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Green News!

Top 25 best cities to live in or visit on vacation if you love air pollution?

[May 4]

Talk about your anti-travel incentive. The American Lung Association have released their report on the 25 worst cities to live in thanks to poor air quality, and the results were surprising. Most of the top 10 cities on the list were actually places in the great state of California many people craving a vacation trip out west would love to visit!

For the past 12 years, the American Lung Association (ALA) has tirelessly analyzed data from Unites States air quality monitors. Their goal is the same each year: to compile the State of the Air report and help keep Americans and tourists with breathing difficulties which places in the USA are the worst.

“The more you learn about the air you breathe, the more you can protect your health and take steps to make our air cleaner and healthier…” say the ALA reps.

Breathing polluted air, even if you do not have a chronic lung condition like asthma, COPD [Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disorder], or major allergies to airborne pollens and environmental pollutants can seriously harm your health and even shorten your life.

The State of the Air is an air quality report card on urban and rural air pollution in communities across the country. The list compiled below reflects those cities across the United States with the worst year round particle pollutants, meaning no matter what season of the year you reside there or chose to visit, chances are the overall air quality is going to be *cough gasp* terrible.

Green Living!

Around the world yacht racing enthusiasts just say no to fossil fuels?

[Apr. 21]

You don’t have to be a full time green celebrity to realize that going green makes perfect sense. Called “the world’s ultimate solo challenge,” wind power fuels an eight month solo yacht race around the world that has been held every four years since 1982. The race began in La Rochelle, France in October, and is expected to conclude after the fifth and final leg of the race from Charleston, SC, back to La Rochelle.

“I’m not an environmentalist, or I don’t thump it too hard, but I am there,” said Derek Hatfield of Nova Scotia, who has placed second in the latest leg of the race, according to Reuters. “Things have changed a lot more than we think. I hope it’s not too late. I hope that we can make a difference.”

And that’s the perfect attitude to take. We may not all be green celebrities able to afford green technologies to help us get away from fossil fuels completely, but demonstrating that it can be done, over the long haul, especially for such a grueling race, is promising.

These green skippers are sailing what are called “Eco 60s”, which are old Open 60 yachts outfitted with solar panels, wind generators, and hydrogenerators that power the autopilots, GPS, satellite phones, and laptops that the skippers use while on the seas.

“The goal, of course, is not to use any fossil fuel at all,” said Derek.