As if an epidemic isn't here already! I wrote a letter of comment to EPA back in May 2001. A link to my letter can be found below. I spelled out that this would be the inevitable result of not acting soon enough in curtailing greenhouse gases from U.S. motor vehicles. I even sent a copy of my letter to my representative in Washington D.C., pointing out my concerns. Nothing got done. If fact, they responded by relaxing the motor vehicle CAFE standards. Both Wisconsin Senators voted for the measure, to the surprise of most of the state's environmentalists. http://www.danenet.org/bcp/docs/neuman_1jun01_gw.html
Many people commented with serious air quality and other environmental concerns about the state's 20 billion-plus state highway plan back in 1999. Many others who did are probably still using this listserv. We told them the massive highway building and new 4-lanes (Highway 12 to Sauk City an example) would just lead to more and more air pollution and more greenhouse gases because making the highways faster and easier to travel just spread the urban sprawl out in Dane County and to other counties, fueling an increasing demand for more highway travel. That's exactly what has happened in Dane County and the surrounding areas. That's why highway miles travelled in Dane County increased at 3 times the rate of the population growth throughout the 1990 and into the 2000s. Once the 4-lane to Sauk City is completed, and other expansions around Dane County and leading into Madison, traffic and air pollution in Madison will all continue to grow, along with the warming. Asthma rates in Madison grew significantly in 1990s. The article below shows they are likely to continue to grow to epidemic levels if we're not more careful. http://www.danenet.org/bcp/shp.html The state continues to subsidize airline companies like Midwest Express with state tax exemptions and the like, yet jet travel emits more pollution and creates more global warming than any other thing imaginable with the possible exception of rocket propulsion. I contact all my duly elected officials back in May 2000 with my concern that they take action to reduce fossil fuel burning. Nothing back but form letters. http://www.danenet.org/bcp/neuman_gw_letter.pdf http://www.danenet.org/bcp/neuman_gw.pdf Don't allow your kids to go out biking in the hot weather this summer. Bicycling in hot weather is not healthy, particularly if pollution is in the air. If they ride, they should ride slow and not get to winded. Adults are not immune from developing new cases of asthma, either, I have read. Get familiar with the American Lung Association's web site.. You might want to stay inside yourself on the really hot days. If it's also humid out, be careful of heat stress and especially heat stroke. These conditions get increasingly more likely to occur with both hot AND humid weather. The body does not cool if weather conditions are humid, because of the reduction in evaporation off the skin. Contrary to the last sentence of this article, there is little good news to report. Fossil fuel burning in cars, trucks and airplanes, and in power plants in Wisconsin and elsewhere continues to climb, with no end in site. Mayday, Mayday! "It is incumbent on us here today to so act throughout our lives as to leave our children a heritage for which we will receive their blessings and not their curses". Theodore Roosevelt - from a speech he gave in Dickinson, North Dakota, July 4, 1886 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------- Report Predicts Asthma Epidemic from Pollution ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------- WASHINGTON - Poor and minority children are likely to develop asthma at worsening rates due to global warming and air pollution, environment experts predicted on Thursday. They released a report showing that as the climate gets warmer, allergens such as pollen and mold will flood the air, interacting with urban pollutants such as ozone and soot to fuel an already growing epidemic of asthma. "It is affecting the trees, the molds, the subsurface organisms," Dr. Paul Epstein of Harvard Medical School's Center for Health and the Global Environment, told a news conference. "The combination of air pollutants, aeroallergens, heat waves and unhealthy air masses -- increasingly associated with a changing climate -- causes damage to the respiratory systems, particularly growing children, and these impacts disproportionately affect poor and minority groups in the inner cities," the report reads. The report finds that asthma among U.S. preschool children, age 3 to 5, grew 160 percent between 1980 to 1994. "This is a real wake-up call for people who think global warming is only going to be a problem way off in the future or that it has no impact on their lives in a meaningful way," said Christine Rogers, a senior research scientist at the Harvard School of Public Health. "The problem is here today for these children and it is only going to get worse." Rogers, Epstein and the American Public Health Association worked together on the report. Most climate experts agree that the world is becoming steadily warmer, and that human activity is much to blame. Burning fossil fuels such as coal and gas releases carbon dioxide into the air. INVISIBLE BLANKET The carbon dioxide forms a kind of invisible blanket that traps the sun's radiation. While average temperatures warm, the effects are not predictable and even. Storms may become more severe and some areas may get colder weather. The report finds that in some regions, winter is ending weeks earlier than before, and plants are releasing their pollen earlier than ever, accelerating the hay fever season. Pollen and fungal spores can worsen asthma, a serious medical condition whose symptoms include shortness of breath, cough, wheezing, chest pain or tightness. