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Kamel-Red t1_iy6631t wrote

While I think that more monitoring and engineering around air quality is 100% a good thing, there needs to be a reality check for those freaking about yellows and oranges on this map. On this scale, an average day 50 and most definitely 100 years ago would be a black hole to another galaxy on this particular color scale.

Our steel and coal valleys were once hell on earth in comparison to air quality today--I don't want to go back to it and we know better now. Obligatory Denora smog link--perspective.

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Extreme_Qwerty OP t1_iy6rx47 wrote

Yeah, except that 50 years ago, the planet wasn't heating up to the degree it is. Pollution + heat + humidity are having a detrimental effect on people's health.

Further, these numbers are in the WINTER. They're MUCH higher in the summer.

The air quality where I live -- in the EXURBS -- has been making me sick for years. I only recently made the correlation between the high levels of pollution from the highway and me feeling like shit.

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