Clean Air Design Blog

2012-01-16T15:43:00.001-08:00

Sandy has contributed a video at

http://youtu.be/rbhIiwtmUks

with the following description:

Check out this video... His
honorable Jim Dear speaks with Melissa
McGinnis from Greenopolis TV about the
1000th trash truck to be ran off of
liquefied natural gas, which services his
community of Carson California. This
momentous effort helps to keep the air clean
by reducing green house gases and carbon,
since the harvested gas from landfills burns
at a much cleaner rate than regular diesel gas.

Clean Air Design

2011-12-26T17:52:00.000-08:00

Today I ran out of page space at https://sites.google.com/site/cleanairdesign2/. For the latest news on the air, please try https://sites.google.com/site/cleanairdesign3/

2011-10-01T10:03:00.000-07:00

With Deaths of Forests, a Loss of Key Climate Protectors (NYTIMES), See:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/01/science/earth/01forest.html?_r=1&hp

From the NYTimes, 7/10-11

2011-07-11T17:11:00.000-07:00

EDITORIAL

An Aggressive Ruling on Clean Air

Published: July 10, 2011

REPRINTS

The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday issued a welcome and overdue rule compelling power plants in 27 states and the District of Columbia to reduce smokestack emissions that pollute the air and poison forests, lakes and streams across the eastern United States. The regulation reflects the E.P.A.’s determination to carry out its mandates under the Clean Air Act despite fierce Congressional opposition, and bodes well for progress on a host of other regulatory challenges the agency faces.

Times Topics: Environmental Protection Agency | Clean Air Act

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The rule, which takes effect in 2012, would cut emissions of sulfur dioxide, a component of acid rain, and nitrogen oxide, a component of smog, by more than half by 2014 compared with 2005 levels. The E.P.A. administrator, Lisa Jackson, said the rule would improve air quality for 240 million Americans in the states where the pollution is produced and in areas downwind.

As is true of nearly every regulation spawned by the landmark 1970 Clean Air Act, the rule’s benefits will greatly outweigh its costs to industry — a truth routinely ignored by the act’s critics, most recently the Tea Party supporters in Congress. The E.P.A. estimates annual benefits at $120 billion to $240 billion, mostly from fewer premature deaths, hospital visits and lost work days associated with respiratory illnesses.

By contrast, the costs of new pollution controls and plant retirements are estimated at $800 million annually, on top of about $1.6 billion in capital improvements already under way in anticipation of the rule.

There were predictable complaints from industry lobbyists and some in Congress that the rule would impede economic growth. Those groups are likely to be even more critical of the rest of the agency’s clean-air agenda.

Over the next few months, the E.P.A. will propose new “performance standards” governing largely unregulated greenhouse gas emissions from power plants; issue a final rule mandating reductions in toxic pollutants like mercury; and propose new state and local health standards for ozone.

In addition, President Obama has asked that the agency, in conjunction with the Department of Transportation, set new mileage and emission standards for cars and light trucks manufactured from 2017 to 2025. An earlier round of fuel efficiency standards in 2009 remains Mr. Obama’s single most impressive environmental achievement, but he and the auto industry are nowhere near agreement on what the new standards should be.

Taken together, these rules should lead to cleaner air, a reduction in greenhouse gases and, in the case of the automobile standards, reduced dependence on foreign oil. Given the political obstacles, completing all these will be a remarkable achievement. The new power plant rule is a promising start.

Roger Cohen article

2011-06-28T14:51:00.000-07:00

Worth reading:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/28/opinion/28iht-edcohen28.html?hp

https://sites.google.com/site/cleanairdesign2/

2011-06-07T17:39:00.000-07:00

NEWS ON THE AIR!!

The second incarnation of my Clean Air Design website is now available at https://sites.google.com/site/cleanairdesign2/

Decameron!

2011-04-20T18:51:00.000-07:00

With my wife, Michaela Paasche Grudin, I have co-authored Boccaccio's Decameron and the Ciceronian Renaissance, which is under contract with Palgrave Macmillan. Our book has something to say, not only about Boccaccio's masterpiece, but also about the origins of modern thought.

I have revised my Britannica article, "Humanism," to reflect the dramatic influence of the Florentine, Brunetto Latini (1320-94), on the rise of Renaissance Humanism.

My latest book, Design and Truth, will be out in paperback in late May.

2011-04-04T18:12:00.000-07:00

How a big US bank laundered billions from Mexico's murderous drug gangs

As the violence spread, billions of dollars of cartel cash began to seep into the global financial system. But a special investigation by the Observer reveals how the increasingly frantic warnings of one London whistleblower were ignored

Ed Vulliamy
Sunday April 3 2011
The Observer

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/03/us-bank-mexico-drug-gangs

On 10 April 2006, a DC-9 jet landed in the port city of Ciudad del Carmen, on the Gulf of Mexico, as the sun was setting. Mexican soldiers, waiting to intercept it, found 128 cases packed with 5.7 tons of cocaine, valued at $100m. But something else ? more important and far-reaching ? was discovered in the paper trail behind the purchase of the plane by the Sinaloa narco-trafficking cartel.

During a 22-month investigation by agents from the US Drug Enforcement Administration, the Internal Revenue Service and others, it emerged that the cocaine smugglers had bought the plane with money they had laundered through one of the biggest banks in the United States: Wachovia, now part of the giant Wells Fargo.

The authorities uncovered billions of dollars in wire transfers, traveller's cheques and cash shipments through Mexican exchanges into Wachovia accounts. Wachovia was put under immediate investigation for failing to maintain an effective anti-money laundering programme. Of special significance was that the period concerned began in 2004, which coincided with the first escalation of violence along the US-Mexico border that ignited the current drugs war.

Criminal proceedings were brought against Wachovia, though not against any individual, but the case never came to court. In March 2010, Wachovia settled the biggest action brought under the US bank secrecy act, through the US district court in Miami. Now that the year's "deferred prosecution" has expired, the bank is in effect in the clear. It paid federal authorities $110m in forfeiture, for allowing transactions later proved to be connected to drug smuggling, and incurred a $50m fine for failing to monitor cash used to ship 22 tons of cocaine.

More shocking, and more important, the bank was sanctioned for failing to apply the proper anti-laundering strictures to the transfer of $378.4bn ? a sum equivalent to one-third of Mexico's gross national product ? into dollar accounts from so-called casas de cambio (CDCs) in Mexico, currency exchange houses with which the bank did business.

"Wachovia's blatant disregard for our banking laws gave international cocaine cartels a virtual carte blanche to finance their operations," said Jeffrey Sloman, the federal prosecutor. Yet the total fine was less than 2% of the bank's $12.3bn profit for 2009. On 24 March 2010, Wells Fargo stock traded at $30.86 ? up 1% on the week of the court settlement.

