Air quality is trending better
The National Resources Defense Council predicts a significant increase in bad air days in three North Carolina cities, saying rising temperatures will produce more ozone.
The three cities are Raleigh, Asheville and Wilmington. The report doesn't include Triad cities, but one would expect the same conditions to apply here.
If this dire prediction is true, it will mark a strange reversal of recent trends. According to actual air-quality data, ozone readings in the Triad even during this super hot and dry summer have been significantly better they were a decade ago (although not as good as 2003-2006).
Through Sept. 8, Triad reporting stations registered 82 level green, or good air-quality, days. Back in 1997, only 65 green days were recorded for the entire reporting season, which covers only the warmer months. There have been seven level orange days in 2007, compared to 23 in 1997. Those numbers reflect the highest reporting station.
Orange is an area for concern, but levels rise to red and then purple. The Triad's last red day was registered in 2003.
One of the hottest summers before this one occurred in 1998, when the Triad recorded only 55 green days, 28 orange days and one red day. It looks like we've made a lot of progress since then.
State air-quality officials attribute improvements to emissions reductions at power plants, less-polluting vehicles, increased use of biodiesel and other efficiencies. Over the next four decades, the period covered by the pessimistic NRDC prediction, I'd expect many more efficiencies, expanded use of mass transit, wider utilization of telecommuting and development of alternative energy sources to further alleviate air pollution, whether temperatures increase or not.