Behold the Vermillion Sky

I grew up in LA with a commanding view of the blanket of smog obscuring the city view. Decades later the landscape was slowly revealed as smog levels had plummeted even while the population had swelled. Breath taking sunsets of unworldly colors, purple and crimson are a thing of the past. Technology, though weighted towards entropy can be tamed in some respects and the diminishing smog of the LA basin stands as a testament to the success of societal forces in combating pollution.

I spent several weeks in Mexico City and can attest that the smog in that city would appear to drip out of the exhaust systems of the copious and fastidiously decrepit vehicles belonging to the common folk. No doubt that the answer there is a rise in wealth and the societal expectation of a cleaner modernity. Mexico has really strong government propaganda promoting health on all of its media outlets so it would seem that they have the means to affect that change.

I wonder if London hasn’t managed to cope with the pollution problems of the past. I’m sure it has.

As far as China is concerned, they successfully negotiated additional Kyoto greenhouse limits in order to take into account their recent industrial revolution. It would appear that the third world must transition through a ‘dirty’ phase of industrial development before they can establish a foothold on cleaner technology. While watching US production and jobs migrate to Southeast Asia I argued that the US was losing good paying jobs. Others argued that the lower labor rates would benefit all but I couldn’t grasp the concept; If automobile and IC production lines were mostly automated what competitive advantage could offshore companies offer if not cheaper electricity? It turns out they had the right financial markets and the right business plan for meeting the needs of the expanding high tech bubble.

But if the smoke of the industrial Northeast would come to rest in Canada, the smog of Mexico somewhere in Europe, the factories of China eventually lay their burden on the heartland of the US. To this extent we are all passengers on spaceship earth and a polluted atmosphere benefits none.

While converting our economies from industrial to high-tech to a service sector dominated by hairdressers and phone sanitizers, we must bear this in mind, that as the immutable second law of thermal dynamics states, pollution can not be created nor destroyed, it can only change form.

I live in San Diego now and due to the mindboggling incompetence of the water department, am extremely pessimistic of the future of water quality here. After each and every rain storm in San Diego the sewers overflow and runoff in to the ocean. We have enclosed bays and there are few surfers or in-the-water enthusiasts who will dare taking the plunge a week after a moderate rain. Those who do almost invariably get violently ill, I know I have. The water department just publishes the mundane missive that goes something like this…”Duh, whoops! These are the same clowns that tried to sell the city on the toilet to tap program. Don’t ask. Incidentally, about 30% of them are Pakistani or Middle Eastern decent. Hmmmm. Makes me wish they were from the UAE. [Emeriatians?]

On a lighter note, an old dope smoking surfer nearly became the mayor here(would of been the second time [no, not Pete Wilson ]) on the strength of the water quality issue alone so, alas, there is hope after all, in that the public will is strong and the mood is aspoiling.