The conclusion to the case was only the tip of an iceberg, demonstrating the role of the "legal" banking sector in swilling hundreds of billions of dollars ? the blood money from the murderous drug trade in Mexico and other places in the world ? around their global operations, now bailed out by the taxpayer.

At the height of the 2008 banking crisis, Antonio Maria Costa, then head of the United Nations office on drugs and crime, said he had evidence to suggest the proceeds from drugs and crime were "the only liquid investment capital" available to banks on the brink of collapse. "Inter-bank loans were funded by money that originated from the drugs trade," he said. "There were signs that some banks were rescued that way."

Wachovia was acquired by Wells Fargo during the 2008 crash, just as Wells Fargo became a beneficiary of $25bn in taxpayers' money. Wachovia's prosecutors were clear, however, that there was no suggestion Wells Fargo had behaved improperly; it had co-operated fully with the investigation. Mexico is the US's third largest international trading partner and Wachovia was understandably interested in this volume of legitimate trade.

Jos? Luis Marmolejo, who prosecuted those running one of the casas de cambio at the Mexican end, said: "Wachovia handled all the transfers. They never reported any as suspicious."

"As early as 2004, Wachovia understood the risk," the bank admitted in the statement of settlement with the federal government, but, "despite these warnings, Wachovia remained in the business". There is, of course, the legitimate use of CDCs as a way into the Hispanic market. In 2005 the World Bank said that Mexico was receiving $8.1bn in remittances.

During research into the Wachovia Mexican case, the Observer obtained documents previously provided to financial regulators. It emerged that the alarm that was ignored came from, among other places, London, as a result of the diligence of one of the most important whistleblowers of our time. A man who, in a series of interviews with the Observer, adds detail to the documents, laying bare the story of how Wachovia was at the centre of one of the world's biggest money-laundering operations.

Martin Woods, a Liverpudlian in his mid-40s, joined the London office of Wachovia Bank in February 2005 as a senior anti-money laundering officer. He had previously served with the Metropolitan police drug squad. As a detective he joined the money-laundering investigation team of the National Crime Squad, where he worked on the British end of the Bank of New York money-laundering scandal in the late 1990s.

Woods talks like a police officer ? in the best sense of the word: punctilious, exact, with a roguish humour, but moral at the core. He was an ideal appointment for any bank eager to operate a diligent and effective risk management policy against the lucrative scourge of high finance: laundering, knowing or otherwise, the vast proceeds of criminality, tax-evasion, and dealing in arms and drugs.

Woods had a police officer's eye and a police officer's instincts ? not those of a banker. And this influenced not only his methods, but his mentality. "I think that a lot of things matter more than money ? and that marks you out in a culture which appears to prevail in many of the banks in the world," he says.

Woods was set apart by his modus operandi. His speciality, he explains, was his application of a "know your client", or KYC, policing strategy to identifying dirty money. "KYC is a fundamental approach to anti-money laundering, going after tax evasion or counter-terrorist financing. Who are your clients? Is the documentation right? Good, responsible banking involved always knowing your customer and it still does."

When he looked at Wachovia, the first thing Woods noticed was a deficiency in KYC information. And among his first reports to his superiors at the bank's headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina, were observations on a shortfall in KYC at Wachovia's operation in London, which he set about correcting, while at the same time implementing what was known as an enhanced transaction monitoring programme, gathering more information on clients whose money came through the bank's offices in the City, in sterling or euros. By August 2006, Woods had identified a number of suspicious transactions relating to casas de cambio customers in Mexico.

Primarily, these involved deposits of traveller's cheques in euros. They had sequential numbers and deposited larger amounts of money than any innocent travelling person would need, with inadequate or no KYC information on them and what seemed to a trained eye to be dubious signatures. "It was basic work," he says. "They didn't answer the obvious questions: 'Is the transaction real, or does it look synthetic? Does the traveller's cheque meet the protocols? Is it all there, and if not, why not?'"

Woods discussed the matter with Wachovia's global head of anti-money laundering for correspondent banking, who believed the cheques could signify tax evasion. He then undertook what banks call a "look back" at previous transactions and saw fit to submit a series of SARs, or suspicious activity reports, to the authorities in the UK and his superiors in Charlotte, urging the blocking of named parties and large series of sequentially numbered traveller's cheques from Mexico. He issued a number of SARs in 2006, of which 50 related to the casas de cambio in Mexico. To his amazement, the response from Wachovia's Miami office, the centre for Latin American business, was anything but supportive ? he felt it was quite the reverse.

As it turned out, however, Woods was on the right track. Wachovia's business in Mexico was coming under closer and closer scrutiny by US federal law enforcement. Wachovia was issued with a number of subpoenas for information on its Mexican operation. Woods has subsequently been informed that Wachovia had six or seven thousand subpoenas. He says this was "An absurd number. So at what point does someone at the highest level not get the feeling that something is very, very wrong?"

In April and May 2007, Wachovia ? as a result of increasing interest and pressure from the US attorney's office ? began to close its relationship with some of the casas de cambio. But rather than launch an internal investigation into Woods's alerts over Mexico, Woods claims Wachovia hung its own money-laundering expert out to dry. The records show that during 2007 Woods "continued to submit more SARs related to the casas de cambio".

In July 2007, all of Wachovia's remaining 10 Mexican casa de cambio clients operating through London suddenly stopped doing so. Later in 2007, after the investigation of Wachovia was reported in the US financial media, the bank decided to end its remaining relationships with the Mexican casas de cambio globally. By this time, Woods says, he found his personal situation within the bank untenable; while the bank acted on one level to protect itself from the federal investigation into its shortcomings, on another, it rounded on the man who had been among the first to spot them.

On 16 June Woods was told by Wachovia's head of compliance that his latest SAR need not have been filed, that he had no legal requirement to investigate an overseas case and no right of access to documents held overseas from Britain, even if they were held by Wachovia.

Woods's life went into freefall. He went to hospital with a prolapsed disc, reported sick and was told by the bank that he not done so in the appropriate manner, as directed by the employees' handbook. He was off work for three weeks, returning in August 2007 to find a letter from the bank's compliance managing director, which was unrelenting in its tone and words of warning.

The letter addressed itself to what the manager called "specific examples of your failure to perform at an acceptable standard". Woods, on the edge of a breakdown, was put on sick leave by his GP; he was later given psychiatric treatment, enrolled on a stress management course and put on medication.

Late in 2007, Woods attended a function at Scotland Yard where colleagues from the US were being entertained. There, he sought out a representative of the Drug Enforcement Administration and told him about the casas de cambio, the SARs and his employer's reaction. The Federal Reserve and officials of the office of comptroller of currency in Washington DC then "spent a lot of time examining the SARs" that had been sent by Woods to Charlotte from London.

"They got back in touch with me a while afterwards and we began to put the pieces of the jigsaw together," says Woods. What they found was ? as Costa says ? the tip of the iceberg of what was happening to drug money in the banking industry, but at least it was visible and it had a name: Wachovia.

