Paying in Smoggy Days
Re “Heavy Smog Stages a Return to Southland,” July 12: This should come as no surprise. Everyone, step out of your egos and your comfort zones and take a look around. All these SUVs and other forms of conspicuous consumption have got to go -- now. It’s like a credit card: We have our fun, then pay later, with interest.
Our air is the filthiest in the nation. Our conventional mentality has to go the way of the dinosaurs, whose remains are not only toxic to our air but are also in highly limited supply. It disgusts me that, after a campaign of misinformation and sabotage, my highly functional electric car was just taken out of production. Zero-emission vehicles are no longer available to the Southland consumer. Where are our leaders when we need them?
But it’s not all about the car. The Metro Rail Gold Line, scheduled to open July 26, is but one step in the right direction. Telecommuting, walking, bicycle lanes, communities where people live and work -- all are necessary, none are sufficient.
We also have to reduce our frivolous consumption of consumer goods. Packaging, shipping and transporting, hidden from our eyes, all take huge tolls on our environment. What happens to our economic growth when our limited resources are prematurely depleted by greed? Funny thing is, we’d all be a lot happier if we just lived more simply. We’d certainly enjoy greater health and longevity. Please, do your part.
Andrea L. Bell
Long Beach
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Hearty congratulations go out to all the SUV drivers! Together, all you Escalade, Hummer, Expedition and other SUV drivers truly do have the power to change the world. Not since 1998 have smog levels in the Southland been as high as they are this July. Yes, thanks to all of you driving 2-ton behemoths that get 12, 10 or even 4 miles to the gallon, the risk of cancer to all has increased, more children will suffer from asthma and more elderly than ever will die. Once again, congratulations!
Carter C. Bravmann
Los Angeles
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As a daily, up-to-three-hour commuter driving an older car, I have not observed any major visual pollution emerging from SUVs or trucks. However, school buses continue to belch clouds of thick black smoke. What makes them exempt, or are the noxious fumes they emit South Coast Air Quality Management District-approved?
Richard M. Vogel
Laguna Woods
