14 April 2018 - Take a Long, Deep Breath

Think About Noise if You Must Move

"Because of job transfers and other reasons, Americans move frequently to new homes. If you must do so , consider the problem of noise pollution in choosing your new house or apartment."

I have been very fortunate to have lived in small communities for the past few years.

Every town we moved to or from has been less than 20,000 people.

There isn't a lot of noise pollution where I am.

In fact, if I go in my back yard right now, I can clearly hear the Pacific Ocean.

It is truly wonderful.

There is some scientific evidence that noise levels can effect us physically and psychologically.

Physical Effects can include higher blood pressure, hypertension, and in sever cases hearing loss.

Psychological Effects include elevated stress levels, depression, and anxiety.

The Clean Air Act was passed in 1972.

Amendments to this act were added in 1990 to include noise pollution.

The Environmental Protection Agency lists on its website the effects of noise on our health.

Read about it here!

The role of the EPA is to investigate and study the effects of noise on public health and welfare.

This act is how we have standards on emissions of noise on motor vehicles, aircraft, and even appliances.

NOW

Since we are talking about clean air, let's talk about our EPA director Scott Pruitt.

(seriously this guy can sit on a tac)

There is an ongoing litigation brought on by Pruitt while he was still Oklahoma's Attorney General. On August 2, 2016, Pruitt filed a lawsuit challenging the EPA's standards on limiting pollution for oil and gas facilities. 

Pruitt and his political action committees receive  campaign donations from corporate members of the American Petroleum Institute.

You can see this and his other 13 lawsuits against the EPA here!

Here is my problem with 2018.

In 1970 we had the foresight to see and understand that action steps then would have positive effects on our environment and our health today.

Do we really need a reminder of what pollution was like before the EPA was established in 1970?

Do we really need to start pushing this into our air again?

And for what?

For the sake of making donors happy?

Do we need a revolution almost 4 decades later?

Is this what Trump meant by "Making America Great Again"?

I don't know about you, but I really like regulation.

I like having clean lakes and oceans for fishing and swimming

Maybe it's time to start taking some political responsibility and literally start draining the swamp of pollutants. 

Let's start here.

Maybe when he moves for a "job transfer", we can stick him next to an airport and he can really ponder on the good of the Clean Air Act.