In June 2005, the DEA, the criminal division of the Internal Revenue Service and the US attorney's office in southern Florida began investigating wire transfers from Mexico to the US. They were traced back to correspondent bank accounts held by casas de cambio at Wachovia. The CDC accounts were supervised and managed by a business unit of Wachovia in the bank's Miami offices.

"Through CDCs," said the court document, "persons in Mexico can use hard currency and ? wire transfer the value of that currency to US bank accounts to purchase items in the United States or other countries. The nature of the CDC business allows money launderers the opportunity to move drug dollars that are in Mexico into CDCs and ultimately into the US banking system.

"On numerous occasions," say the court papers, "monies were deposited into a CDC by a drug-trafficking organisation. Using false identities, the CDC then wired that money through its Wachovia correspondent bank accounts for the purchase of airplanes for drug-trafficking organisations." The court settlement of 2010 would detail that "nearly $13m went through correspondent bank accounts at Wachovia for the purchase of aircraft to be used in the illegal narcotics trade. From these aircraft, more than 20,000kg of cocaine were seized."

All this occurred despite the fact that Wachovia's office was in Miami, designated by the US government as a "high-intensity money laundering and related financial crime area", and a "high-intensity drug trafficking area". Since the drug cartel war began in 2005, Mexico had been designated a high-risk source of money laundering.

"As early as 2004," the court settlement would read, "Wachovia understood the risk that was associated with doing business with the Mexican CDCs. Wachovia was aware of the general industry warnings. As early as July 2005, Wachovia was aware that other large US banks were exiting the CDC business based on [anti-money laundering] concerns ? despite these warnings, Wachovia remained in business."

On 16 March 2010, Douglas Edwards, senior vice-president of Wachovia Bank, put his signature to page 10 of a 25-page settlement, in which the bank admitted its role as outlined by the prosecutors. On page 11, he signed again, as senior vice-president of Wells Fargo. The documents show Wachovia providing three services to 22 CDCs in Mexico: wire transfers, a "bulk cash service" and a "pouch deposit service", to accept "deposit items drawn on US banks, eg cheques and traveller's cheques", as spotted by Woods.

"For the time period of 1 May 2004 through 31 May 2007, Wachovia processed at least $$373.6bn in CDCs, $4.7bn in bulk cash" ? a total of more than $378.3bn, a sum that dwarfs the budgets debated by US state and UK local authorities to provide services to citizens.

The document gives a fascinating insight into how the laundering of drug money works. It details how investigators "found readily identifiable evidence of red flags of large-scale money laundering". There were "structured wire transfers" whereby "it was commonplace in the CDC accounts for round-number wire transfers to be made on the same day or in close succession, by the same wire senders, for the ? same account".

Over two days, 10 wire transfers by four individuals "went though Wachovia for deposit into an aircraft broker's account. All of the transfers were in round numbers. None of the individuals of business that wired money had any connection to the aircraft or the entity that allegedly owned the aircraft. The investigation has further revealed that the identities of the individuals who sent the money were false and that the business was a shell entity. That plane was subsequently seized with approximately 2,000kg of cocaine on board."

Many of the sequentially numbered traveller's cheques, of the kind dealt with by Woods, contained "unusual markings" or "lacked any legible signature". Also, "many of the CDCs that used Wachovia's bulk cash service sent significantly more cash to Wachovia than what Wachovia had expected. More specifically, many of the CDCs exceeded their monthly activity by at least 50%."

Recognising these "red flags", the US attorney's office in Miami, the IRS and the DEA began investigating Wachovia, later joined by FinCEN, one of the US Treasury's agencies to fight money laundering, while the office of the comptroller of the currency carried out a parallel investigation. The violations they found were, says the document, "serious and systemic and allowed certain Wachovia customers to launder millions of dollars of proceeds from the sale of illegal narcotics through Wachovia accounts over an extended time period. The investigation has identified that at least $110m in drug proceeds were funnelled through the CDC accounts held at Wachovia."

The settlement concludes by discussing Wachovia's "considerable co-operation and remedial actions" since the prosecution was initiated, after the bank was bought by Wells Fargo. "In consideration of Wachovia's remedial actions," concludes the prosecutor, "the United States shall recommend to the court ? that prosecution of Wachovia on the information filed ? be deferred for a period of 12 months."

But while the federal prosecution proceeded, Woods had remained out in the cold. On Christmas Eve 2008, his lawyers filed tribunal proceedings against Wachovia for bullying and detrimental treatment of a whistleblower. The case was settled in May 2009, by which time Woods felt as though he was "the most toxic person in the bank". Wachovia agreed to pay an undisclosed amount, in return for which Woods left the bank and said he would not make public the terms of the settlement.

After years of tribulation, Woods was finally formally vindicated, though not by Wachovia: a letter arrived from John Dugan, the comptroller of the currency in Washington DC, dated 19 March 2010 ? three days after the settlement in Miami. Dugan said he was "writing to personally recognise and express my appreciation for the role you played in the actions brought against Wachovia Bank for violations of the bank secrecy act ? Not only did the information that you provided facilitate our investigation, but you demonstrated great personal courage and integrity by speaking up. Without the efforts of individuals like you, actions such as the one taken against Wachovia would not be possible."

The so-called "deferred prosecution" detailed in the Miami document is a form of probation whereby if the bank abides by the law for a year, charges are dropped. So this March the bank was in the clear. The week that the deferred prosecution expired, a spokeswoman for Wells Fargo said the parent bank had no comment to make on the documentation pertaining to Woods's case, or his allegations. She added that there was no comment on Sloman's remarks to the court; a provision in the settlement stipulated Wachovia was not allowed to issue public statements that contradicted it.

But the settlement leaves a sour taste in many mouths ? and certainly in Woods's. The deferred prosecution is part of this "cop-out all round", he says. "The regulatory authorities do not have to spend any more time on it, and they don't have to push it as far as a criminal trial. They just issue criminal proceedings, and settle. The law enforcement people do what they are supposed to do, but what's the point? All those people dealing with all that money from drug-trafficking and murder, and no one goes to jail?"

One of the foremost figures in the training of anti-money laundering officers is Robert Mazur, lead infiltrator for US law enforcement of the Colombian Medell?n cartel during the epic prosecution and collapse of the BCCI banking business in 1991 (his story was made famous by his memoir, The Infiltrator, which became a movie).

Mazur, whose firm Chase and Associates works closely with law enforcement agencies and trains officers for bank anti-money laundering, cast a keen eye over the case against Wachovia, and he says now that "the only thing that will make the banks properly vigilant to what is happening is when they hear the rattle of handcuffs in the boardroom".

Mazur said that "a lot of the law enforcement people were disappointed to see a settlement" between the administration and Wachovia. "But I know there were external circumstances that worked to Wachovia's benefit, not least that the US banking system was on the edge of collapse."

