Air Pollution

Drive up to a large city and just look at the sky over it.  Far too often there is a brown haze hanging over the city.  This is especially true if there is a significant industrial presence.  Many industries send out plumes of smoke from smokestacks.  Since the plumes often disappear after a short distance it is easy to disregard them.  But where does the smoke go?  It might just be too thin to see, or the water condensing on the particles evaporates, but the particles are still there. 

It can occur other than at a city.  I have seen the brown haze where I would not expect to see it.

I often travel on a highway where I have unobstructed view of plants along the Mississippi River.  Some seem to burn off material often, especially the refineries.  I often see a cloud originating near one of the flares where the chemicals are burned, and some grow quite large.  These are cumulus clouds, and can trigger or enhance thunderstorms.  What is alarming is that these clouds can be found on days when the rest of the sky is clear, and it is apparent how the pollution is drifting.  One direction in particular is often downwind of the pollution.

First, the chemicals are in the air.  This s the air that we must breathe.  So, those particulates enter our lungs. 

Second, the particulates become entrapped in the cloud droplets, and can deposit on farmlands where our food originates, or in our waterways reducing the quality of our drinking water, as a result of rain. 

Finally, as these man-made clouds drift they block the sun.  Some of us have solar power.  With the extra cloud cover we can get less production from our solar panels.  Do any of the plants producing these clouds ever ask if they can compensate for loss of solar energy?  Of course not.

Unless one knows a little about the weather as I do the clouds might be considered normal.  It is only after noticing the location of these clouds is repetitive day after day, and the peculiar appearance that such clouds have that one begins to realize something is wrong.

Recently a report was spread in the media claiming the industry on the state was not causing much pollution.  The claim was that the clouds are steam.  Well, steam does not come out black.  Steam is white, yet the plumes are often black.  Nor is the brown haze steam.