Hazardous Air Alert in 50 of Wisconsin's 72 Counties

The massive high pressure cell that has been sitting over Wisconsin for the past week has filled with particulates. Colder, dense air aloft has acted like a dome lid on a ball jar and the relatively motionless bolus of air that is trapped near ground level has been filling with pollutants for nearly a week. This cell is expected to stay here through the weekend and may continue to influence our weather here until early next week. We are not told what to do to prevent this from happening again, although there are several that come to mind. instead we are told not to let our elderly, or the children to exert themselves. People with heart and lung ailments are encouraged to stay home, and even young and healthy individuals are supposed to curtail strenuous activities.

Today, we unceremoniously exceeded the EPA's limits on particulates over the majority of the state. Several days ago we experienced a "fog" so intense and localized that a few dozen cars crashed in two piles along the highway. I saw the steam over a local paper mill's sewage treatment plant blotting out the sun for over a mile, and the fog that blocked the view of the highway for the poor folks who crashed was from steam from either cooling towers of a local gas powered electric generating station, or a similar paper mill, upstream of where I live.

As long as we do not change, we will continue to have more and more frequent extremes associated with our weather, the climate and the ability of our earth to handle the types of abuse that we dish out. I have never understood why our system allows some to profit from the destruction of the ecosystem that we all depend on for our survival. The three dozen crashed cars will all be replaced by insurance companies, but the cause of the crash, man-made air pollution will remain below the radar of those paying the bills. The traumatized bodies will remain. What is the true cost of our action? What is the true cost of inaction?

I remember when the particulate levels would be exceeded in one, two or three counties. Back then, Capitalists across the state said immoral and ignorant things like "Who cares, that's where the Blacks live." or "Some pollution can't be avoided." Even today people will say, that's the smell of money instead of being outraged that they are being forced to breathe toxic compounds. Now, over half the state is covered by hazardous air and the next few days it will only get worse!
Some of us will never understand how some people made it out of Kindergarten without learning that their freedom ends where the other person's nose begins!

We have all heard the Reduce, Reuse, Recycle mantra, but the first and often the most important "R" is rarely mentioned. Reject. When thing are not re-use-able, re-cycle-able or it is difficult to reduce the use of said item, reject it. The time has come for us to act. We stand at a unique point in time where we can find a path to sustainability, or perish. Many of our resources, which I prefer to call Gifts from the Gods, have been pushed to the point of no return. The longer we wait to reverse present trends, the less likely we are to survive.

The most rewarding and spiritually enlightening part of trying to find a path to sustainability is finding out that even the smallest change can make a major difference in my quality of life. Each time I give back to Mother Earth, rewards follow, but often from unexpected places. When I take my waste oil in to the recycling station, I often meet other interesting people who encourage me to make life better in other ways. Taking a day to clean out the hazardous chemicals that were in my home when I bought it allowed me to learn about recycling fluorescent tubes in ways the reduce environmental pollution. Once the ball is rolling, it tends to gain mass and momentum. Each and every time I learn a new technique or method to reduce my "footprint" it becomes just another step on a long path to sustainability.