What concerns Mazur is that what law enforcement agencies and politicians hope to achieve against the cartels is limited, and falls short of the obvious attack the US could make in its war on drugs: go after the money. "We're thinking way too small," Mazur says. "I train law enforcement officers, thousands of them every year, and they say to me that if they tried to do half of what I did, they'd be arrested. But I tell them: 'You got to think big. The headlines you will be reading in seven years' time will be the result of the work you begin now.' With BCCI, we had to spend two years setting it up, two years doing undercover work, and another two years getting it to trial. If they want to do something big, like go after the money, that's how long it takes."

But Mazur warns: "If you look at the career ladders of law enforcement, there's no incentive to go after the big money. People move every two to three years. The DEA is focused on drug trafficking rather than money laundering. You get a quicker result that way ? they want to get the traffickers and seize their assets. But this is like treating a sick plant by cutting off a few branches ? it just grows new ones. Going after the big money is cutting down the plant ? it's a harder door to knock on, it's a longer haul, and it won't get you the short-term riches."

The office of the comptroller of the currency is still examining whether individuals in Wachovia are criminally liable. Sources at FinCEN say that a so-called "look-back" is in process, as directed by the settlement and agreed to by Wachovia, into the $378.4bn that was not directly associated with the aircraft purchases and cocaine hauls, but neither was it subject to the proper anti-laundering checks. A FinCEN source says that $20bn already examined appears to have "suspicious origins". But this is just the beginning.

Antonio Maria Costa, who was executive director of the UN's office on drugs and crime from May 2002 to August 2010, charts the history of the contamination of the global banking industry by drug and criminal money since his first initiatives to try to curb it from the European commission during the 1990s. "The connection between organised crime and financial institutions started in the late 1970s, early 1980s," he says, "when the mafia became globalised."

Until then, criminal money had circulated largely in cash, with the authorities making the occasional, spectacular "sting" or haul. During Costa's time as director for economics and finance at the EC in Brussels, from 1987, inroads were made against penetration of banks by criminal laundering, and "criminal money started moving back to cash, out of the financial institutions and banks. Then two things happened: the financial crisis in Russia, after the emergence of the Russian mafia, and the crises of 2003 and 2007-08.

"With these crises," says Costa, "the banking sector was short of liquidity, the banks exposed themselves to the criminal syndicates, who had cash in hand."

Costa questions the readiness of governments and their regulatory structures to challenge this large-scale corruption of the global economy: "Government regulators showed what they were capable of when the issue suddenly changed to laundering money for terrorism ? on that, they suddenly became serious and changed their attitude."

Hardly surprising, then, that Wachovia does not appear to be the end of the line. In August 2010, it emerged in quarterly disclosures by HSBC that the US justice department was seeking to fine it for anti-money laundering compliance problems reported to include dealings with Mexico.

"Wachovia had my r?sum?, they knew who I was," says Woods. "But they did not want to know ? their attitude was, 'Why are you doing this?' They should have been on my side, because they were compliance people, not commercial people. But really they were commercial people all along. We're talking about hundreds of millions of dollars. This is the biggest money-laundering scandal of our time.

"These are the proceeds of murder and misery in Mexico, and of drugs sold around the world," he says. "All the law enforcement people wanted to see this come to trial. But no one goes to jail. "What does the settlement do to fight the cartels? Nothing ? it doesn't make the job of law enforcement easier and it encourages the cartels and anyone who wants to make money by laundering their blood dollars. Where's the risk? There is none.

"Is it in the interest of the American people to encourage both the drug cartels and the banks in this way? Is it in the interest of the Mexican people? It's simple: if you don't see the correlation between the money laundering by banks and the 30,000 people killed in Mexico, you're missing the point."

Woods feels unable to rest on his laurels. He tours the world for a consultancy he now runs, Hermes Forensic Solutions, counselling and speaking to banks on the dangers of laundering criminal money, and how to spot and stop it. "New York and London," says Woods, "have become the world's two biggest laundries of criminal and drug money, and offshore tax havens. Not the Cayman Islands, not the Isle of Man or Jersey. The big laundering is right through the City of London and Wall Street.

"After the Wachovia case, no one in the regulatory community has sat down with me and asked, 'What happened?' or 'What can we do to avoid this happening to other banks?' They are not interested. They are the same people who attack the whistleblowers and this is a position the [British] Financial Services Authority at least has adopted on legal advice: it has been advised that the confidentiality of banking and bankers takes primacy over the public information disclosure act. That is how the priorities work: secrecy first, public interest second.

"Meanwhile, the drug industry has two products: money and suffering. On one hand, you have massive profits and enrichment. On the other, you have massive suffering, misery and death. You cannot separate one from the other.

"What happened at Wachovia was symptomatic of the failure of the entire regulatory system to apply the kind of proper governance and adequate risk management which would have prevented not just the laundering of blood money, but the global crisis."

ART EXHIBIT AND TALK

2011-02-15T12:29:00.000-08:00

You're invited to an exhibit of graphic art by Robert Grudin, accompanied by a talk, "Digital Photography and the Imagination," in the Loggia of the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave, Berkeley, CA, at 5:15 PM on Thursday, February 24th. A viewing and reception will follow.

Design and Truth

2010-09-17T15:10:00.000-07:00

My latest book Design and Truth, was published by Yale University Press in April.

For the International Herald Tribune/New York Times review, see

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/26/arts/26iht-design26.html?ref=arts

For a reading from the book that I gave at Google Headquarters (NY), see

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XInkz_XcEo

The hardcover is $17.16 at Amazon; the Kindle is $14.30; the paperback is due next year.

" It’s anything but a boring journey, and everyone will emerge at the end with more insight than when they went in, which is about all one can ask of any experience." -- J M Cava, Arcade

Update: new outlet page

2009-02-10T15:40:00.000-08:00

I've posted a copy of the home page of Cleanairdesign at Googlepages

http://hronrad.googlepages.com/hypoallergenic

There it will pick up some traffic and link to our other pages.

Status, 12/22/08

2008-12-22T16:26:00.000-08:00

The publish button on Page Creator failed in October, and because of this I've been unable to update my pages. Will keep trying.

