Use RAAN to see how bad the air outside really is

The San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District (APCD) issued an air quality alert for Valley residents yesterday due to smoke from California's wildfires. If you step outside and take a deep breath or just look at the hazy skies, you will quickly understand why. 

If you want to get a little more information on just how bad it really is as measured by ambient air quality monitors, then check out the APCD's Real-time Air Advisor Network (RAAN). By using either a free app or by typing in your zip code at the RAAN website, you can see what the ozone and PM2.5 levels are in your area right now and throughout the day.

Again, because of the risk to your health, the APCD recommends that you avoid strenuous outdoor activities until the skies clear to safer levels.

SJVAPCD issues air quality alert for San Joaquin Valley due to fire smoke

 The San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District (APCD) has just issued an air quality alert for the San Joaquin Valley. It doesn't end until Monday, August 9, at 5 PM.

The APCD urges everyone to stay indoors and especially avoid strenuous outdoor activities.

By ignoring wildfire emissions, is CARB painting too rosy a picture about statewide GHG reductions?

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) just released its greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory data report for 2019. CARB said the data shows that GHG reductions in the state are being reduced significantly more than the reductions that have been targeted by law.

However, buried within the press release and the report is information on another source of GHG whose numbers are not included in the inventory of reductions that CARB is praising.

Wildfire emissions.

Photo Credit: California Air Resources Board

CARB's latest data shows that GHG emissions statewide, exclusive of wildfires, went from 425 million metric tonnes in 2018 to 418 million metric tonnes in 2019. 

However, what CARB doesn't report is the increase in wildfire GHG emissions. Although wildfire CO2 emissions declined from 2018 to 2019 from 39.1 to 4.8 million metric tonnes CO2, in 2020 they increased to 106.7 million metric tonnes. And that latter number may be approached in 2021 as well considering the number of wildfires that have happened and are happening at this very moment throughout the state - and the normal wildfire season hasn't even officially started yet.

CA Wildfire Emissions, by Year - CARB

CARB and others have tried to dismiss concerns over wildfire CO2 emissions by referring to them as part of the natural carbon cycle. But the fact remains -  CO2 is CO2. The world and the physical climate change processes that result in the increasing temperatures of global warming do not care from where the CO2 comes. 

One can brag all one wants about reducing GHG emissions from transportation and industrial sources, but, the ship is still going to sink if you only bail out part of the water that is filling your boat.

What do you think? Please leave your comments below.

Will the world run out of Electric Vehicle (EV) batteries in 4 years?

Electric vehicles are seen as a key to reducing global CO2 emissions to positively impact adverse climate change effects from fossil fuels. Recent studies have shown that over an assumed vehicle lifetime, electric vehicles do have a smaller, cradle-to-grave overall environmental impact than traditional gasoline fueled vehicles. (Some of the assumptions used for vehicle life expectancy may be questionable - there isn't a lot of history of EVs operating for 100,000+ miles, for example - but, that's a discussion for another story!)

Photo Credit: Oleg Alexandrov, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons; https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tesla_Motors_Model_S_base.JPG

Bank of America financial analysts have just predicted that based on current and future sales predictions, as well as government mandates to reduce and/or possibly ban the sale of new fossil fueled fired vehicles, a worldwide EV battery shortage will occur as soon as 2025.

That's 4 years from now. What happens then? If you're driving a 10 year old EV and need to replace your battery (or buy/lease a new EV), how do you do it? Where will you go?

EVs have notoriously high upfront costs (which studies show are mitigated over an EV's lifetime after factoring in government tax incentives and general maintenance costs), but, there is this little Capitalism principal called the Law of Supply and Demand that is going to come into play here if this happens.

If people are being steered toward buying EVs because new fossil fueled cars are being frowned upon (if not banned), and, if the most important "part" of an EV (the battery!) is in short supply, guess what will happen?

The price of EVs will skyrocket.

Something to think about...your civil comments and thoughts may be made below.