We're No. 1...in apathy!

It’s a little hard for me believe that this is still considered “news” but the headline on today’s paper reads, “We’re No. 1…in smog.”  Yeah, yeah, yeah.  Tell me something I didn’t know.  Sure, past reports have put us in second, or third, but I never bought it.  It only takes a couple of trips down the grapevine to get a pretty good idea of how unclear our air is.  That’s why I’m always taking pictures of clouds.  I’m keep thinking, “Look!  It’s the sky! Quick – that a picture before it disappears under a thick blanket of goop again.”

So, according to this new study by the American Lung Association, Bakersfield now takes the lead in having the worst air around.  Los Angeles-Long Beach-Riverside is in second.  That means that Bakersfield, a city with roughly the same size population at Long Beach, around 450,000, has more ozone pollution than L.A, with a population of roughly 9 million, and Riverside, with a population of over 4 million.  What the hell??

The biggest reason for all of this, or course, is those wonderful mountains we have surrounding us on three sides.  Makes for a nice little catch-all for crap.  Crap being the stuff released into the air from all cars and trucks driving up and down I-5, agricultural pollution and, or course, just plain ol’ people pollution.  

I know that the first two have a lot to do with our bad air, they have a WHOLE lot to do with it.  But I gotta tell you, I don’t think another city exists that contains so many people who just really don’t give a rats ass.  Some people care and try to do their part, but over all I find most people’s apathetic approach to improving our environment extremely frustrating.  They read the news, grumble about our air, then hop in their gas guzzlers and park it in the drive through lane.  

From what I can tell, they sure don’t seem to be worried about the air around here, good, bad, or otherwise.