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said nine million U.S. children have been diagnosed with asthma and more than 4 million have had an asthma attack in the past 12 months. It says 4,487 people died from asthma in 2000, most of them adults. Asthma affects blacks more than any other group and affects 16 percent of children from poor families as opposed to 11 percent of children living above the poverty line. The CDC also says 9 million U.S. children were reported with respiratory allergies in 2002. The report makes clear links among asthma, allergies and urban air pollution. "Rising levels of carbon dioxide, in addition to trapping more heat, promote pollen production in plants, increase fungal growth and alter species composition in plant communities by favoring opportunistic weeds like ragweed and poison ivy," the report reads. "Diesel particulates help deliver and present pollen and mold allergens to the immune system in the lungs," it adds. "The good news is we can do something about this," Epstein said. "Green" buildings with roof gardens to keep them cool and insulation to keep heat from leaking would help, as would improving public transport and encouraging the use of hybrid vehicles that rely less on fossil fuels. Story by Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent Story Date: 30/4/2004 http://www.planetark.com/avantgo/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=2495 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------- DNR plan would pay people not to drive Gas-tax rebates of up to $2,800 could limit road expansions, it says By Larry Sandler of the Journal Sentinel staff Last Updated: Nov. 29, 1999 Instead of building more highways, Wisconsin could pay people to drive less, a state Department of Natural Resources official said Monday. The DNR has asked the state Department of Transportation to consider sending gas tax rebate checks of up to $2,800 a year to residents who voluntarily limit their driving. That could help reduce the environmental damage from highway expansion, said Michael Neuman, a DNR specialist on transportation and the environment. "I think it's the only answer to solving this nightmare of highway congestion we have in this country," Neuman said. But key legislators of both parties and a DOT official immediately voiced skepticism about the concept, which apparently would be the first of its kind in the nation. They said the rebate plan would cost too much and wouldn't make a difference in how much people drive. "The DNR hasn't considered any of the downsides of doing it," said Ernie Wittwer, DOT investment management administrator. "They just tossed another idea out at the 12th hour." Neuman said the rebates could cost as much as $800 million a year but would be balanced by an equal cut in highway spending. If people didn't reduce their driving, the state wouldn't pay that much, he said. The rebate idea is part of a broader assault on the $20 billion long-range highway plan. Over the next 20 years, the plan calls for adding 2,800 miles of highway lanes and 34 bypasses, using 25,000 acres. DNR Secretary George Meyer has said that this much highway expansion could threaten air, water, land and wildlife. At the same time, a coalition of local governments, environmentalists and transit activists declared Monday that the highway plan should be rewritten to consider alternatives to highway expansion, and to place a higher priority on maintaining state and local roads instead of building state highways. The DOT has touted its highway plan as a balanced proposal that assumes train and bus service would be increased. But critics said that rail lines, bus systems and local streets would suffer, because the highway expansion would cost $4.2 billion more than gas taxes and license fees can cover at current rates. Neuman suggested the rebate concept in his critique of the DOT plan. According to the DNR comments, still in draft form, the DOT should study such rebates and other incentives, among them higher parking fees, to persuade people to drive less and to reduce the need for more highways. Drivers who want the rebates would agree to bring their cars to a Division of Motor Vehicles office once a year and let state employees check their odometers. They would pay a $30-a-year fee to cover the cost of administering the program. Checks would be based on the vehicle miles traveled and the number of drivers, other people and cars in each household. For example, a family of two drivers and three children could earn a $1,200 rebate by driving less than 10,000 miles a year. Households without cars could qualify for the maximum $2,800 rebate by filling out a form and paying a $10 fee. Andrea Broaddus, campaign director of the New Transportation Alliance, praised the rebate as a "really innovative" idea that would pump more money into the consumer economy instead of into costly highways. But Rep. David Brandemuehl (R-Fennimore), chairman of the Assembly Highways and Transportation Committee, said people wouldn't turn from driving to public transit as long as gas is "relatively cheap." Brandemuehl said the state must continue to support highways until it can build a far more extensive network of passenger and freight rail lines. Residents wouldn't stand for letting highways deteriorate, he said. Even Sen. Brian Burke (D-Milwaukee), a critic of the highway plan, called the rebates "an idea whose time hasn't come." Burke, co-chairman of the Joint Finance Committee in the Legislature, said, "We have to focus on smart growth and better transportation planning and more travel options and voluntary measures before throwing money at a proposal such as this." Still, Meyer said Monday that he is negotiating directly with Transportation Secretary Charles Thompson and his top deputy to bring more environmental sensitivity to the highway plan. In a letter to Thompson earlier this year, Meyer said he was particularly concerned that the plan "accepts increased vehicular travel as a given and accommodates it through increased highway capacity." Meyer said the DOT hasn't addressed his concerns. Wittwer disagreed, saying the DOT has thoroughly considered the environmental impact of its plan. And although the DOT hasn't studied the rebate idea, it did ask the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission to examine 15 or 20 other ways to encourage people to drive less, Wittwer said. None of those ideas would have significantly reduced driving, the study found. Nor has driving been reduced because of rising gas prices or higher vehicle registration fees in other states, Wittwer said. Public hearings on the state highway plan are scheduled from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. Monday at the University of Wisconsin-Marathon County in Wausau and from 5:30 to 8 p.m. Dec. 8 at the Dane County Expo Center in Madison. Written comments may be sent to the state Department of Transportation until Dec. 17. Appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Nov. 30, 1999. Original URL: http://www.jsonline.com/news/metro/nov99/hiway30112999a.asp Mike Neuman Check these out: http://www.madison.com/communities/preserveourclimate/ http://www.madison.com/communities/madisonbluessociety/ "A man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone". Henry David Thoreau ________________________________________________________________ The best thing to hit the Internet in years - Juno SpeedBand! Surf the Web up to FIVE TIMES FASTER! 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