Dear EarthTalk: Who are the “Clean Air Ambassadors” and what are they trying to accomplish?— Brenda Coughlin, Pittsburgh

Clean Air Ambassadors are everyday folks from across the U.S. who have committed to speaking up for everyone’s right to breathe clean, healthy air. The effort is part of the “50 States United for Healthy Air” campaign, a joint endeavor of Earthjustice, the American Nurses Association, the Hip Hop Caucus, the National Council of Churches and Physicians for Social Responsibility. In the spring of 2011 these Ambassadors—people from all 50 states and every walk of life—convened in Washington, D.C. to ask members of Congress, leaders at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and high-ranking officials in the Obama administration for stronger protections against air pollution.

Earthjustice, which specializes in litigating on behalf of environmental causes, initiated the effort as part of its larger “Right to Breathe” campaign. “Every year, many people young and old get sick because of air pollution,” reports Earthjustice. “Clean air should be a fundamental right.”

According to the American Lung Association (ALA), the most widespread kinds of air pollution are ozone (smog) and particle pollution (soot). “When inhaled, ozone irritates the lungs, resulting in something like a bad sunburn within the lungs,” reports the group. “Breathing in particle pollution can increase the risk of early death, heart attacks, strokes and emergency room visits for people with asthma, cardiovascular disease and diabetes.” In its 2012 “State of the Air” report, ALA reports that 127 million Americans—some 40 percent of our population—live in counties where either ground-level ozone or particle pollution is frequently at dangerous levels, despite significant progress in cleaning up the nation’s air since 1970.

While there are many sources of air pollution, dirty power plants are among the biggest culprits. The ALA reports that over 400 coal-fired power plants across the country “are among the largest contributors to particulate pollution, ozone, mercury, and global warming.” In 2011, the EPA issued the final rules that will cut the emissions that create ozone and particle pollution and, for the first time, set national limits on the toxic pollutants they can emit. While Earthjustice and other groups have challenged the EPA for not going far enough, the ALA is defending the plan as significant enough to warrant implementation.

Of course, everyone can play a part in cleaning up air pollution. The ALA recommends driving less, using less electricity, refraining from burning wood or trash, and making sure local school systems require cleaner school buses. Even better, get involved: “Participate in your community’s review of its air pollution plans and support state and local efforts to clean up air pollution.” Finding a local air pollution control agency is now as easy as steering a web browser to the National Association of Clean Air Agencies’ 4cleanair.org website.

While there are no plans for another visit to Washington, D.C. by Clean Air Ambassadors in the near future, concerned citizens can do their part and join thousands of others in signing on to Earthjustice’s “Right to Breathe Declaration” that calls on the federal government to require major air polluters to utilize existing technologies to significantly reduce the amount of air pollution coming out of their smokestacks.

CONTACTS: Earthjustice, www.earthjustice.org; ALA, www.lung.org; 4cleaair, www.4cleanair.org.

EarthTalk® is written and edited by Roddy Scheer and Doug Moss and is a registered trademark of E - The Environmental Magazine ( www.emagazine.com). Send questions to: earthtalk@emagazine.com. Subscribe: www.emagazine.com/subscribe. Free Trial Issue: www.emagazine.com/trial.

2 Comments

1. 1. Shoshin 11:52 PM 8/5/12

   Their mandate is to jet around the world in first class, lecturing you about waste and energy use, then to spend as much of your money as they wish to accomplish absolutely nothing.
   
   And then demand a raise.
   
   It's fun and profitable being green!

   Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this

2. 2. jdherville 09:28 PM 8/11/12

   When I think of Clean Air advocates or those out there protecting our environment from Monsanto's unsustainable monoculture, overuse of agrichemicals, factory farm pollution from lack of appropriate safety mechanisms in extreme weather/ earthquake/ fire conditions - basically those polluting, needing to change now.
   
   These guys are just lawyers/ lobbyists with a half-arsed curriculum and circular funding activity. They do not do anything. The risk of sponsorship stopping their abilities is obvious. People are supporting another public relations/ information bureaucracy more focussed on convincing the minds of people one way or the other, than doing anything. They get bigger and bigger, preach jobs, jobs, jobs but they are useless jobs that end up protecting those corporations doing the damage. It's propaganda. In Europe they do positive things because their corporations are not sleeping with their governments. Nothing will change until you stop that.
   
   The EPA support these clean air groups. The clean air groups sue the EPA when they want more funding. The clean air groups 'sue' or get sponsored by various polluting businesses. They then lobby in the favour of these businesses as well as the Federal EPA who have to lobby for those corporations who got Obama or whoever in congress. You are supporting an ineffective bureaucracy anti coal and woodsmoke that have the technology to make them clean. Their campaigns ignore it because they are supporting the less sustainable, more profitable, less affordable alternatives to the already over taxed citizen paying for this waste of space bureaucracy.

   Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this