traits held by a small minority of cities, and they are not widely adopted even within those cities. Stronger actions that put a more accurate price on the consumption of carbon are required in order to deliver positive results on air pollution and carbon emissions in the United States.
References
Koetsier, J. (2018). AI is now showing us how bad air pollution is, right at our homes. Forbes. Retrieved April 22, 2018 from https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/2018/04/13/weatherbugs-new-ai-driven-forecasts-include-air-pollution-forecasts-down-to-the-city-block/#511bfacd4298
Krasner, M. (2016) Lawsuit challenges EPA inaction on dangerously inadequate air pollution plan for Alon Refinery in California’s San Joaquin Valley Center for Biological Diversity. Retrieved April 22, 2018 from https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2016/alon-refinery-04-13-2016.html
