The Smog Days of Summer

I’m probably not the only one who’s noticed, but I don’t remember a single smog advisory yet in 2009. Aren’t things supposed to get worse air quality wise? Before getting carried away on a hunch I went googling to verify my suspiscions. Turns out there’s a website that has historical air quality data:

http://www.airqualityontario.com/reports/historical.cfm

Using this website I compared 2008 & 2009 data in Ottawa for the period of April 1st to July 8th. Turns out my suspiscions were correct. There has been a significant improvement in air quality so far this summer. Below are the results:

Air Quality Index

There is a 10 day improvement in the number of good or very good days. Now that’s great for Ottawa but why is it happening? It could be just a coincidence, just the result of random weather fluctuations.

But say for a moment that it isn’t. What are the possible reasons? The biggest difference between 2008 and 2009 is the economy. We are in the midst of recession. That means there are a less people working which in turn means less people driving their cars to work.

That also means a lot less computers being booted up, and less people giving off heat forcing the AC to kick in to keep the office at a comfy 24 degrees. According to the reuters article below there will be 5.2% less coal burned in 2009 due to less electricity being used as well as increased development of other forms of power generation.

http://in.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idINN0742844120090707

Not to take this hypothetical too far but this type of turnaround flies in the face of anyone who would claim that it is already too late to change. Maybe it’s not too late to fix the mess we’ve made. Maybe the healing power of the earth is much better than we think. Maybe we actually can make a difference.