Clean Air News Update

2008-07-21T18:45:00.001-07:00

FOR MORE COMPLETE COVERAGE GO TO CleanAirDesign

Emergency clean air
BBC Sport - UK
It's the first weekday of Beijing's emergency clean air measures. The city has ordered construction sites to shut down, it's ordered factories to cut down ...
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China limits cars in bid for clean air
MiamiHerald.com - Miami,FL,USA
... like winds bringing clean air from the Mongolian steppes, may make more of a difference to air quality during the Olympics than the new restrictions. ...
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Climate Report Cites Role of Cheney's Office
Wall Street Journal - USA
By SIOBHAN HUGHES WASHINGTON -- Bush administration officials agreed that greenhouse gases could endanger the public and should be regulated under clean-air ...
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Changes in Clean Air Rules
New York Times - United States
“A Major Setback for Clean Air” (editorial, July 16) implied that Duke Energy sought to overturn the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Air Interstate ...
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Beijing clean air initiatives begin
Radio Australia - Melbourne,Victoria,Australia
Some motorists don't like losing the use of their cars every second day for the next two months. For others though the prospect of clean air is a real plus.
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ECan Expands Clean Heat Project to Rangiora
Scoop.co.nz (press release) - New Zealand
Clean air and home insulation will help us achieve the healthy air national target for 2013,” she says. Emissions from home heating contribute 80 percent or ...
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Subsidy fuel for clean air
Calcutta Telegraph - Calcutta,India
The environment department will be drafting a package of incentives to make the city’s transport lobby fall in line with its clean-air notification that the ...
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Beijing breathes clean air again after cars banished and factories ...
Times Online - UK
Mr Duan is in a fix. He needs varnish to finish the cabinets he has crafted out of elm and walnut, but supplies are short and prices soaring amid an Olympic ...
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Beijing Stops Traffic to Clean Air for Olympics
Voice of America - USA
By Daniel Schearf Beijing has cut in half the number of automobiles allowed on the road in preparation for the Summer Olympic Games. ...
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Olympics: Beijing’s clean air claim challenged by scientists
Telegraph.co.uk - United Kingdom
By Richard Spencer in Beijing Leading scientists have challenged Beijing's claims to have defeated the city's notorious air pollution in time for the ...
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Google Blogs Alert for: "clean air"

Beijing starts car ban in Olympics clean-air drive
By AFP(AFP)
BEIJING (AFP) - Beijing residents enjoyed the novelty of congestion-free streets Sunday as the city launched strict driving curbs to rein its notorious air pollution and traffic for the Olympics.
AFP - Wire stories - http://www.afp.com/english/

Foss Maritime wins major clean air award
By marinebiztv
Earlier this year, the federal Environmental Protection Agency gave Foss and the ‘Green Dolphin’ its Clean Air Technology Award. Foss announced in March 2007 that it was collaborating with the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to ...
Marine BizTV - http://marinebiztv.wordpress.com

Beijing Started Clean Air Cars Action For Olimpycs
By Martin
beijing-pollution. Beijing residents enjoyed the novelty of congestion-free streets Sunday as the city launched strict driving curbs to rein its notorious air pollution and traffic for the Olympics. Traffic on the capital’s normally ...
Global Warming Issues - http://www.warmingissues.com

Tell The EPA You DON’T Want Their Meddling in the Economy Over ...
By Warner Todd Huston
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is inviting comment from all interested parties on options and questions to be considered for possible greenhouse gas regulations under the Clean Air Act. EPA is issuing an advance notice of ...
Stop The ACLU - http://www.stoptheaclu.com

Oly car ban underway in clean air drive
Beijing will ban more than a million cars from its streets in a bid to rein in the city's notorious air pollution and traffic snarls for next month's Olympics. Traffic on the capital's normally bustl.
World - http://www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?MenuID=29

Eruption in north Oakland

2008-07-02T16:21:00.000-07:00

Recent News on the Air

2008-06-24T10:52:00.000-07:00

For more news, see cleanairdesign.com

The Clean Coal Con Environmental Enron
CounterPunch - Petrolia,CA,USA
At least one major environmental group -- the Clean Air Task Force, headquartered in Boston -- agrees with them. A recent news report in the Bloomington, ...
See all stories on this topic

A positive outcome is in the air
Allentown Morning Call - Allentown,PA,USA
By Sam Kennedy | Of The Morning Call The Sierra Club and the Clean Air Council gave away Christmas stockings filled with coal, a symbolic protest in ...
See all stories on this topic

Is it time for 'Toronto, the Green?'
Toronto Star - Ontario, Canada
Everyone believes this is an idea whose time has come," says Eva Ligeti, who heads the non-profit Clean Air Partnership. "Greening Greater Toronto" will aim ...
See all stories on this topic

Leading the way to cleaner air
Arizona Republic - Phoenix,AZ,USA
The Clean Air Act regulates air quality and sets federal standards, but Arizona's urban areas have struggled to meet those standards. ...
See all stories on this topic

Citizens can help clean air
The Wichita Eagle - Wichita,KS,USA
Wichita faces a choice: Either clean up its air quality and bring ozone levels under control, or be forced to do so by the US Environmental Protection ...
See all stories on this topic

Ozone season: Our only defense is driving less in summer
Salt Lake Tribune - United States
Utah Physicians for Clean Air and Utah Moms for Clean Air have pointed out that breathing Wasatch Front air during high-pollution days is as bad for the ...
See all stories on this topic

Opposition mounts to clean air change affecting parks
LocalNews8.com - Idaho Falls,ID,USA
AP - June 22, 2008 4:55 PM ET KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Critics fear the Environmental Protection Agency plans to make it easier to build polluting coal-fired ...
See all stories on this topic

Air quality award to be announced
The Press - Christchurch,New Zealand
The Clean Air Society of Australia and New Zealand will present its annual air-quality award on Thursday. The award acknowledges individuals and ...
See all stories on this topic

Opposition mounts to clean air change affecting parks
WCAX - Burlington,VT,USA
AP - June 22, 2008 8:35 AM ET KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - New Hampshire Senator Judd Gregg has joined 7 of his colleagues in opposing efforts to make it easier ...
See all stories on this topic

Scrap-metal thieves continue to raid homes
Kansas City Star - MO,USA
The EPA is monitoring the trend, said spokesman Chris Whitley, who noted that the thieves also face criminal charges for violating the Clean Air Act. ...
See all stories on this topic

Design and Culture: a New Manuscript

2008-05-15T14:04:00.000-07:00

May 15, 2008

For the convenience of interested agents and publishers, I have made available an introduction to my latest manuscript, Design and Culture, at http://rgrudin.googlepages.com/designexcerpts

Robert Grudin

Choose your Gasoline

2008-03-13T22:14:00.000-07:00

From a recent email:

These companies import Middle Eastern oil:

Shell..........................205,742,000 barrels
Chevron/Texaco.........144,332,000 barrels
Exxon /Mobil..............130,082,000 barrels
Marathon/Speedway...117,740,000 barrels
Amoco..........................62,231,000 barrels
Citgo Gas comes from South America ,......... from a
Dictator who hates Americans.

