I think this would be a much bigger issue if the people under 45 could remember what it was like before we started seriously dealing with the issue of pollution. California had stinky brown air and it was harder to breathe. Young folks never saw that, so pollution doesn't seem like such a big deal. - ThreadSky

urocklive1.bsky.social • 14 days ago

I think this would be a much bigger issue if the people under 45 could remember what it was like before we started seriously dealing with the issue of pollution. California had stinky brown air and it was harder to breathe. Young folks never saw that, so pollution doesn't seem like such a big deal.

Reposted from David Roberts

This is utterly sociopathic but so is everything else so it will vanish from the news in a few hours.

Comments

juliadilliard.bsky.social•13 days ago

Yep, I remember approaching LA from the east by car in the 70's. There was a huge yellow cloud hanging over the city.

lvnvrcd.bsky.social•14 days ago

tonymcfee.bsky.social•13 days ago

We saved the bald eagle, we saved the wolves, we saved the ozone, so now no one believes they were ever in danger.

jock101.bsky.social•13 days ago

It's the fire prevention problem: when you successfully prevent a persistent issue, people forget it was a problem. Same thing with vaccines. "Polio, what polio? Never knew anyone with it."

hkfinan.bsky.social•13 days ago

This is true about a lot of things right now: vaccinations, food and safety regulations, and so on. Ppl have taken all the safety nets for granted.

lisabeachie.bsky.social•13 days ago

I lived in Redondo Beach and they used to cancel recess on smog days. Nothing like bringing back the tickle in your throat 🙄

pastafariantifa.bsky.social•14 days ago

The farm supply store was within sight of the house I grew up in. They burned the fertilizer/pesticide/herbicide bags in the fall and spring. I ended up in the hospital every season with severe asthma (pre inhalers). Mom figured it out and demanded they stop burning. My asthma resolved when we moved

pastafariantifa.bsky.social•14 days ago

It was bad in cities and in rural areas! I really don't want rivers to catch fire again!

miksolar.bsky.social•13 days ago

I visited Thailand for work earlier this year, manufacturing region. That’s the way it was here before the Clean Air Act.
We can’t rely on industry to remain clean. As soon as the regs are gone, the scrubbers get turned off. Those things are damned expensive to run

kankansi.bsky.social•13 days ago

Why do they think people rose up and took to the streets? Air that you could see, waterways that were filled with sewage and oil slicks, babies being born deformed from pesticide use, food coated in chemicals. They were certainly born”the good old days.”

ijeftomi.bsky.social•14 days ago

Love Canal and the Cuyahoga River.

jemmer.bsky.social•14 days ago

I remember Stinging red eyes, not being able to take a deep breath after playing outside most of the day, being unable to see the Whittier Hills from La Mirada - about 3 miles away. California’s regulations made it virtually impossible for some industries to remain here, but the air became healthier

2vm.bsky.social•13 days ago

Driving in La Mirada (Beach Blvd), the grandkids remind me that always tell them to enjoy the sight of palm trees, Whittier hills and the snow on the mountains. I appreciate it so much because I remember the smog. ( no recess etc)

majorityunsilenced.bsky.social•14 days ago

Prior to stiffened smog laws, the Los Angeles basin was such a bowl of brown puke that you couldn't see five miles on bad days.

just-catherine.bsky.social•13 days ago

I tried going to art school/college in downtown LA 1968. I do mean ‘ downtown’ . Left after 3 months, hacking so bad. Couldn’t breathe. Home was the Hi desert, took months to clean out my lungs and get better.

adayinmylife64.bsky.social•13 days ago

I grew up in socal in the 70’s. You could not run outside without having a hard time breathing.

onlyspumoni.bsky.social•13 days ago

Ask those in Gary, Indiana how it was.

carlye666.bsky.social•13 days ago

In Los Angeles we had Stage 4 Smog Alerts where everyone was advised to stay inside and there was no outside recess at school.

foodified.bsky.social•14 days ago

The goddamn Cuyahoga River caught on fire. A fucking river caught. on. fire.

joelspiegel.bsky.social•13 days ago

More than once.

