Comments on: Environmental Scorecard

Environmental Scorecard

VelvetHellvis — Mon, 08 Dec 2003 09:11:34 -0800

Environmental Scorecard. Get the facts on local U.S. pollution. This environmental pollution tracking site is a must-see if you're worried about your hometown. The site has maps of the United States that show levels of various pollutants and a community area where you can enter your zip code and to get a list of all the environmental issues in your neighborhood.

By: homunculus

homunculus — Mon, 08 Dec 2003 11:00:16 -0800

Here's a related thread.

By: VelvetHellvis

VelvetHellvis — Mon, 08 Dec 2003 11:10:30 -0800

I searched MeFi since day one for the link. It didn't show up, so technically not a double post, rather a post in the comments and then mine on the home page.

By: troutfishing

troutfishing — Mon, 08 Dec 2003 11:14:53 -0800

I used to live in one of the top 3 mercury hot spots in the US ( 01810 ) , but the property values were really high and no one seemed to know about it or to give a damn. Mercury is tough on kids too, so I would have thought that the SUV driving soccer moms would have been on top of it. Not. Most of the mercury wafted out of the air from a local, especially heavy concentration of both highways and (mainly) antiquated trash burning incinerators - really quite pathetic if you think about it.

By: pomegranate

pomegranate — Mon, 08 Dec 2003 11:56:43 -0800

I live in an area with lots of refineries and paper mills, and we're in the red on all listed emissions. Many of our local refineries are grandfathered under very old emissions laws, and our part of the country is known as a "cancer alley." (This is mostly along IH10 between Houston and New Orleans.) The good news is, housing is cheap and plentiful!

By: 2sheets

2sheets — Mon, 08 Dec 2003 12:08:30 -0800

I'm from a conservative area that ranks among the worst 10%. I now live in an area that is considered liberal, but with a much higher population density, and it ranks among the best 40%. Draw your own conclusions.

By: ZachsMind

ZachsMind — Mon, 08 Dec 2003 12:15:07 -0800

I live in Dallas Texas which according to this thing is one of the highest risk areas in the country for "HAP". It's not second hand smoke from cigarettes, but diesel engines on the highways of the Big D which are the greatest contributor to ending my life prematurely. So. Why did I quit smoking eight months ago? Oh yeah. Cuz I couldn't afford smoking: taxation and laws made it impractical to continue. Yet diesel engines continue to be plentiful. Cigs are made by big business, predominantly consumed by the working class. Diesel engines are driven by the working class but owned by big business. I'm surrounded by idiots. So long as diesel is easier to use than other fuels for trucking, there's going to be no change.

By: Ptrin

Ptrin — Mon, 08 Dec 2003 12:15:23 -0800

My little corner of the Garden State.

By: turbodog

turbodog — Mon, 08 Dec 2003 13:48:26 -0800

2sheets: I live in an area that is considered liberal, but with a high population density, and it ranks among the worst 10%. what conclusion should I draw?

By: specialk420

specialk420 — Mon, 08 Dec 2003 15:51:03 -0800

thanks for link velvet...ive seen this one before but it was running on a horribly slow server.

By: bonehead

bonehead — Mon, 08 Dec 2003 16:01:31 -0800

I'm amazed this hasn't been posted before, honestly. Scorecard has been around for years and years. I remember using it when imagemaps were really, really cool. It's a Philip Greenspun Joint, btw (nuts and bolts here). One of his first db-backed sites, if not his first. Scorecard is a really useful visualization app. I wish there were something similar for the rest of the world.

By: troutfishing

troutfishing — Mon, 08 Dec 2003 16:11:47 -0800

turbodog - Perhaps people are less intelligent, in selected areas, than you think? Or just fundamentally incurious? Or superbly practiced at denial and repression? Maybe the pollution has already had enough of an impact on their brains that they no longer care? I've wondered about this, in regards to the 01810 Mercury hotspot I used to live in. Heavy metals tend to make people forgetful, moody, inattentive, cranky........not the traits which make for close attention to pervasive but subtle environmental pollutants.

By: superchris

superchris — Mon, 08 Dec 2003 18:16:15 -0800

Cool resource. Anybody know where I can buy a good airfilter? I'd be interested too see if there are reasons for particular highs/lows. New Orleans has high CO and Nitrogen Oxides emissions. I wonder how much of that is man-made- the plants south of the river and general poor environmental issues of the city- and how much it has to do with nature- the low relative elevation of the city trapping heavier particles in the air. We do have a lot of vegitation around, though. Anybody know? I guess the word "emissions" would clue me in, but is there a breakdown of where the stuff comes from? environmental variables, industry, tourists, etc?

By: majick

majick — Tue, 09 Dec 2003 05:44:13 -0800

I was surprised to discover that my county (it doesn't have neighborhood-level resolution, it just uses the zip to look up your county) isn't as polluted as I had assumed. It's only "mostly red with some orange" as opposed to the "off the charts scarybad blink blink aroogah" I had anticipated.

By: cryosis

cryosis — Tue, 09 Dec 2003 06:37:05 -0800

I try to get away, but they just keep pulling me back in.
/me lights a cigarette.
Screw it. I'm dying anyway.