Don’t worry folks, in a thousand years it will all be under water. Maybe sooner.
3
Burning fuel oil doesn't have to produce black smoke. That sooty particulate matter is the product of incomplete combustion.
Combustion efficiency can be exponentially improved with simple and inexpensive modifications to the fuel's physical properties.
The technology has existed for years and not been widely adopted. Using it saves lives and reduces greenhouse gasses. TransTec4health.org
4
Not a word about the old apt buildings that are STILL allowed to burn their garbage? THAT is an obvious and immediate pollution source that should have been ended decades ago.
10
Before 1974, oil played a dominant role in French energy. Most homes and apartments were heated by it; the French electrical grid was powered by it.
After the Arab Oil Embargo Prime Minister Pierre Messmer, by ministerial decree and without public or parliamentary debate, instituted a plan to put France on a path to energy independence. The Messmer Plan sought to power the country not with “renewables”, not with natural gas or other fossil fuel, but with clean nuclear energy. Today, nuclear is used to generate 75% of French electricity, and France has the lowest per-capita carbon emissions of any developed country in the world.
The reason Cuomo’s office sought to close Indian Point, the source of nearly all of Westchester County’s clean electricity, was under investigation when U.S. District Attorney Preet Bharara was fired by Trump in 2017. Hopefully New York’s new governor will have the diligence - and honesty - to keep this vital source of clean energy open.
6
And this is why it's a good idea that New York, along with California and several other states are now suing the present administration in order to retain stricter control over auto emissions and othe polluting factors.
Since the E.P.A. under Scott Pruitt has nothing other than repealing all environmental protection measures enacted by Obama in mind, it will ultimately be up to each individual state to ensure their residents the air is safe to breathe and the water safe to drink.
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Back in the mid-1980s, A California research company got a study contract to study those apartment plumes, but not for reasons described in the article. Con-Ed was losing gas due to some leakage and theft. Apartment buildings in the NYC boroughs are either heated by gas or oil. Some of those being heated by gas had their meters bypassed by the building owner. They still billed the customers though. The research company came with an idea to measure sulfur dioxide in the plumes. Sulfur dioxide only comes from oil fired boilers, but not from gas fired boilers. So, if a no sulfur dioxide was measured in a plume, it had to be gas fired, and if the building wasn’t a customer of Con-Ed, then it had to be stealing gas. Finally, Con-Ed decided not to go through with the project, as public negative reaction was judged to be more important, than the minor loss of gas in NYC.
8
@Boweezo: "Some of those being heated by gas had their meters bypassed by the building owner. They still billed the customers though." This makes no sense. In an apartment building there is generally a central gas-fired boiler providing heat to the whole building, and tenants are generally not sub-metered.
You talk about "if the building wasn't a customer of Con-Ed" - but Con Edison is the ONLY game in town in terms of getting gas in a building, so we're ALL customers of Con Edison, and your statement makes no sense.
I live in a building heated by gas, and the gas is billed by Con Edison every month. There are an enormous number of residential buildings in NYC that are heated by gas, and the gas is supplied by Con Edison.
As to theft/bypassed meters, this is not only illegal, but extremely dangerous, as shown by the terrible explosion at 2nd Ave. & 7th St. a few years ago.
5
The Great Saunter is a marvelous walk: you see parts of Manhattan that normally you'd never get to and learn firsthand how the City is changing from year to year. Some parts are gorgeous, like the Hudson River Greenway, others are gritty but interesting, like the live poultry markets and auto junkyards of Inwood.
Last year, I finally finished. In previous years, I was hampered by injuries or my companions' injuries and lack of will.
"Why do you care about finishing?," one asked. It had become my urban Everest.
I had stay in bed the following day to recover and was sore for days, but it was worth it.
If the weather is decent, I'll be out there for the sixth time in a row. I'm only going to walk for a few hours, though. I'm too out of shape from not walking earlier in the year because of the weather.
Shorewalkers, which organizes The Great Saunter, offers many pleasant walks. Some are a few hours, others are all day. Another favorite of mine is The Great Manhattan Bridge Walk, which takes close to 12 hours. You cross every major bridge that connects Manhattan.
www.shorewalkers.org
11
This is eye-opening. So it’s safe to go out when it’s cold and rainy, but be careful out there when we most want to be outside? Maybe a peppy song will make those guidelines less scary. :)
Tune of “Air” (“Hello, Carbon Monoxide”) from HAIR
- (public service message, brightly, with forced good cheer)
La – la la la la! La – la la la la!
Welcome!
Spewing pollution!
Hello!
Got no solution!
Please care, please share
And stay aware.
Who knows, that how it goes, I suppose.
Say hey
Ground level ozone
They say
Your zone’s a “No Zone”
Now we’re aware
Because we share.
Warm spell makes the air hell, oh well!
13
And they wonder why there is a mass exodus of long term residents from NYC ?
4
@Mark: The idea is that all of us who've lived here a long time are mostly a nuisance; if they can create conditions adverse enough, they figure many of us will go elsewhere. I'm disgusted with what this city is turning into; I've lived here my entire life & I actually liked NYC better in the 1970's.
From the "crusties" who invade every summer, to the chronic situation with the homeless with mental illness, to the every.single.weekend. disruption of the ability to get around due to street fairs, parades, various charity events - like the all-boro bike tour - that gridlock the city, PLUS the infinite changes in subway service on the weekends, I'm fed up.
Forgive me for my wistfulness - I long for the days when a weekend was unstructured time: to take a leisurely bus ride to the Cloisters, to get errands done expeditiously, to go to the park or just walk around. I'm old enough to remember FREE bus service on Sundays, and a weekend atmosphere that was conducive to actually relaxing without needing to be "entertained".
I'd like to be able to wake up on a weekend morning knowing I can go to a museum or a park, or to Lincoln Center, or shopping, etc. WITHOUT having to consult a list of "street closures and events" - things that will make getting from Point A to Point B a miserable experience. And I'd like to NOT get stuck on re-routed buses that take 3 times as long to get me there. Yet this is the NYC that the powers-that-be have decided we should have!
17
No sir, I do NOT miss NYC in the 70s- fear of riding the subway at ANY time of the day, wearing cheap plastic jewelry to avoid being mugged, the dirt (yes, dirtier than today), the squeegee guys at the exits of the bridges and tunnels, the extreme homeless living in the parks (altho I work with the homeless population and I'm not entirely sure the shelters are better...)just an attitude of things will get alot worse before they get better. But they did get better, at least for some of us (home care nurse, not trust fund baby here). Keep your nostalgia: I prefer reality.
11
Houston has worse air quality than NYC. It has some of the worst in the country in fact.
Also, NYC's population is growing, not shrinking, so there is no "mass exodus."
17