US Air Quality Shows Dramatic Improvement
Thursday, June 26, 2014 - 15:10
in Earth & Climate
What big environmental win has happened in the last 10 years for Americans? Most importantly, the country switched to natural gas from coal, and that is a good thing because emissions from energy plummeted, and a lot of manufacturing has left the country due to a punitive regulatory environment, that is bad, but the upside has been a reduction in pollution across the country. New satellite images from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on NASA's Aura satellite demonstrate the reduction of air pollution across the country. After ten years in orbit, has been in orbit sufficiently long to show that people in major U.S. cities are breathing less nitrogen dioxide – a yellow-brown gas that can cause respiratory problems. read more