Hey, there! Log in / Register
It's not just the heat and the humidity - it's the smog, too
By adamg on Mon, 08/06/2018 - 12:04pm
The state Department of Environmental Protection has issued an air-quality alert for the Boston area that runs until 11 p.m. tonight due to higher than normal levels of ground-level ozone.
Unusually sensitive people should consider reducing prolonged or heavy exertion outdoors.
But, yeah, the heat: The National Weather Service has a heat advisory in effect until 8 p.m. on Tuesday:
HEAT INDEX VALUES...Up to 103 due to temperatures in the upper 80s to mid 90s, and dewpoints in the lower to mid 70s.
* TIMING...Today and Tuesday.
* IMPACTS...The heat and humidity may cause heat stress during outdoor exertion or extended exposure.
Neighborhoods:
Topics:
Free tagging:
Ad:
Support Universal Hub
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Comments
Very important health advisory
Searched the entire page and yet there is zero mention of reducing or restricting usage of internal combustion engines. The post does of course mention that cars foul the air we breath but the state doesn't even try to use language telling people to drive less, the burden is placed on those just trying to live?
And of course I know the reason, the car is king, I have somewhere to be, my convenience is worth more than peoples health, blah blah blah
So do you agree with Trump
His logic goes: don't worry about gas mileage and efficiency because if cars are less efficient, people will drive less. And people will hit less pedestrians as well.
If you think I agree with Trump on anything
Then you haven't been paying attention to anything I say on these threads.
Loaded question aside, do you have any data to back up his "logic"?
Of course not
Neither does he. Just sounded like you were advocating for a similar outcome, less cars on the roads. His logic is wrong like everything else about him.
Reduces Ozone?
Does restricting usage of internal combustion engines reduce ground ozone levels? Because that's what this air quality alert is about. I'm all about reducing the environmental impact of engines but it's not clear to me that has anything to do with todays alert.
It has quite a bit to do with the smog alert
Not 100%, but this is an ozone alert. That comes from tailpipe emissions - ours, NYC's, everyone upwind of us ...
Air quality modelers generally use local, regional, and wide scale emissions when they model forecasts.
My favorite graphic:
A good resource for learning about this stuff: https://www.airnow.gov/index.cfm?action=aqibasics....
Ironic. MA just cut down 1000 trees in GB without replacements
Now I get cutting down or trimming a few dozen trees along rail lines for safety and service issues. However when you cut down 1000 trees for a Green Line expansion that's ironically an air quality improvement project, you need a tree replacement plan. Instead, the state doesn't have a plan for tree replacements, sound barriers, additional emissions, etcetera. The local reps are right. The T leaders should get their heads examined.
Oh, for the love of God
Not everything is about the GLX.
Yet another problem with the heat
Most of those "trees" were invasive weed tree species that spew allergenic pollen, and spew even more the hotter things get!
But do go on with your GLX fetish.
You want that GLX payout so bad you'll say anything
Every arborist prior to GLX&CLF talked about the quality of the trees. How they minimized commuter rail smoke, sight, and sound. So why the sudden reversal?
With that logic, Boston and MA should clear cut Franklin Park
That's the dumbest line of GLX BS I've heard to date. When the half-butt GLX tree cutting crew knocked out power in Somerville and Medford, was that because those pesky power lines were admitting heat and needed to be removed to cool down the area?
Have you bothered to ask the project team
If they plan to plant new trees to replace the ones cut down? There were lots of trees cut down for the Forest Hills project (I'd call it by it's official name, but my concern were trees not in the path of the project) but new trees were planted. That's how these things work. I would imagine that we are not talking virgin forests in the City of Seven Hills.
Also, Franklin Park is a park. Somerville High School is a school. One is known for trees. The other is not.
Have you bothered to read any GLX doc since the 90s?
Have you ever noticed the mistakes in your comments?
Invasive weed trees
Most of what they cut for the GLX was in the right of way of the train line. Scrub and brush.
Alianthus and the occasional Norway Maple, but weeds nonetheless.
Not that you care or have any idea since you weren't there.
The crews were told to slow down and check for wires
It seems to have worked
Somewhat
There have been issues every week
Yup. I saw Denise Provost's social media readouts
Residents are pissed!
They don't own that land
They never did, and never paid taxes on it.
They want to pretend that land was "their" backyards blah blah bullshit.
Couple that with the YEAR LONG Ball Square B'way bridge closure
Medford & Somerville are ready to march on MassDOT with pitchforks. I feel for every Ball Square business that will have to endure. These sudden shocks are killing them. Its like seeing Lando (Ball) and Vader (MassDOT) in real time
Oh, man
You make me laugh with these things. "ready to march on MassDOT with pitchforks." Pure gold.
Maybe not pitchforks. But Ball will demand every mitigation dime
If it costs $500 million to prop up Ball Sq biz for a year. Then it costs $500 million to prop up Ball Sq biz for a year. Its the price of doing business. Add it to the GLX tab.
$500 million? $500 million?
Pure gold, man. Pure gold.
Obviously you've never run a business, or a city, or a state
Ball Square is a commercial money-maker for both Somerville and Medford. The square was told for years that Broadway would not close during the day for the GLX. Promise broken. The shutdown is set for Nov post-election. Oh and btw, you may wanna check and re-read a few items
Ever heard of Davis Square?
Yet another of Somerville's squares, and much like Ball Square, it endured years of construction ending with a new transit station. I would argue that thanks to that project, Davis Square is more vital than Ball Square.
