6 ms·

Why do I get the feeling everything is too little or too late? I agree though, let's make them do better. I live in Gary Indiana, and while we have 2 smaller p

Why do I get the feeling everything is too little or too late? I agree though, let's make them do better. I live in Gary Indiana, and while we have 2 smaller power plants near us (25-50 miles ish), there's about a million steel mills, oil refineries, and a bunch of other polluters thrown in for good measure, all either on or near Lake Michigan, which is our main source of drinking water. Can't we just target all mega polluters? I wish we could just force industry to spend a shit tonne of their profits on R&D to offset their damage, not improve their product, but improve their processes for something other than cost, efficiency, speed, and just did shit in the least destructive way possible. I've been tracking air pollution in Gary (and also cargo ships, flights, etc) on my lil community website: https://millerbeach.community https://millerbeach.community for the past two years. I'm trying to fund a proper air quality sensor/monitoring system that does more than just PM2.5/10, but until then it's just PM.

mistrial9 5y ago
thank you for your community service tracking air pollution in Gary, Indiana! that data you gather could be presented politically, socially, legally. By preparing a modern data environment with summary and random access, you are doing a LOT of prep ! it is needed now. best from California
- kingsloi 5y ago
  Thank you, I'm trying! I actually have good reason to fight pollution too, my 8 month old daughter passed away from her battle with heart disease and a very rare genetic condition called Kabuki syndrome a few months ago. Pollution is linked to both congenital heart disease, genetic conditions, and more. My wife and I are not carriers. Her specific conditions were very rare, the odds of all were 1 in 700 million to 1 in 2 billion+. The year prior, Ben Watkins, a teen who lived a few blocks from me, died from an extremely rare cancer that only a few people in the world have/get. https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/18/us/ben-watkins-masterchef/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/18/us/ben-watkins-masterchef/ind...
toomuchtodo 5y ago
Roughly what amount do you need in order to fund the air quality sensor fabric desired?
- kingsloi 5y ago
  Good question! Most companies I've reached out to have products in the range of $3,000-$10,000 for the initial cost, and then a reoccurring/annual fee of around $500-2500 (depending on what sensors are included) I reached out to a few, the two I'd heard back from, AQMesh and EarthSense, both gave me a rough quotes. https://millerbeach.community/files/01-09%20Research/02%20Air%20Quality%20Sensors/02.01%20Prospects/ https://millerbeach.community/files/01-09%20Research/02%20Ai... I cheekily asked if they had a community program (at a reduced cost), but understandable they don't, as their products are highly scientific lil things, both asked me to reach out to my local government, but most people who know of Gary, know it has no funds (or interest) in tracking air quality any more than they already do. I am in the process of starting a charity on behalf of my daughter, Sterling. We spent 7 months in the ICU, until she passed away at 8 months from complications relating to her complex heart disease. https://sterlingstrong.foundation https://sterlingstrong.foundation I've been considering if renting/purchasing a complete air quality monitoring station would be a good thing to launch along with my daughter's charity. The way I see it, if I can't help solve the issue, I can at least bring further attention/awareness to it.
thinkcontext 5y ago
> Can't we just target all mega polluters? This is one of the reasons virtually all economists support a broad carbon price. If its broad, in the sense of encompassing a wide variety of economic activities, it gets all the different polluters you referred to as well as the ones that you and regulators haven't even thought of.
- kingsloi 5y ago
  I agree! How can a commoner further support the idea? But, also a step further maybe? I was in FL last week and as I was travelling home I read a story about 1000s of fish, aquatic life dead in the water, including a Manatee, apparently caused by a phosphorus plant leak's red algae bloom. How can we target them, too?
  - thinkcontext 5y ago
    It requires a political solution. The plan which has the widest bipartisan buy-in is the Climate Leadership Council's plan for a tax and dividend approach. Its got supporters from Exxon to World Wildlife Fund. https://clcouncil.org/ https://clcouncil.org/ A leak at a plant likely violates its operating permit, so I would guess that regulators are looking at it. Of course, regulations and enforcement are very weak, that is also a political problem. Those are the big goals but the best thing a commoner can do is support or join a local environmental group. Groups like the Sierra Club have local chapters that could be interested in the air quality monitoring work you are doing. They also do things like testify at public hearings, sue polluters for local harm, advocate in policy discussions by officials and in local news and support candidates.
908B64B197 5y ago
> Can't we just target all mega polluters? I wish we could just force industry to spend a shit tonne of their profits on R&D to offset their damage, not improve their product, but improve their processes for something other than cost, efficiency, speed, and just did shit in the least destructive way possible. Some processes are hard to do without releasing CO2. That's why there's a focus on electricity generation since that can be done without emissions. It's the same thing with aviation: it'll be very hard to switch to alternate fuel because of the weight and energy density required. But for cars it's "only" a matter of scaling production of EVs.
- Robotbeat 5y ago
  A pretty large portion of aviation (over 50% of miles traveled) is short-haul, which actually is amenable to battery-electric decarbonization. And much of the rest could be converted to a few short haul hops which can be electrified. For aviation, a lot of it is just the inertia of the industry (which is a duopoly) and regulators and the decades it takes to get any new large passenger aircraft designed and approved, let alone one using a new kind of powertrain.
  - 908B64B197 5y ago
    > A pretty large portion of aviation (over 50% of miles traveled) is short-haul, which actually is amenable to battery-electric decarbonization. I'm shocked and happily surprised at the same time.
    - Robotbeat 5y ago
      At 1000-1500km range for short haul, it’s not easy and can’t be done just by drop-in replacement with existing airframes, but with clean sheet designs, it is feasible. Especially as lithium metal electrode and lithium sulfur becomes available. In fact, it may be feasible to do up to 4000km range eventually (big challenge, but feasible given state of the art aerodynamics and improved structure and battery… and definitely possible with out of the box thinking, as a crewed solar-electric aircraft has demonstrated a flight of nearly 9000km, ie from Japan to Hawaii).

