Local Curse

A million years ago, our human cousins made campfire smoke by burning wood.

Thousands of years ago, our ancestors began smelting metals, which created (as today) a variety of pollutants.

In the "Bronze and Iron Ages ... the use of metal for ... [the] military led to a ... demand for charcoal", causing a "depletion of forests."

“Mining operations leached acids and toxic minerals, including mercury and arsenic, into nearby water.

Waste products fouled the land and the air. The smelting of lead in 150 b.c. Rome produced clouds of toxic gas.”

With urbanization and the industrial revolution (250 yrs. ago), burning of coal became prevalent, and pollution greatly expanded.

Clean-air "laws were passed ... but with little teeth. They ... levied insignificant fines and contained

numerous exemptions. Coal remained cheap. No one was willing to slow the industrial engine."

Extreme pollution events (L.A. - 7/43 and London - 12/52) led to England's Clean Air Act (1956), and the USA's Clean Air Act (1963).

These Clean Air Acts were a meager start. One reason: as in olden times, economic players, small and large, profit from pollution.

From the 20th century on, the burning of oil and gas proliferated, resulting in ever more pollution.

Asphalt is made of bitumen, a “constituent of petroleum”

Today's fossil-fuel-burning pollution follows a sequence of steps:

The unfortunate consequences are outlined on these 3 pages:

https://ourworldindata.org/data-review-air-pollution-deaths

Pollution leads to another sequence of steps once inside the human body:

“The most severe harm from air pollution isn't immediately noticeable.

Some of the worst impacts come from the tiny particles in smog, known as PM2.5."

"When you breathe them in, ‘they can go into your bloodstream ... and act as a toxin.’

[causing] 'strokes and heart attacks [and] cognitive decline and [problems] with fertility.'

‘It's hard to viscerally understand ... that someone's illness is ... exacerbated by pollution'."

"PM2.5 can penetrate deeply into the lung ... leading to impaired lung function."

“Air pollution’s harmful effects are amplified in children."

"Their lungs, brains, [etc.] are immature, and their immune systems are still developing.”

The American Lung Association makes a list of places with the most/least air pollution.

Bakersfield, California may have the worst.

Lahaina, Hawaii was near the top for the cleanest air - before the fire there.

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While American air had been improving,

effects of pollution are worse than realized:

“Air in Louisiana’s ‘Cancer Alley’ is likely more toxic than previously thought.”

Worse still, (2024) U.S. air pollution has been growing,

including: “spikes in deadly particle pollution [and] days with ‘very unhealthy’ and ‘hazardous’ air”.

The reason appears to be more smoke due to more (greenhouse-gas-attributed) wildfires.