Thursday on RadioWest we’re talking about northern Utah’s perennially poor air quality. While people have no control over the weather and geography that team up to trap nasty air in the valleys, they can influence one very important factor: how much air pollution they put out. So here are some questions: Who’s responsible for our mucky air? What, realistically, can be done about it? And what can we learn from other cities that have cleaned up their air? We want to hear from you, so we hope you’ll join us.
GUESTS
- Tom Wharton is a columnist for the Salt Lake Tribune.
- Judy Fahys writes about nuclear waste, climate change and pollution for the Salt Lake Tribune.
- Dr. Brian Moench is President of Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment and a member of the Union of Concerned Scientists.
Web Extra!
We recorded a conversation with urban environmental historian David Stradling this morning. We don't have time to play that, but it's instructive to look at the problem through the lens of history: how we have dealt with it in the past and explore what has changed. Stradling writes about the anti-smoke crusade of the early 1900s in the US. It was one of the first environmental movements.It's instructive to look at the problem through the lens of history: how we have dealt with it in the past and explore what has changed. Stradling writes about the anti-smoke crusade of the early 1900s in the US. It was one of the first environmental movements.
- David Stradling is a scholar of urban environmental history at the University of Cincinnati. His research focuses on efforts to improve air quality and the impacts of urbanization on rural areas and he's the author of several book, including Smokestacks and Progressives: Environmentalists, Engineers, and Air Quality in America, 1881-1951 and The Environmental Moment: 1968-1972.
