>Ed sez: ... I am amazed at how clear the air is as I look
out ... across San Francisco Bay and Silicon (Valley)
without all the (ice) on the roads ...<
I have personal experience of Silicon Valley's beginnings
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_Valley#Stanford_University
As a boy of 5 when the media-machine churned the 1957
fears of the Sputnik threat, Santa Clara Valley land was
still mostly used for agriculture (fruit orchards feeding
the canneries along the railroad line that ran parallel to
the original El Camino Real (the Spanish King's Road),
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_State_Route_82
back when it was only a 2 lane 35mph road with
carbureted ice spewing raw gasoline smell, and Hwy-101,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Route_101_in_California#San_Francisco_Bay_Area
back when it was made of large poured cement sections
that had buckled under the weight of the heavy ice semi
truck-traffic and had been built on unstable salty-silt
and landfill, to where car riding on 101 was a
teeth-chattering childhood-experience for me, as my
Father tried to drive his 50s ice full of kids at 60mph
(bumpita, bumpita, bumpita ...).
>From looking north out the car window on 101, I could
see the wind whipping the SF bay waters, and the tall
fresh green grass growing after the spring rains on the
east bay hills (now covered with homes).
I can remember looking south out from our home's front
yard at the Santa Cruz mountains and being able to see
the trees sway with the winds that whipped over
Skyline Blvd CA-35
https://goo.gl/maps/KDp5GNF73pJ3QgEh8
(yes, the air was really clean back then).
Near sunset, I could see the Pacific Ocean clouds push
over over Skyline, and pour out of the Hwy CA-92
mountain pass (that crosses CA-35)
https://goo.gl/maps/F5nejZBSGjCEytfE7
Each night those clouds invade the Pacific coastal
mountain range to water the redwood forest. Driving on
Skyline at night was usually like driving through a
cloud dripping with water
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ittechrecruiter/8646809895/
In the 1950's the sunsets were a light yellow. It wasn't
until later the ice pollution was so bad that the sunsets
were red, and some nights with a purple haze (yuk).
At the northern end of our housing block, looking north
the air was so clear in the late 1950s, I could see the
delta wing jets fly over our block (we in their flight
path) toward Moffett Field NAS
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moffett_Federal_Airfield#Sunnyvale_operations
(this is back when the .us sold jets to the Shaw, and
trained their pilots with touch-n-go landings out of
Moffett)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Moffett_Airfield#1929
In winter, the air was so clear, I could see when it
snowed on top of Mount Hamilton
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Hamilton_(California)#Climate
https://goo.gl/maps/FJQ7TcavFYBKdCSU8
I'm pointing out that even in the late 1950's the Santa
Clara Valley was a healthy place to be. But that all
changed in the 1960's on, as all the orchards I used to
walk through to &from school, were cut down and
paved over to build what is today overcrowded
& expensive Silicon Valley (everything I grew up with
is gone, paved over, and built on).
Now, that I am in South Central Texas, looking down
south-east on one of San Antonio's main-drags
(Fredricksburg Rd.)
https://goo.gl/maps/TVKwmowTsAH3C3Cy7
I can gauge SA's air quality, as the air is still clean
enough that I can see downtown SA (miles away), including
the Tower of the Americas (SA's space-needle-like bldg.).
I really do not want ths Texas to get as polluted as
Silicon Valley. That is why I'm excited with the
increasing number of EVs I see on Texas roads :-)
For EVLN EV-newswire posts view:
http://www.evdl.org/archive/
https://mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html
{brucedp.neocities.org}
--
Sent from: http://electric-vehicle-discussion-list.413529.n4.nabble.com/
_______________________________________________
UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub
ARCHIVE: http://www.evdl.org/archive/index.html
INFO: http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org
Please discuss EV drag racing at NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
