This piece by Karen was cross-posted at Milspouse Mutterings.
After a long day of looking at dinosaurs and waving at the carousel horse as it went round and round with our granddaughter gleefully riding the horsie, we collapsed onto the Metro seat. Staring at me was this picture. This is an advertisement from the Sierra Club.
I figure Jasmine is about Koti’s age – 5 or so. When they don’t stop, when they run and play, making up games on the playground, or doing laps in sheer joy and love of being outside; when they are growing and learning at the speed of light. These children need to be able to breathe clean air, they need to use those quick brains and imaginations, they need to run and jump and play. If their lungs are impacted by pollution, if they have ingested toxins that affect their brains, they won’t be able to think of games to play, they won’t be able to run around or climb that slide.
The proposed rules are entirely reasonable; they are already being utilized by power plants, large companies and small ones; and they didn’t send them reeling into the poorhouse either! These technologies remove smog, particulates and other pollutants from what comes out of the smokestack. We have to reach some consensus here, we don’t want to drive all the companies out of business, but clean air is the right of all of us. All of us.
For more information and other blogs about taking that deep breath, check out Mom’s Clean Air Force.