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How do you read the EPA’s Air Quality Index?

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MarketWatch: “The EPA says to think of the AQI as a yardstick that runs from 0 to 500. The higher the AQI value, the greater the level of air pollution and the greater the health concern. For example, an AQI value of 50 or below represents good air quality for essentially all the population. A reading above 100 typically means that the outdoor air remains safe for most, but seniors, pregnant people and children are at increased risk. Those with heart and lung disease may also be at greater risk. And an AQI value over 300 represents hazardous air quality that will impact to some degree nearly everyone exposed to the air, even healthy people. Because remembering the severity of number ranges may be challenging, EPA has assigned a color to each range, with green and yellow representing the most favorable conditions, and orange, red, purple and maroon reflective of levels that are progressively worse, topping out at maroon or readings between 301 to 500.For comparison, the record-setting wildfire years of 2020 and 2021 meant that outdoor air near Portland, Ore., on select days produced an AQI above 400…”

Pesticide use data

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Jeremy Singer-Vine, Data is Plural: “As part of its National Water-Quality Assessment Project, the US Geological Survey publishes maps and datasets that estimate local pesticide usage, based on “proprietary surveys of farm operations.” The datasets provide high/low estimates (measured in kilograms) by county, chemical, and year, as well as by crop group for each state.… Continue Reading

NYT launches a free, geo-targeted extreme weather newsletter

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NiemanLab: “As the warming climate causes extreme weather events to become more frequent and severe, your everyday concern about weather risks may be growing. And you might not only be preoccupied with the chances of extreme weather where you live, but also in places you’re traveling, or where your friends and loved ones reside. What… Continue Reading

Struggles With Air Quality in Federal Offices Put Occupants At Risk of COVID Exposure

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Office of Audits, Office of Inspector General, U.S. General Services Administration A201018/P/4/R2308. Audit of GSA’s Response to COVID-19: PBS Faces Challenges to Meet the Ventilation and Acceptable Indoor Air Quality Standard in GSA-Owned Buildings. GovExec: “The federal government’s landlord has struggled to maintain air quality standards in its buildings thus putting occupants at risk for… Continue Reading

Is That Climate Change? The Science of Extreme Event Attribution

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CRS, Is That Climate Change? The Science of Extreme Event Attribution. June 1, 2023: “Climate change attribution is the study of whether, or to what degree, human influence may have contributed to extreme climate or weather events. Scientists can now estimate whether human activities have influenced extreme weather or climate events and changed how likely… Continue Reading

World Energy Investment 2023

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MIT Technology Review: “The world saw about $2.8 trillion of investments in energy in 2022, with about $1.7 trillion of that going into clean energy…” See also: “The report provides a global benchmark for tracking capital flows in the energy sector and examines how investors are assessing risks and opportunities across all areas of fuel… Continue Reading

Safe and just Earth system boundaries

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Rockström, J., Gupta, J., Qin, D. et al. Safe and just Earth system boundaries. Nature (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06083-8 [free PDF download] “The stability and resilience of the Earth system and human well-being are inseparably linked yet their interdependencies are generally under-recognized; consequently, they are often treated independently. Here, we use modelling and literature assessment to quantify… Continue Reading

Google Flood Hub is expanding to 80 countries

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Google Blog: “Natural disasters, like flooding, are increasing in frequency and intensity due to climate change, threatening people’s safety and livelihood. It’s estimated that flooding affects more than 250 million people globally each year and causes around $10 billion in economic damages. As part of our work to use AI to address the climate crisis,… Continue Reading

The Supreme Court Is Hiding Important Decisions From You

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Politico: “As the Supreme Court begins to release its written opinions from its most recent term, much of the public’s attention is focused on high-profile cases on affirmative action, election law and environmental regulation. But according to Stephen Vladeck, a professor at the University of Texas Law School, this narrow focus on the most headline-grabbing… Continue Reading

Parking Reform Network

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“The Parking Reform Network, a US-based nonprofit that aims “to discourage the building of too much parking supply,” has compiled a map and dataset of ~1,400 relevant local mandates. They focus on policies that reduce or eliminate minimum parking requirements for new developments, or set maximums. For each mandate, the dataset provides a summary and… Continue Reading