The air was bad in those days.

jeffpratt.bsky.social•14 days ago

Purple Rain was a hit and Acid Rain was a fear

dsadieg.bsky.social•13 days ago

You could see it! I had to show a 40-year-old coworker a photo for her to get why we're so concerned about clean air.

deirdre63.bsky.social•13 days ago

It was so bad that a Republican president invented the EPA.

faewings.bsky.social•14 days ago

I remember when I was a child, Mom driving us up to Grandma's house outside of Los Angeles, we'd be playing in the backseats and being silly, then we knew we were close to Grandma's when our eyes started watering, sneezing, coughing, chocking on the pollution meant we were almost there! It was bad.💔

smatterofwords.bsky.social•14 days ago

So true! Grew up in L.A. county in the 50s and remember the SMOG.

thegloballeft.bsky.social•14 days ago

Too bad California didn't have Electric Trolley tracks. Wait a minute🫨😵‍💫

nunesgoat.bsky.social•14 days ago

Between the air pollution and parents smoking, probably 20% or more of my elementary school classmates had asthma. Now that rate is ≈6%

flipturns.bsky.social•14 days ago

I remember going to LA to see my cousin in 1976. The air was brown and it really burned my eyes. Going to Dianey land was fun, but the smog was so bad.

ogauntruth.bsky.social•13 days ago

They used to show shots of Los Angeles like this on the national news.

jock101.bsky.social•13 days ago

Cue the Beatles song Blue Jay Way, a reference to a street in the Hollywood Hills where George Harrison stayed and wrote the song. First line: There's a fog upon LA, meaning the smog was so bad you couldn't see a thing.

yammz.bsky.social•13 days ago

OK so where do masks begin and end and with what? Doesn't Japan wear masks when outdoors because of the air pollution?Will trump ban masks like he does for covid except for his ICE thugs? trumps thought process must not extend no further than his penis. Would say nose but his nose has length.

adambear.bsky.social•13 days ago

As for those who aren't old enough to personally know the history, not merely in CA but elsewhere, too many don't bother to learn.

schfinkes.bsky.social•13 days ago

I vividly remember a meme from 1975 health class, my senior year in high school. “Smog comes on little cat feet.” It wasn’t new, even then, but we were being made aware of the dangers.

adoboblue.bsky.social•13 days ago

We used to see Pictures of LA with a yellow haze which would last for days. I also remember seeing a river on fire because of the pollution. At 74 I saw a lot of these things.

adayinmylife64.bsky.social•13 days ago

I lived in riverside and many days you could not see the mountains near by.

adoboblue.bsky.social•13 days ago

What is extremely sad is that we may have those events happening again because of the extreme cutbacks to our climate system.

briansager79.bsky.social•13 days ago

Born in 60, I remember, the hole in the ozone, acid rain, love canal, rivers on fire, these were/are man made events that negatively impacted our environment, to deny man made climate change is absurd.

notamole.bsky.social•14 days ago

I'm old enough to remember LA in the 70s. This article doesn't lie. Many times our school wouldn't let us play outside at recess because of the air quality. Instead we would put our heads on our desks and be quiet. https://ktla.com/news/california/the-difference-is-astonishing-graph-shows-how-much-better-california-smog-is-now/

adayinmylife64.bsky.social•13 days ago

I remember that!

4patsoftheapocalyp.bsky.social•14 days ago

She speaks the truth. I grew up in LA in the 60s and there were days I could not see the hill a half mile away. #lovecanal

carlye666.bsky.social•13 days ago

My mom moved to LA in the summer and said it was winter before she knew there were mountains.

beacape85.bsky.social•14 days ago

Burning rivers, constant smog…have to be certain age to remember

klberts.bsky.social•14 days ago

I grew up in California. I’m 78 years old. The air quality was so bad there were days we were excused from gym class because it was too difficult to do physical exercise on “smog days.”

bob-schulhof.bsky.social•13 days ago

I remember Chicago in the mid 70’s, during the winter the plowed snow on the sides of the roads and highways was solid black.

sponica.bsky.social•14 days ago

I'm a little over 40, I remember being able to see the smog from NYC at the beach my mom took me to in CT when I was a kid. And this was the late 80s/early 90s

raggedrabbit.bsky.social•14 days ago

I'm 45. I remember the acid rain scares as a kid. Let's please not go back in that direction.

brendoneus.com•14 days ago

Please allow me to share this song about the Cuyahoga River fires in Cleveland...

https://youtu.be/XVNuT4fkjAs

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