"In cities across the country, people of color, many of them low income, live in neighborhoods criss-crossed by major thoroughfares and highways.
The housing there is often cheaper — it’s not considered particularly desirable to wake up amid traffic fumes and fall asleep to the rumble of vehicles over asphalt.
But the price of living there is steep: Exhaust from all those cars and trucks leads to higher rates of childhood asthma, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and pulmonary ailments. Many people die younger than they otherwise would have, and the medical costs and time lost to illness contributes to their poverty.
Imagine if none of those cars and trucks emitted any fumes at all, running instead on an electric charge. That would make a staggering difference in the trajectory, quality, and length of millions of lives, particularly those of young people growing up near freeways and other sources of air pollution, according to a study from the American Lung Association.
The study, released [February 28, 2024], found that a widespread transition to EVs could avoid nearly 3 million asthma attacks and hundreds of infant deaths, in addition to millions of lower and upper respiratory ailments...
Prior research by the American Lung Association found that 120 million people in the U.S. breathe unhealthy air daily, and 72 million live near a major trucking route — though, Barret added, there’s no safe threshold for air pollution. It affects everyone.
Bipartisan efforts to strengthen clean air standards have already made a difference across the country. In California, which, under the Clean Air Act, can set state rules stronger than national standards, 100 percent of new cars sold there must be zero emission by 2035.
[Note: The article doesn't explain this, but that is actually a much bigger deal than just California. Basically, due to historically extra terrible pollution, California is the only state that's allowed to allowed to set stronger emissions rules than the US government sets. However, one of the rules in the Clean Air Act is that any other state can choose to follow California's standards instead of the US government's. And California by itself is the world's fifth largest economy - ahead of all but four countries. So, between those two things, when California sets stricter standards for cars, they effects ripple outward massively, far beyond the state's borders.]
Truck manufacturers are, according to the state’s Air Resources Board, already exceeding anticipated zero-emissions truck sales, putting them two years ahead of schedule...
Other states have begun to take action, too, often reaching across partisan lines to do so. Maryland, Colorado, New Mexico, and Rhode Island adopted zero-emissions standards as of the end of 2023.
The Biden administration is taking similar steps, though it has slowed its progress after automakers and United Auto Workers pressured the administration to relax some of its more stringent EV transition requirements.
While Barret finds efforts to support the electrification of passenger vehicles exciting, he said the greatest culprits are diesel trucks. “These are 5 to 10 percent of the vehicles on the road, but they’re generating the majority of smog-forming emissions of ozone and nitrogen,” Barret said...
Lately, there’s been significant progress on truck decarbonization. The Biden administration has made promises to ensure that 30 percent of all big rigs sold are electric by 2030...
Such measures, combined with an increase in public EV charging stations, vehicle tax credits, and other incentives, could change American highways, not to mention health, for good."
-via GoodGoodGood, February 28, 2024
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When someone comments on my insta story of my three legged dog with cancer eating food for the first time in 3 days: "you shouldn't feed canned food, it's inflammatory. You should lightly cook some raw meat for him."
Can we stop with the giving unsolicited advice on a someone else's dog's diet please? Mozart needs to eat anything he can eat right now and his GI issues are not aggravated by canned food. It's also balanced and safe for him to eat. I don't want to be stressing out over muscle to organ meat to bone ratios while I'm trying to hold everything else together.
I can't afford to feed fancy pre made fresh food, Mozart refuses to eat raw meat and I have no time to "lightly cook" a meal for him every day. I barely have to spoons to make my own meals, let alone making my dog's meals.
I am doing the goddamn best that I can.
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Your Venus sign & your love language
numéro deux
Water signs 🌊
Cancer 🕊
You are a calm and nurturing lover. Home is your hearth and you’d love nothing more than to create a little nest with your lover/ loved ones. You may be prone to keeping your emotions to yourself at first, wanting to stay safe in your shell but once you open up you’ll be a loyal and sympathetic partner. Love is your safety net and you desire a relationship where you can emotionally connect. This is the kind of relationship of long time love birds who prefer to stay in at night with a glass of wine, a warm blanket and a movie. You may be more maternal in love, a divine feminine who looks to mother their sacred bonds and create a safe space of attachment and security. You may also seek a partner who you can put down roots with and create a beautiful home as Cancer rules the 4th house of home, family and ancestry.
love language ~
Quality time | Being so emotionally vigilant having security is a must for you in a relationship. Spending one on one time with your partner is essential in creating a place of safety for you. You may find that you prefer a life of less interference where down time and being away from all the noise of others is needed to rejuvenate your connection. You enjoy the simple pleasures of emotional connection in life. Coming home to your lover at the end of the day and climbing into a warm bed would be your idea of heaven.
Scorpio 🕊
You are a deep and intense lover. Shallow waters are not the kind you like to play in when it comes to love. The deeper you can etch your way into the psychological crevices of your partner the better. Love is an instinctive and transformative experience for you. You’ll look to find a relationship you can transform with. This is the kind of relationship of two partners who will go through periods of emotional upheaval in their relationship only to evolve and deepen their bond. Think lovers at a distance who have to fight obstacles to find their way back to each other. In another way, you may merge quickly in love as Scorpio is ruled by the 8th house of finance and shared resources. You may find when you merge financially with your lover you bring significant growth to your relationship that will be profound.
love language ~
Physical touch | Likewise to your fellow fixed sign Taurus, the sentiment of touch is invaluable to you. Scorpio’s natural ruler Mars is the planet of war, power, sex and aggression. Physical compatibility will be essential in your relationships. You want a lover you can be consumed by and who will want to consume you. If it’s not deep and penetrating love you don’t want it. To consummate and to possess are the ways in which you nourish your pleasure sector. Intimacy is something that is a non negotiable. You seek tugging hair and tangled sheets. Physical connection is key for you to survive.
Pisces 🕊
You’re a dreamy and empathic lover. Getting lost in your kaleidoscopic, rose tinted dreamscape is essential on your path to love. You may have a tendency to walk the tight rope of fantasy preferring an idealised relationship than one that comes with all the harsh day to day realities. But you love to love more than most. These are the kind of lovers that meet, fall in love at first sight and run off into their own universe, leaving all their earthly possessions and daily hindrances behind. Love for you is sacrificial and you give your all to it. These can also be experimental lovers who would spend their day in a sun tinted living room, listening to music and expanding their thoughts and ideas. Pisces is organically ruled by Jupiter so exploring will be important to you and yours.
love language ~
Acts of service | Being a mutable sign adaptability is important for you in love. But more than anything, the art of sacrificing is essential. You lose yourself in your lover and look to find ways to make them happy with small acts of empathy. Where Virgo seeks to lend practical service you are here to serve the unconscious mind of your partner. Listening to their emotional needs, being a shoulder to cry on. Like your sister sign Scorpio, your Neptunian soul craves to merge with your partner both spiritually and emotionally. You’ll love to have deep chats into the night, searching the corners of each other’s creative souls. Or a long drive across the coastline where you put on their favourite playlist and listen intently holding hands.
images via pinterest
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