Celebrating the Book Launch of Smog and Sunshine
Celebrating the Book Launch of Smog and Sunshine
I attended a fascinating presentation by UCLA Professor Ann Carlson and former CARB Chair Mary Nichols at Chevalier bookstore in Larchmont, CA, where they discussed Ann's new book, Smog and Sunshine: The Surprising Story of How Los Angeles Cleaned Up Its Air.
In the 1960s, an unhealthy, soupy orange-brown layer of smog blanketed the LA air basin most days of the year. In his Caltech lab, Dr. Arie Haagen-Smit established the link between ozone, the key element of smog, and the combustion engine.
Despite the petroleum industry's efforts to discredit his findings, widespread political pressure generated by huge demonstrations on the first Earth Day led to bipartisan enactment of health-based, technology-forcing air quality standards.
The next key part of the story was citizen suits. Ann and Mary described how Mary brought the nation's first Clean Air Act cases while at the Center for Law in the Public Interest in the 1970s.
The resulting court orders demanded compliance with the Act, even though the technology needed to achieve those health-based standards without shutting down wide swaths of LA's economy didn't yet exist.
The ensuing invention of the catalytic converter, together with constant political and bureaucratic prodding, achieved compliance over the next 30 years.
Now, the LA basin's air is 1,000 times cleaner than it was. Visible smog is largely a thing of the past, and living in the LA basin is vastly healthier. The partnership between administrative regulators and private sector technological innovation has put California at the forefront of both environmental leadership and a thriving tech industry. A true success story.
Ann and Mary acknowledged that these gains are now threatened by the Trump administration's attacks on renewable energy and EVs, as well as drastic changes in EPA greenhouse gas policies. But they remain confident that the forward momentum of recent decades - and the existential necessity of combating climate change - will sustain the progress we've made.
I attended a fascinating presentation by UCLA Professor Ann Carlson and former CARB Chair Mary Nichols at Chevalier bookstore in Larchmont, CA, where they discussed Ann's new book, Smog and Sunshine: The Surprising Story of How Los Angeles Cleaned Up Its Air.
In the 1960s, an unhealthy, soupy orange-brown layer of smog blanketed the LA air basin most days of the year. In his Caltech lab, Dr. Arie Haagen-Smit established the link between ozone, the key element of smog, and the combustion engine.
Despite the petroleum industry's efforts to discredit his findings, widespread political pressure generated by huge demonstrations on the first Earth Day led to bipartisan enactment of health-based, technology-forcing air quality standards.
The next key part of the story was citizen suits. Ann and Mary described how Mary brought the nation's first Clean Air Act cases while at the Center for Law in the Public Interest in the 1970s.
The resulting court orders demanded compliance with the Act, even though the technology needed to achieve those health-based standards without shutting down wide swaths of LA's economy didn't yet exist.
The ensuing invention of the catalytic converter, together with constant political and bureaucratic prodding, achieved compliance over the next 30 years.
Now, the LA basin's air is 1,000 times cleaner than it was. Visible smog is largely a thing of the past, and living in the LA basin is vastly healthier. The partnership between administrative regulators and private sector technological innovation has put California at the forefront of both environmental leadership and a thriving tech industry. A true success story.
Ann and Mary acknowledged that these gains are now threatened by the Trump administration's attacks on renewable energy and EVs, as well as drastic changes in EPA greenhouse gas policies. But they remain confident that the forward momentum of recent decades - and the existential necessity of combating climate change - will sustain the progress we've made.
Category
News
Written by
Carlyle W. Hall Jr.
Co-Founder, CLIPI
Published
Category
News
Written by
Carlyle W. Hall Jr.
Co-Founder, CLIPI
Published
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