By John Boyack
Sept 6, 2011
The Daily Chronicle, University of Utah
When discussing air quality in Utah, an important question is who I would blame. Well, good reader, I’m pointing at you, because with our politicians apparently unconcerned with the air we breathe, the responsibility falls to us.
On Friday, the Associated Press published a brief about the Obama administration’s latest demonstration of cowardice. The brief said President Barack Obama “overruled the Environmental Protection Agency…to withdraw the proposed regulation to reduce concentrations of smog’s main ingredient” in a short-sighted and desperate effort to boost economic job growth.
Mild praise from House Speaker John Boehner followed Obama’s decision, who claimed the move was “just the tip of the iceberg” in solving our nation’s problems. A funny metaphor, or perhaps just insulting, when you consider tips of icebergs around the world are rapidly melting.
The president received still more praise from Jack Gerard, president and CEO of the American Petroleum Institute.
These are not the kind of men you want bending the president’s ear if you are at all concerned about the environment you live in. I never expected Bush-era legislation to extend into a third term, but here we are—selling off air to the most despicable kind of offenders known to Earth. Big oil isn’t going anywhere.
It’s time to recognize that healthy air isn’t coming from our political leaders. Suddenly I feel more and more like a giant prick for simply being there instead of getting arrested along with the rest of the Tim DeChristopher supporters and the Peaceful Uprising crowd at his sentencing date several weeks ago.
Survivor’s guilt maybe, but it’s not getting any greener on this side of the penitentiary walls.
We need change. Every winter, northern Utah consistently faces some of the worst air in the nation. Salt Lake County was in non-compliance with federal health standards for sulfur dioxide, according to a January 2010 report by the Utah Division of Air Quality.
The health effects of ozone pollution are incredibly dangerous and little understood. “Ozone and particle pollution are the most widespread air pollutants—and among the most dangerous,” according to The American Lung Association’s website. “Recent research has revealed new insights into how they can harm the body—including taking the lives of infants and altering the lungs of children.”
The next time your eyes are red and itchy; your “seasonal cold” doesn’t disappear after three to five days, but clings to your lungs for a desperate three to five weeks; your child collapses on the playground from over-exertion, shortness of breath and heavy wheezing; your 75-year-old next-door neighbor falls over from a sudden attack of emphysema while trying to bring you cookies—just remember that sweet, sobering promise of hope and change that rang loud and clear from Grant Park in Chicago in Fall 2008 is not going to clear the air.
The next time your eyes are red and itchy; your “seasonal cold” doesn’t disappear after three to five days, but clings to your lungs for a desperate three to five weeks; your child collapses on the playground from over-exertion, shortness of breath and heavy wheezing; your 75-year-old next-door neighbor falls over from a sudden attack of emphysema while trying to bring you cookies—just remember that sweet, sobering promise of hope and change that rang loud and clear from Grant Park in Chicago in Fall 2008 is not going to clear the air.
Salt Lake City and the U seem to be advancing the right kind of agenda, even if our democratic president feels he can’t. Other local nonprofit organizations such as Breathe Utah and Utah Moms for Clean Air are playing their parts as well.
Wednesday we can all join in. The Office of Sustainability is holding Bike to the U Day. Tables will be set up around the Union to raise awareness about sustainable ventures on campus and around the city.
Please, partner with me and cyclists all around campus and ride your bike to school Wednesday to support the growing, ever-critical effort to clear our world’s air.
There’s only so much time left to catch our breath.
