There is a tightly guarded secret that many major cities do not want to get out: The air their citizens breathe is steadily becoming more toxic, by the day, due to their burgeoning populations and all that goes with that when it comes to the environment. My city, Austin, Texas, has begun experiencing what the TV weather folks call "morning fog." In reality, one has to only step outside and take a whiff to know that this fog is actually SMOG! It smells rank, it burns your throat and eyes. One can only guess what it does to your lungs! I need to say that I've been here for forty-three years. This "morning fog" is a new thing. Austin gets over 5,000 people moving here, net growth, monthly. Everywhere, sky cranes fill the skies, everywhere, huge apartment complexes pop up in a few months time. Those folks moving here bring their vehicles. We have some of the worst traffic in the world! Exhaust fumes fill our air. As construction does away with permeable ground cover which can provide a certain level of natural filtration for surface runoff, our streams and lakes are becoming cesspools. Dog owners are warned not to let their pets swim in Lady Bird Lake, downtown. Several dogs have died after doing so. Point is, the true state of Austin's air quality is not publicized. I have called on the Chief Meteorologist of the most popular TV station, here, to give daily composition breakdowns on our smog. He has ignored my entreaties, thus far. Last night, there was a news piece, on national news, about the wealthier folks, in certain large towns, who are choosing to leave for smaller towns, for health concerns. Make no mistake about this: This phenomenon is only the small snowball starting down the snowy slope. I predict that in the next five to ten years, major cities will see a mass exodus of their more affluent populations. When this happens, tax bases will collapse, cities will try to stay solvent by gouging poorer folks with massive tax debt, and, when that fails, new ghost towns will come into existence. I'm not sure our generation has to sweat this. In the near, or not so near future, we won't be around to deal with this. However, for those of us with "grown kids" and grandkids, I would counsel that they should be advised to carefully choose where they plan to move and raise their families, in view of the above.
Well, there are those grown kids and grandkids that don't want to drive miles upon miles to get to work. And, many want to be in the center of entertainment, not on the outskirts where, again, they have to drive numerous miles to get to the entertainment. When we lived in Colorado before, I drove 56 miles, round-trip, to work. I was 52 then, and did it. Definitely not today at almost 72. The only bad air quality we get where we live is when a wildfire is happening. There is no major factories in our area and definitely not a lot of traffic. Where we are, we can see the peaks of the Rocky Mountains that are behind the foothills. It is that clear here!
Yes. I'm considering Durango and Woodland Park. I do have a problem with the radon gas levels, but I will thoroughly check out any house I consider buying.
The air in Raleigh is so bad during the summer that you can see the smog. They put out warnings that older people and people with breathing problems shouldn't go outside.
Here's one for you conspiracist folks, but it won't get read, seeing as how nobody seems very interested in this topic. Our air, water, and most things in our everyday environment, are becoming so polluted/contaminated that a tipping point will, seen by simple logical deduction, have to be reached, in time. When that happens, just as I pointed out in my original post, here, the powers that be will do their best to cover things up, for the sake of keeping people where they are, to keep the tax base healthy/bloated, and money coming into the various business interests of the wealthy. Nobody would dare suggest that our own lifestyle choices have created a monster that is destroying us. Now, with the above in mind, what if a convenient scapegoat could come along and take all the blame for all of the deaths that are starting to occur due to environmental degradation? Any respiratory distress, leading to increased deaths, could easily be attributed to the new bogeyman disease, and everyone would be more apt to follow orders coming from on high, to avoid falling victim. Yeah, this won't get read. I mean, it's much more interesting discussing what you ate today, what you've recently bought, when you're getting a new pet, etc., etc, right???
Just because you’re not getting a lot of play doesn’t mean much. Since you have 59 views thus far and we do not have that many active members I would say that you’re posts are being read.
It's a regional problem, not a global one...although there may be regions across the country and across the globe where this is happening. The people who are most concerned about this live in those regions, but in classic NIMBY mode, they demand that the entire planet do something. It's like gun control. A handful of inner cities account for the vast majority of the homicides, so their response is to disarm everyone across the entire nation because those in the inner cities refuse to confront their own issues...even worse, the more of their own citizens that get slaughtered, the more nationwide power accrues to them. No one wants to look at the real problems that they are responsible for...these subjects are merely excuses that get prostituted to control those who have nothing to do with it. People in New York City cannot have plastic straws because Pacific currents carry straws from Asia to our west coast. I guess that makes sense to somebody. Do you really want to invite idiots who think that way into your life? You live in Austin. Austin has a problem. Identical problems in other cities really have nothing to do with Austin's growth problems. What are you doing about it? Why beat us up about your local issue? Heck, why even invite anyone else in? I don't want power over you.
Uh,.... WHAT!!!?????? Such drivel! Very nice to see that you got support, though, for what you posted. My local issue? This stuff is happening in many, many larger cities, worldwide, as you even posted! I wasn't aware that I was beating anyone up. Yeah, I guess I'll leave this group to the handful of posting buddies who stick up for each other, so often. Y'all take care.....
Hey, I lived though it in the DC area. We moved there in 1963. I left there in 2010. I know what crap the crowds and developments bring. I agree that it's happening in a lot of places...but it's still an issue particular to the politics of each locale. Heck, it's starting to happen here in this rural community. I can feel it. I lived through it in DC. When politicians and developers get together, you and I no longer exist except when elections roll around. But if the voters in your region embrace it, then it's time to either (a) change their minds, (b) accept it, or (c) move on. I get the frustration, because I'm feeling it again here. But you cannot have the citizens of different jurisdictions banding together to muck about in each other's politics just because we each detest what our locals embrace. There's already enough "activism" perverting our representative processes. I wasn't trying to come off as heartless, and after reading the tone of my comment I almost rewrote it before submitting it...but you kinda set the stage: Again, it sucks. But it's your community. I'm not gonna write the mayor of Austin a letter denouncing it because I don't want anyone outside of my community influencing my politicians, even if today there is common cause. Tomorrow is a different day. Unless there is something else I can do to stop it...
Just because our opinions might be different than yours you're leaving.......You sound like you belong to cancel culture.
When I was a kid, I got tonsilitis every time I went into New York City. It is still there. Covid and other economic problems forced more people to move away than the bad air. I just read an email that there is another contaminant in our water here in Wisconsin and the 'darn Republicans' are fighting dealing with it in the groundwater although they want to deal with what is in the surface and public water supplies. They don't want to deal with all the private wells. Michigan had it's lead in the water supply spread all over the news. Politics?
People are moving to Austin because there's work there, unlike the places they're moving from. The industries that are creating the smog are the same industries that are creating the jobs. It's a trade-off, and the worst results are seen in the cities and states that have chosen one extreme or the other. California over-regulates everything under the sun, and is probably trying to regulate the sun as well, and, as a result, California industries are moving elsewhere. Those who want to work leave California. In order to attract these industries, other states and cities probably go too far in the other direction, with predictable results. Maine, as a state, decided to regulate its main industries into the ground many years ago and, as a result, our air is clean, but Maine has become a place where people retire to. After high school, young Mainers either go to college to learn a trade that isn't available in Maine, or they leave the state to find work elsewhere, sometimes returning in their retirement. Unless you work for the government, a non-profit, or a school, the only work around here is in the service industries, and there's not a good future there unless you own the business you're working for. Global solutions to local problems are designed to reward irresponsibility by making everyone pay for your mistakes.