Do the math at $30/barrel, these imports amount to
over $18 BILLION! (Oil is now $90-$95 a barrel)

Here are some large companies that
DO NOT import Middle Eastern oil:

Sunoco................ 0 barrels
Conoco................ 0 barrels
Sinclair................ 0 barrels
BP/Phillips........... 0 barrels
Hess.................... 0 barrels
ARC0.................... 0 barrels

All of this information is available from the
Department of Energy

Public Fraud on Maui: Con-Job Techniques in Land Development

2008-03-01T18:16:00.001-08:00

THE WAILEA 670 DEVELOPMENT AS AN INSTANCE OF PUBLIC FRAUD

by Robert Grudin

As we all know, retail businesses will use a variety of sly and aggressive techniques in order to win over customers. It should come as no surprise to learn that a number of these practices are illegal and are prosecuted by the FTC and other authorities. The “Free Laptop” and “$500 Gift Card” emails we get are all part of Ponzi schemes designed to cheat those who fall for them. The car dealerships who advertise a single vehicle at a ridiculously low price are using a Bait-and-Switch technique, intended to sell cars that are priced much higher. Because Bait-and-Switch is designed to deceive, it is also prohibited, though not as rigorously as the Ponzi.
Fraudulent practices of this sort are routinely employed by land developers, though I have never heard of any who were prosecuted for them. The goal of these practices is not to “sell” a given property, but rather to push the whole project through the various levels of planning committee approval. To this purpose the fraudulent Bait-and-Switch technique is employed in two distinct ways. One may be called, “Have I got a Treat for You!”, the other “I'll be nice, for a price!” I’ll illustrate both with examples from the ongoing approval process for the Wailea 670 development on Maui:
“Have I got a Treat for You!” In earlier approval stages, spokesmen for the 670 made several promises designed to placate citizens and committee members. The 670 promised to find its own water sources, so as not to be a drain on the community supply. The 670 promised to build affordable houses on site, to fund a $20 million park and to improve local roads. Now that the approval process is well along, the 670 people are apparently experiencing a change of heart. Now, they either do not know, or are not willing to say, where and how they will get their water. Now, the affordable houses will be built on cheap land in an industrial area of the island. And the park and roads? As SaveMakena.org puts it,

Wailea 670 has promised $20 million for a new Kihei
park, but didn't mention that it will be given as "each
unit is sold,"not as a lump sum. Road improvement fees
of $7 million are the same.

It's hard to resist the conclusion that the 670's offers to provide water, affordable homes, a park and road improvements were Bait set out to facilitate the project's passage through early approval stages. Now that early barriers have been cleared, the project's supporters can Switch to what they really wanted all the time.
“I'll be nice, for a price!” Wailea 670 originally came to the Planning Committee proposing to build 2600 units on its site. When citizens complained that this was overkill, the 670 cut the proposed number of units sharply. Here is Bait-and-Switch in reverse. The bait here, 2600+ units, is actually more of a threat: Big Bad Developers Threaten Orgy of Construction. When the developers graciously acknowledged local anxieties and cut their proposal to 1400 units, they won urgently needed bargaining purchase. Note that neither the threat nor the cut cost the Wailea 670 a penny.
To understand the cunning and the malice of the Wailea strategy, we need only look at the original development proposal with disenchanted eyes. In this new light, it becomes apparent that the 670 never had any serious intention of providing their own water, or of building affordably on site, or of freely donating a park or road improvements. Similarly, the 670 never intended 2600 units on tiny lots. These were merely dodges made in order to advance themselves from one stage of public approval to the next. More simply put, these were bare-faced lies, lies conceived in contempt of the common good, lies told with no other purpose than net profit.
Given such policies, we may see the Wailea 670 as a good example of what may be called public fraud: a phrase that ought to be applied either to attempts by private entities to deceive public authorities, or to attempts by public authorities to deceive the public at large. The Bait-and-Switch fraud, in all its luminous cynicism, is equally evident in a developer masking his greed with haloed philanthropy and a president hawking a war of political convenience as a heroic quest. Fraud of either sort should be branded as illegal and punished by law.

New at Clean Air Design

2008-02-29T17:36:00.000-08:00

http:/cleanairdesign.com will continue adding new pages as it defines its mission. The most recent newcomer is ISSUES, which includes positions on air and water quality taken by Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain, as well as up-to-date election results. Note also the addition of a search window for the National Science Digital Library.

NEWS! about NEWS ON THE AIR

2008-02-09T12:44:00.000-08:00

NEW: See the new International Green Construction feed in our footer.

NEW: Thanks to improved search procedures, cleanairdesign.com has become the world's most comprehensive source of news about air quality. To access our weekly-updated list of articles, go to http://cleanairdesign.com>NEWS.

Physicist Reports 80% Effectiveness in New Solar Panels

2008-02-01T15:46:00.000-08:00

Nanoantennas Collect Infrared Energy

Beijing Races to Clear its Skies (NPR)

2008-02-01T15:17:00.000-08:00

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18415235&ft=1&f=1025

From allamericanpatriots.com

2008-02-01T09:49:00.001-08:00

Senators Boxer and Feinstein Introduce Measure to Overturn EPA’s Denial of California’s Clean Air Act Waiver
By admin - Posted on January 27th, 2008
Senate Calls on GAO to immediately open investigation into EPA’s denial of California’s waiver

January 24, 2008 -- Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) joined with Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) today to introduce a measure to overturn the EPA’s denial of California’s Clean Air Act waiver. The Boxer-Feinstein bill would legislatively grant the State of California (and any other state) the authority to adopt and enforce tailpipe emissions reductions.

The bill is also cosponsored by Senators Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.), Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), Benjamin Cardin (D-Md.), Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.), John Kerry (D-Mass.), Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), and Barack Obama (D, Ill.).

The denial of California’s waiver effectively blocks implementation of the State’s landmark law to cut tailpipe emissions by 30 percent below projected levels by 2016.

Numerous news reports have indicated that EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson either ignored or overruled the Agency’s technical and legal experts – experts who found “compelling and extraordinary conditions” that would enable California to qualify for a waiver.

“It’s become clear that Administrator Johnson’s denial of California’s waiver was based on politics, not science. Even the EPA’s own experts have said that there was a compelling need for action,” Senator Feinstein said. “So, today, Senator Boxer and I have introduced legislation to take this decision out of the hands of the EPA – and allow California to move ahead with curbing tailpipe emissions. Bottom line: I’m committed to protecting California’s landmark global warming efforts – and will do everything in my power to ensure that this Administration doesn’t stand in the way.”

Senator Feinstein today also called on the General Accountability Office (GAO) to immediately open an investigation into the decision of EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson to deny California’s waiver.

This follows a similar request submitted by Senator Feinstein earlier this month to the Inspector General of the EPA to investigate this matter. Senator Feinstein has not yet received an official response from the IG’s Office.

Clearing the Air (an occasional posting)

2008-01-30T11:25:00.000-08:00

The following passage is excerpted from Richard Behan's article, Nancy Pelosi, You Must Impeach! in Information Clearing House

THE WARS ARE NOT ABOUT TERRORISM

The Bush Administration's Curious Behavior

Hours after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, President Bush told the world the United States would take the fight directly to the terrorists and the states that harbored them. Thus the Bush Administration's "War on Terror" was born.

