The industrial revolution that brought prosperity was also behind Air Pollution. Urban air pollution that terrorized most urban cities in the 60s and 70s is the byproduct of this industrialization. Los Angeles first encounter with air pollution came in 1940s when the number of cars doubled to reach two million. At the time they only thought that industrial facilities in their backyard was behind this pollution until scientists figured out that car exhaust is the hidden suspect. Meanwhile the oil-industry was attempting to disprove this finding using their backed researchers.
Industrialization that led to the assumed prosperity came at a hefty price, life of people was at stake. The rectification process was very slow when you deal with deep pocket Oil lobbyists who were swarming the corridor outside the politicians’ offices. The Clean Air Act was passed by Congress in 1963. It came almost 15 years after Arie Haagen-Smit, a Caltech biochemist, made the connection with car exhaust. Another decade was required to pass national laws requiring new automobiles to use catalytic converters for their car exhaust.
After the Smog that blocked the fresh air from almost all the major cities in California in 1970s, the State decided to take measure into its hands. California became a model state, and as a fifth largest economy of the world was able to fulfill the promises their made to fight CO2 emission to lower the effect to Global Warming.
The California state Assembly passed legislation last week that requires the state to get 100 percent of its electricity from carbon-free sources by 2045. The measure also increases a previous renewable energy mandate to a target of 60 percent by 2030.
California already has a law requiring that the state’s emissions, which peaked in 2004, return to 1990 levels by 2020. A recent data released by the California Air Resources Board show that the state’s greenhouse gas emissions dropped 2.7 percent in 2016. It was considered a major win in the fight against global warming.
Now the academia is joining the fight in a major new announcement from California public universities. The University of California system, the nation’s largest public university systems, with 238,000 students across 10 campuses, set a goal of powering all its campuses and medical centers with 100 percent renewable energy by 2025. This commitment originated when students asked that the University should practice what it teaches.
Even daily operations will Carbon-neutral no additional greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere. They are even using their own solar power plant to increase the power supply through renewable electricity.
They also announced that UC buildings will use no more fossil fuels on-site for space or water heating after June 2019.
California is the right track to meet its own set of goals but in this process, they became the model to be pursued by other states and the whole world to follow.
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