But seriously, you're claiming that Ball Square's GDP is, what, $1 Billion a year? $2 Billion? I mean, do you have any understanding of the economy?
That said, there will be mitigation. Just not the half billion you think. Perhaps more like a half million.
Davis Square Station is underground. Ball Square bill
The main arteries serving Davis were not severed during station construction. In Ball, If you add up business impact, bridge utility reconstruction, bus bypasses, police details, and structure demolition; the Ball number may even exceed $500 mil. The 2 bil only covers the basics.
Have you ever seen a underground train station get constructed?
Specifically, a train station that is close to the surface?
What they do it open up the earth. For some stations, like Porter, it just means making a whole where the entrances are (though the disruption to Porter Square, and specifically to Mass Ave, is another story since it is in Cambridge, not Somerville.) For others, they "cut and cover," which means a lot of earth is moved to create the lobbies and platforms.
And you do realize that the construction, or in the case of the bridge reconstruction, is a part of the budget. Helping out the businesses, if this is truly a project change, would not come out to $500 million even if this was in downtown Boston.
But for the sake of hearing something funny, how do you arrive at half a billion, oh budget guu?
Word is the closure may be reduced
The community anger has been overwhelming. The T should have been upfront about the bridge reconstruction last year.
I'll say this much
Having gone down Broadway for the first time in ages recently, I don't see how anyone could think that there wouldn't be a closure of this bridge as part of the project. I would think it would need to be reconstructed. I might support the project, but that is bad planning to say the bridge wouldn't close.
No its a year long closure.
Possibly even longer
MassDOT's tree fiasco has led to an even bigger bridge fiasco
I went to their quickly assembled GLX bridge closure community meeting last night in a sweltering room. By the end, I was stunned. I had my fingers crossed that MassDOT would come and knock down all of the rumors surrounding the GLX. Instead, they revealed they were merely winging it. MassDOT has given full control to the contractors. That's why the recent GLX bill is so low. The contractors can set their own timeline, guidelines, etc. Including a year long bridge closure at Ball Square. Whoever negotiated the contract at MassDOT should be dismissed. Ball Square is screwed
That's how these contracts work
The only key elements is that they deliver the final product in the specs and that they do it on time. Theoretically, the amount of time it takes for the bridge to be replaced and the means to get it done are immaterial to the contract, so long as they get a new (or rebuilt) bridge in the end.
Now, if the contractor adds a few million to the contract for the cost of bridge replacement, we can talk. Otherwise, them's the breaks.
Nope. Btw. Are you willing to cut a check for Ball Square Biz?
Seeing as you passionately love the GLX; even if you may not know that much about it; are you willing to cut a check for the impacted Ball Square small businesses? I am, and I'm lukewarm to the GLX project. How much should I put you down for?
What? For the billions in lost income?
See above. If Harvard, Porter, and Davis Squares handled their epicenters being dug up, I think Ball Square can handle one detour.
But as I also noted in comments on this article about the weather a few weeks ago, planners should have seen this coming. There’s no way to do this project without disruption to Broadway.
Two things to spin here
1. Some of us have little choice but to resort to the use of internal combustion engines in this weather due to ozone-sensitive asthma and medications that impair our heat tolerance. I do carpool with two others, but its either drive to work or a sick day.
2. It isn't all local emissions that cause the smog. That's because our hot air weather patterns are built upon air moving out of the mid west and mid atlantic and bring in a lot of crap from those places, including emissions from power plants and cars and trucks to the south and west of us. So even if we all stopped driving today, it wouldn't solve the problem. MA has substantially decarbonized power production, which has had substantial impacts on ozone in our state since the 2008 NAAQS despite steadily rising temperatures - yet here we are.
Ozone = heat + emissions. While it would be excellent if news outlets sent out the message to "reduce driving" and it should be said, it really isn't that simple even for those of us who would really prefer to bike. I am not looking forward to driving home in this traffic, because that totally sucks, but I really don't have much choice (transit doesn't work for me when this happens,either - walking distance, and waiting for buses that don't show up make it a non-option).
Humidity
You should've taken this week off. Great day to be in the water with the kids and their swimmies.
Another problem with the heat ...
Our local swimming area is closed due to poor water quality :-(
Great idea
Of course, cars in the northeast are subject to “California emissions,” which were created to reduce smog in places more prone to it.
I’ll be nice and end it after poking that hole in your idea.
No its actually much appreciated!
I learned a thing or two from you and Swirls, made me get on the Googles and attempt to learn further from that, so honestly thank you!
On days like today
I have to yawn to get a full intake of air into the lungs. Does this happen to anyone else?
Sign of airway inflammation
I wouldn't call it asthma, but it is akin to that. Exposure to pollution has led your lungs to malfunction a bit.
This is why the air quality index is set up to go from okay to sensitive groups to unhealthy to hazardous. Moderate levels of pollution affect sensitive people - people with asthma, COPD, etc. High levels mess it up for people who don't carry inhalers.
https://www.airnow.gov/index.cfm?action=airnow.local_state&stateid=22&ma...
This tool
Spin O Schmuck just loves the attention. He/she and their Star Wars looking bicycle helmet. Outta the road HONK! *revves engine to waste fuel* hahaha
How mature
You sure you are old enough to drive?
Remember: driving is a privilege, not a right.
Uh ...
Who is desperately vying for attention here?
Grow up, toddler
Your mommy needs to cut off your internet until you can play nicely with others.