mistrial9 5y ago

thank you for your community service tracking air pollution in Gary, Indiana! that data you gather could be presented politically, socially, legally. By preparing a modern data environment with summary and random access, you are doing a LOT of prep ! it is needed now. best from California

kingsloi 5y ago
Thank you, I'm trying! I actually have good reason to fight pollution too, my 8 month old daughter passed away from her battle with heart disease and a very rare genetic condition called Kabuki syndrome a few months ago. Pollution is linked to both congenital heart disease, genetic conditions, and more. My wife and I are not carriers. Her specific conditions were very rare, the odds of all were 1 in 700 million to 1 in 2 billion+. The year prior, Ben Watkins, a teen who lived a few blocks from me, died from an extremely rare cancer that only a few people in the world have/get. https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/18/us/ben-watkins-masterchef/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/18/us/ben-watkins-masterchef/ind...

toomuchtodo 5y ago

Roughly what amount do you need in order to fund the air quality sensor fabric desired?

kingsloi 5y ago
Good question! Most companies I've reached out to have products in the range of $3,000-$10,000 for the initial cost, and then a reoccurring/annual fee of around $500-2500 (depending on what sensors are included) I reached out to a few, the two I'd heard back from, AQMesh and EarthSense, both gave me a rough quotes. https://millerbeach.community/files/01-09%20Research/02%20Air%20Quality%20Sensors/02.01%20Prospects/ https://millerbeach.community/files/01-09%20Research/02%20Ai... I cheekily asked if they had a community program (at a reduced cost), but understandable they don't, as their products are highly scientific lil things, both asked me to reach out to my local government, but most people who know of Gary, know it has no funds (or interest) in tracking air quality any more than they already do. I am in the process of starting a charity on behalf of my daughter, Sterling. We spent 7 months in the ICU, until she passed away at 8 months from complications relating to her complex heart disease. https://sterlingstrong.foundation https://sterlingstrong.foundation I've been considering if renting/purchasing a complete air quality monitoring station would be a good thing to launch along with my daughter's charity. The way I see it, if I can't help solve the issue, I can at least bring further attention/awareness to it.

thinkcontext 5y ago

> Can't we just target all mega polluters? This is one of the reasons virtually all economists support a broad carbon price. If its broad, in the sense of encompassing a wide variety of economic activities, it gets all the different polluters you referred to as well as the ones that you and regulators haven't even thought of.

kingsloi 5y ago
I agree! How can a commoner further support the idea? But, also a step further maybe? I was in FL last week and as I was travelling home I read a story about 1000s of fish, aquatic life dead in the water, including a Manatee, apparently caused by a phosphorus plant leak's red algae bloom. How can we target them, too?
- thinkcontext 5y ago
  It requires a political solution. The plan which has the widest bipartisan buy-in is the Climate Leadership Council's plan for a tax and dividend approach. Its got supporters from Exxon to World Wildlife Fund. https://clcouncil.org/ https://clcouncil.org/ A leak at a plant likely violates its operating permit, so I would guess that regulators are looking at it. Of course, regulations and enforcement are very weak, that is also a political problem. Those are the big goals but the best thing a commoner can do is support or join a local environmental group. Groups like the Sierra Club have local chapters that could be interested in the air quality monitoring work you are doing. They also do things like testify at public hearings, sue polluters for local harm, advocate in policy discussions by officials and in local news and support candidates.

908B64B197 5y ago

> Can't we just target all mega polluters? I wish we could just force industry to spend a shit tonne of their profits on R&D to offset their damage, not improve their product, but improve their processes for something other than cost, efficiency, speed, and just did shit in the least destructive way possible. Some processes are hard to do without releasing CO2. That's why there's a focus on electricity generation since that can be done without emissions. It's the same thing with aviation: it'll be very hard to switch to alternate fuel because of the weight and energy density required. But for cars it's "only" a matter of scaling production of EVs.

Robotbeat 5y ago
A pretty large portion of aviation (over 50% of miles traveled) is short-haul, which actually is amenable to battery-electric decarbonization. And much of the rest could be converted to a few short haul hops which can be electrified. For aviation, a lot of it is just the inertia of the industry (which is a duopoly) and regulators and the decades it takes to get any new large passenger aircraft designed and approved, let alone one using a new kind of powertrain.
- 908B64B197 5y ago
  > A pretty large portion of aviation (over 50% of miles traveled) is short-haul, which actually is amenable to battery-electric decarbonization. I'm shocked and happily surprised at the same time.
  - Robotbeat 5y ago
    At 1000-1500km range for short haul, it’s not easy and can’t be done just by drop-in replacement with existing airframes, but with clean sheet designs, it is feasible. Especially as lithium metal electrode and lithium sulfur becomes available. In fact, it may be feasible to do up to 4000km range eventually (big challenge, but feasible given state of the art aerodynamics and improved structure and battery… and definitely possible with out of the box thinking, as a crewed solar-electric aircraft has demonstrated a flight of nearly 9000km, ie from Japan to Hawaii).