Hey, welcome back! So far, I have covered the impacts and challenges faced when it comes to air pollution. For the current and next week’s post, I’m going to cover the measures we can take to curb air pollution.

As the impacts of poor air quality on human health become increasingly apparent, various legislation was passed to curtail air pollution. By setting air quality standards to meet and enforcing them, people could no longer release pollutants as they wished without legal repercussion.

After WW2, the USA underwent rapid economic and population growth. Multiple highways were constructed, people were encouraged to use personal vehicles for their transportation needs. More factories were constructed to meet consumeristic demands.  This lead to a massive decline in air quality in the USA.

To improve the situation, the USA passed the Clean Air Act in 1970, which identified the common air pollutants that were hazardous and set a limit to the amount permissible in the atmosphere. Effective measures were put in place that actively reduced the emission of pollutants such as lead and sulfur. The air quality index was created, creating a benchmark for air quality. New factories and power plants constructed had to incorporate good air pollution control in their designs. Vehicles had to be fitted with catalysts in the exhausts to reduce the production of toxic pollutants such as nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxide.

This resulted in a major reduction of air pollutants over the course of the past few decades. The air quality of the USA improved tremendously, and the USA was ranked 11^th for lowest PM2.5 levels in 2019.

If there was no legislation put in place, how will the cities in the USA look today?

This video illustrates the importance and success of the Clean Air Act. Had the USA not implement the legislation, most of the cities would be covered in smog.

So, having good laws are enough to curb air pollution, right?

While having proper laws that deal with pollution is important, failure to enforce them undermines their purpose.  Laws are ultimately rules made for people to follow, but if they are ignored and no one enforces them, the legislation is as good as not being present. Not to mention, laws are intertwined with the government. If the government choose to prioritise different goals in the country, legislation can be modified accordingly to meet different needs.

Under Trump’s presidency, economic growth was prioritised over environmental conservation.  Several of the environmental laws that curtailed air pollution was undone, resulting in the USA’s air quality worsening, essentially undoing all the improvements made over the years.

Having good legislation is just one part of the process to improve air quality, it must be coupled with strong enforcement strong governance to be truly effective.

See you next week as I explore the effectiveness of technology in reducing air pollution!