I used to think that the American pollution problem was improving since the '70s

[MrScorpio]

I was wrong.

[mix]

1. My hunch is that after 1980, Reagan et al and deregulation pollution gets worse

up till the present, or something like that. Why were you wrong?

[lpbk2713]

2. Then assholes like Limbaugh and Beck came along.

They preached to their gullible listeners that being environmentally conscious
was synonymous with being a librul. That was a turning point. This is only one
reason out of many why these asshole hatemongers are so dangerous.

[mrcheerful]

3. Nah they just got good at hidding pollution once out of sight it was out of the publics mind

People are really that bad about knowing anything about the long term hidden effects of pollution. I just read a story about houses built before 1990 had every toxic chemical known and banned since the EPA started stopping polluters and even then the EPA didn't go far enough. When I can go to any hardware store to buy chemicals to dump on my lawn that a lawn business has to be licensed to put the stuff on my lawn. :crazy:

[Common Sense Party]

4. Some things have definitely gotten better.

"There have been major improvements in air quality since the days of early regulation. Emissions of all major air pollutants have decreased since 1970, although concern regarding nitrogen oxides from automobiles still exist. Between 1980 and 2006, total emissions of the six principal air pollutants dropped by 49 percent, with lead emissions decreasing by 98 percent. During this same time, gross domestic product increased 121 percent, vehicle miles traveled increased 101 percent, energy consumption increased 29 percent, and the U.S. population grew by 32 percent."
http://www.enviroliteracy.org/subcategory.php/3.html

[KT2000]

5. Some better - some worse

The 70s were the hey day for the EPA - so many committed people there anxious to improve things.
Then - the corporations figured out how to work the system with the cooperation of the politicians, especially presidents.
The revolving door between EPA and the corporations swings so fast, the person approving projects and new chemicals has sometimes been the same person who wrote the request as an employee of corporations.

Large corporations threaten to sue the EPA and they have gotten to the point where they do not even try to do the right thing. Enforcement is usually for the mid-size to small companies.

Of the 80,000 chemical in commercial use - only 200 have been what they call "adequately tested."

[notesdev]

6. Improving can mean many things

We basically airlifted all our manufacturing capability to Asia, so now all the pollution they used to generate here is generated over there (and unlike here, not mitigated by regulation). So in some narrow sense it can be called an improvement.

[SoCalDem]

7. It just got sneakier. The days of brown polluted air may have gone, but

the chemical insult to everything in our daily lives grew exponentially..and it's more insidious, because how does one prove the "cause" of a cancer at age 40, that "may" have resulted from the onslaught of millions of exposures during those 40 years, all piled up on top of each other until the body finally says "uncle"..

The artificiality of most things in our daily lives has to have an impact on our bodies. Human bodies (or any living creatures) do not evolve fast enough to "deal" with the changed things in our environment.

[Hissyspit]

8. Wikipedia:

But it is sourced from the Wall Street Journal, so...

United States
Main article: Air pollution in the United States

In the 1960s, 70s, and 90s, the United States Congress enacted a series of Clean Air Acts which significantly strengthened regulation of air pollution. Individual U.S. states, some European nations and eventually the European Union followed these initiatives. The Clean Air Act sets numerical limits on the concentrations of a basic group of air pollutants and provide reporting and enforcement mechanisms.

In 1999, the United States EPA replaced the Pollution Standards Index (PSI) with the Air Quality Index (AQI) to incorporate new PM2.5 and Ozone standards.

The effects of these laws have been very positive. In the United States between 1970 and 2006, citizens enjoyed the following reductions in annual pollution emissions:<47>

- carbon monoxide emissions fell from 197 million tons to 89 million tons
- nitrogen oxide emissions fell from 27 million tons to 19 million tons
- sulfur dioxide emissions fell from 31 million tons to 15 million tons
- particulate emissions fell by 80%
- lead emissions fell by more than 98%

The National Ambient Air Quality Standards are pollution thresholds which trigger mandatory remediation plans by state and local governments, subject to enforcement by the EPA.

[unblock]

9. the wsj is a very reliable source

just throw out the op-ed page.

[Hissyspit]

10. Yup. I was thinking of the op/ed page.

And this is pre-Murdoch ownership, I believe.