Less than a month later, on October 7, Mr. Bush launched a savage aerial bombardment of Afghanistan. He had the support of a shocked American citizenry and a sympathetic world, all of whom expected justice to be delivered soon to the terrorist Osama bin Laden and the harboring state embodied in the Taliban.

The incursion into Afghanistan was sold as the first action in the "War on Terror." It was a brilliantly executed charade.

Flashback to October 12, 2000, a year earlier. The USS Cole, an American Navy destroyer in the Yemeni port of Aden, has suffered heavy damage from a terrorist attack, perpetrated by Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda.

Three weeks later officials of the Clinton Administration met with theTaliban in the Sheraton Hotel in Hamburg, Germany. To avoid a violent retaliation of furious bombing, the Taliban offered the unconditional surrender of Osama bin Laden.

Before the details of the transfer were completed, however, a Supreme Court ruling gave George W. Bush the White House, and the message was passed: the actual handover of bin Laden will be deferred until the Bush Administration is sworn in.

Once in office, the new Administration asked the Taliban to delay the handover of Osama bin Laden at least until February. As winter faded into spring, and spring into summer, the Administration demurred twice more.

Then Osama bin Laden struck again, on September 11, 2001.

On September 15, Taliban officials were flown in U.S. Air Force C-130 aircraft to the Pakistani city of Quetta, where the deal was sweetened. The standing offer of surrendering Osama bin Laden was renewed, but now the Taliban would also oversee the closure of bin Laden's bases and training camps.

This time the White House simply rejected the offer out of hand. It did so again when the offer was repeated several weeks later, and days after that President Bush ordered the violence to begin.

The invasion of Afghanistan was something vastly different than a quest to apprehend a terrorist..

Sources for this section:

1. "Bush Rejects Taliban Offer to Hand bin Laden Over," Guardian Unlimited (UK), October 14, 2001.

2. "Bush Rejects Taliban Offer to Surrender bin Laden," Andrew Buncombe, The Independent (UK), October 15, 2001.

3. "Dreamers and Idiots: Britain and the US did everything to avoid a peaceful solution in Iraq and Afghanistan," George Monbiot, The Guardian (UK), November 11, 2003.

4. "How Bush Was Offered bin Laden and Blew It," Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair, CounterPunch, November 1, 2004.

5. "Did Bush try to stop bin Laden in his first eight months in office?" MSNBC Countdown, September 28, 2006.

Books of Interest

2008-01-28T21:24:00.000-08:00

BOOKS

GREEN BUILDING PRODUCTS, by Alex Wilson and Mark Piepcorn. ("Interest in sustainable, green building practices is greater than ever. Whether concerned about allergies, energy costs, old-growth forests, or durability and long-term value, homeowners and builders are looking for ways to ensure that their homes are healthy, safe, beautiful, and efficient. In these pages are descriptions and manufacturer contact information for more than 1,400 environmentally preferable products and materials. All phases of residential construction, from sitework to flooring to renewable energy, are covered. Products are grouped by function, and each chapter begins with a discussion of key environmental considerations, and what to look for in a green product. Over 40% revised, this updated edition includes over 120 new products.")

The New Ecological Home, by Dan Chiras . ("Shelter, like many other elements of human existence, comes at an extraordinary cost to our planet and its inhabitants. In the U.S. alone, construction of 1.2 million new homes a year results in a massive drain on Earth's natural resource base. Today, nearly 60 percent of all timber cut in the U.S. is used in building houses, not to mention construction wastes and the huge amounts of resources used in the day-to-day operation of the "modern" household. In addition to environmental costs, there are the personal economic costs--the thousands of dollars each homeowner spends each year to heat, cool, and power our homes. Today, a new generation of architects and builders is emerging, intent on creating homes that meet human needs for shelter while causing only a fraction of the environmental impact of conventional housing. The New Ecological Home provides an overview of green building techniques, materials, products, and technologies that are either currently available or will be in the near future. Author Daniel Chiras provides a wealth of up-to-date, practical information for home buyers, owner-builders, and anyone interested in building for a sustainable future. Included are chapters on: * The Healthy House; * Green Building Materials; * Wood-Wise Construction; * Energy Efficiency; * Earth-Sheltered Architecture; * Passive Solar Heating and Passive Cooling; * Green Power: Electricity from the Sun and Wind; * Water and Waste: Sustainable Approaches;* Environmental Landscaping.")

GREEN BY DESIGN, by Angela Dean. ("There is no "one-size-fits-all" plan for so-called "green" homes; rather, there are universal principles of design that can be applied to individual tastes and needs. Architect Angela Dean offers a variety of ways to incorporate green building into your home, including using healthy building materials such as straw bales and natural flooring, taking advantage of local materials and resources, reusing gray water for landscaping, and incorporating passive solar design. Her goal is to teach people how to think about building sustainable homes. Green by Design provides a thorough analysis of what it means to build green and offers advice on what to consider when designing a sustainable home. Green by Design features full-color photographs and line drawings of floor plans show different examples of successful sustainable homes. It also includes in-depth case studies of more than a dozen homes so readers planning a green home can see what worked for others. By providing people with knowledge, inspiration, and the ability to ask the right questions (and understand the answers) Green by Design puts home builders and owners on a path to creating beautiful, environmentally responsible homes that they can be proud to live in. Angela Dean, AIA, is principal architect of AMD Architecture in Salt Lake City. She specializes in environmentally responsible designs to create healthy, comfortable buildings that are in harmony with the environment.")

GOOD GREEN HOMES, by Jennifer Roberts. ("Green. It conjures images of a meadow in spring for some, and the color of money for others. What does "green" have to do with our homes? In essence, green building-or sustainable building-means being smart about how we use energy, water, and building materials so that we can live well without needlessly damaging the environment. Creating a good green home isn't just about conservation, about using less or saving more-although that's certainly part of it. It's about creating better homes that are easier on the environment, less expensive over the long term, and more delightful to come home to. That's the message Jennifer Roberts wants to share in Good Green Homes, the ultimate new guide for people who want to live in comfortable, healthy, environmentally conscious homes. With some simple steps outlined in this book, you can save money, and do your part to help save the environment. For instance, using an energy-efficient light bulb saves you money. It also results in less demand for electricity, which in turn results in less pollution from power plants, which may help a child with asthma breathe a little easier. If you associate green-built housing with the unconventional or the quirky-tree houses, geodesic domes, dwellings constructed of tires or soda bottles-think again. Perfect for homeowners, remodelers, renters (who might be surprised by how much is within their power to change), architects, builders, and interior designers, this book lays out seven fundamental principles of green building, illustrated with more than 150 color and 20 black and white photographs of more than twenty-five homes. Jennifer Roberts launched two retail stores in San Francisco specializing in environmentally sensible consumer products, including household goods; and is a freelance writer and editor on topics that include energy-efficient building design and systems.")

HOMES THAT HEAL, by Athena Thompson ("Media reports focus increasingly on the declining health of children in industrialized countries. Asthma, autism, learning and behavior problems, and cancer are all on the rise. At the same time there is consistent news about poor indoor air quality, mold, and how buildings can make people sick. Homes that Heal addresses both of these developments, revealing that our own homes can contribute to many of these health problems. A passionate examination of our built environment and the alarming impact today's chemically polluted world is having on the health of present and future generations, Homes that Heal is easy-to-read, solutions-oriented, and humorous, full of stories and advice that empower families to take back their health on a daily basis.")

GREEN REMODELING, by David Johnston and Kim Master ("Whether because of changing lifestyles or simply because houses are becoming outdated, millions of North Americans are renovating their homes every year, spending more money annually on renovation than on new home construction. But renovations can be fraught with unintended consequences like indoor air pollution. How do you remodel in a healthy, environmentally friendly way?")

PRESCRIPTIONS FOR A HEALTHY HOUSE, by Paula Baker-Laporte , Erica Elliott and John Banta ("For people concerned about exposure to toxins found in conventional building materials and practices, and for the millions of people who are chronically ill from chemical exposures (an estimated 15% of the population), Prescriptions for a Healthy House offers real hope and practical help in building homes in which humans can live without getting sick. This invaluable guide for the homeowner / architect / builder / medical doctor takes the mystery out of healthy house building by walking the reader through the construction process.")

2008-01-05T17:12:00.000-08:00

Clean Air Design is now up and running at http://cleanairdesign.com. Google Apps made domain registration and page-building very easy for me, and $10 per year is hard to beat for their service. Moreover, with Google Apps you can edit your pages right on the Internet, rather than paying a consultant or struggling with complex programs like DreamWeaver. On the minus side, GA does not (at least not yet) offer advanced tools like menus or interactive windows; and the process of establishing your domain as a simple URL is rather complicated.

Please visit http://cleanairdesign.com and, if you are a webster, link to it. That will help to establish it on the Internet.

News on the Air

2008-01-04T13:08:00.000-08:00

http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_7882069 Cancer Risk from Polluted Air
DIAMOND BAR, Calif.—A new study on air pollution has found that Southern California remains among the riskiest places in the country to live when it comes to cancer rates.
The study released Friday by the South Coast Air Quality Management District says that between 1999 and 2004, the overall cancer risk from air pollution declined by more than 15 percent but is "still unacceptably high."
The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, where diesel use is significant, carry the biggest lifetime cancer risk. Other high-risk areas include Burbank, downtown Los Angeles, Fontana, Huntington Park and Wilmington.

News On the Air

2007-12-24T18:01:00.000-08:00

AIR QUALITY FORECASTS FROM SPACE

"Weather broadcasts have long been a staple for people planning their day. Now with the help of NASA satellites, researchers are working to broaden daily forecasts to include predictions of air quality, a feat that is becoming reality in some parts of the world."

California's Clean Air Slapdown

"Environmentalists harbor no illusions about the Bush Administration. From a 2001 decision to weaken regulations on arsenic in drinking water to its antagonistic performance at last week's U.N. climate change talks in Bali, the White House has consistently opposed green goals. But Wednesday's move by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) denying California and 16 other states the right to set their own standards for carbon dioxide emissions from automobiles was an unpleasant surprise, even by Bush standards. The announcement, made by EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson, temporarily torpedoes state efforts led by California to drastically reduce CO2 emissions from cars by treating the greenhouse gas as a pollutant that could be regulated like any other."

Schwarzenegger Speaks Out on Federal Pollution Rulings

"TIME'S Kristin Kloberdanz sat down with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Mary Nichols, chairperson of the California Air Resources Board, in Fresno, California to discuss the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) denying the right of California and 16 other states to set their own fuel emission standards. The Governor was clearly frustrated though he remained genial."

EPA Chief Ignored Staff

"The head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ignored his staff's written findings in denying California's request for a waiver to implement its landmark law to slash greenhouse gases from vehicles, sources inside and outside the agency told The Times on Thursday.
'California met every criteria . . . on the merits. The same criteria we have used for the last 40 years on all the other waivers," said an EPA staffer. "We told him that. All the briefings we have given him laid out the facts.'"

TRAFFIC POLLUTION AND KIDS

"Children with asthma who are exposed to traffic pollution are at increased risk for respiratory problems and reduced lung volumes, says a study that looked at children in the Mexican border town of Ciudad Juarez, a crossing point into the United States.

"Major cities along the northern and southern U.S. borders often have high levels of vehicular traffic flows, especially at the border crossing points. Vehicular traffic emissions from the high density of border crossing traffic may be negatively affecting the health of populations who live in nearby areas," study lead author Dr. Fernando Holguin, assistant professor of pulmonary medicine at Emory University School of Medicine, said in a prepared statement."

purpose

2007-12-23T11:46:00.000-08:00

The purpose statement for cleanairdesign.com reads as follows:

"Can we design better health? Air quality has emerged as one of the primary geopolitical issues of the 21st century -- impacting the environment, all nations and all economic sectors. The implications of air quality, in terms of medicine and health insurance alone, are staggering enough to call for major changes in federal policies and heroic corporate investments. Specifically, in the vaguely-defined but critically important area called 'wellness', it is time for architects, designers and developers to come to terms with the variety of parameters that affect interior air quality: climate, location, layout, materials, solar exposure, sealing/curing, ventilation, filtration, furnishings, sanitation, expense and sustainability. This page is a preliminary effort to create a forum on the hypoallergenic house: a residence providing high air quality without sacrificing comfort or esthetics. I invite architects, designers, medical doctors and other informed parties to join me in discussing the ways and means of improving air quality in our internal spaces, be they domestic, corporate or public. Insurance companies, who have a significant interest inimproving air quality, are invited to join the forum."

process

2007-12-22T14:09:00.000-08:00

I'm in the process of setting up shop at cleanairdesign.com. A division of Google called Google Apps is making things much simpler for me, with the added advantage of my being able to edit my pages right on the web. My urls right now carry the suffix -a.googlepages.com, but will stop doing so after my "CNAMES" are registered.

My goal is to establish a useful knowledge base for individuals, groups and companies concerned with clean air. Have a look at my pages and let me know if you have any suggestions. You may publish a comment or email me at rgrudin@gmail.com. Put "blog" in your subject window.

2007-12-20T17:36:00.000-08:00

Burrowing owl, slightly miffed after being evicted by a ground squirrel. Berkeley, 12/20/07

For starters

2007-12-10T13:45:00.000-08:00

These postings are affiliated with the pages at
http://cleanairdesign.com
Watch for further developments as I test the possibilities of this blog service.