Clean Air NY Has Plenty to be Thankful for This Thanksgiving

image by Helga's Lobster Stew used under Creative Commons license

Thanksgiving is a time for New Yorkers and Americans everywhere to leave our busy schedules to be with family and friends and to reflect on all we have to be grateful for in our lives. Here at Clean Air NY, we have plenty to be thankful for, both this year and years past. Most of all, we’re thankful for the tremendous support we get from the New Yorkers in our network. While we work hard to spread the message about improving air quality in the New York metro area, you are the ones going out and taking action. Our sincerest gratitude goes out to all of you for your effort and persistence in reducing air pollution here in New York!

Here are some other things for which Clean Air NY is thankful:

22,000 Facebook fans. This year we’ve added nearly 7,000 new “Likes” on our Facebook page, to exceed 22,000 in total. The outpouring of support for Clean Air NY on Facebook keeps growing and we couldn’t be happier. If you haven’t done so already, “Like” our page on Facebook now!

More than 8 million vehicle miles reduced each week. In 2009, a Clean Air NY survey tracked the impact of our outreach campaign. We found that, in 2009, Clean Air NY helped to reduce vehicle miles traveled in the New York metro area by approximately 8,414,523 each week! Our network of individual partners and allies (employers, colleges, community partners and Champions) has grown considerably in the past two years as well, so that number could be even larger now!

Fewer high air pollution days. The American Lung Association’s 2010 State of the Air report indicated that the New York metro area averages 26.5 fewer days with unhealthy levels of air pollution when compared to levels from the mid-1990s. The peak period for Air Quality Action Days has passed for this year; we have had just 13 so far. In 2010, there were 14 such days. It appears we’re moving in the right direction to reduce the number of days that air pollution reaches unhealthy levels.

Happy Thanksgiving from Clean Air NY!

Skating in Central Park is Back Again this Holiday Season!

In what is becoming a holiday tradition, Clean Air NY and our mascot, Fresh, will once again be attending this year’s Skating in Central Park. The first 1,000 guests get free admission and a free ice skate rental, so make sure you come early!

When: Dec. 10 and 11, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Where: Wollman Rink (Click for Google Map)

We also will be running several contests during both days of the event to give you the opportunity to win cool prizes from us. Make sure you RSVP to our event on Facebook, too.

Few things put us New Yorkers in the holiday spirit more than ice skating with our loved ones outside on a crisp winter afternoon, sharing a hot chocolate and a warm pretzel in between laps around the rink. So gather your family and friends and head down to Wollman Rink on Dec. 10-11. We'll see you there and be sure to take mass transit or carpool to the rink!

Vote for Cleaner Air with Your Actions

image by Mortimer62 used under Creative Commons license

We can all cast a vote for cleaner air with our actions, because pollution affects every New Yorker. Reducing air pollution doesn’t need to be inconvenient, either. Simple actions and small changes to your transportation habits are all it takes to make a difference in air quality. Here are a few ways to show you care about cleaner air:

Eat Lunch at Work: Many people think of “brown bagging” as a way to save money. Not as many realize that it’s also a great way to reduce air pollution. If you bring your lunch to work and eat it there, or if your office has a cafeteria and that’s where you buy lunch, you will reduce vehicle emissions by not driving to dine out or to pick something up. It may not seem like much, but if you work in the suburban metro area and typically drive 10 miles round trip for lunch, five days a week, eating at your office instead on those days would eliminate about 100 pounds of air pollution every week!

Take Mass Transit: The New York metro area has one of the most extensive mass transit systems in the country, which makes it easy to get around without a car and to reduce your carbon footprint. In 2008, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) joined the Climate Registry, a nonprofit that provides standards for measuring greenhouse gas emissions. It determined that for every unit of carbon emitted by New York’s mass transit system, more than eight units are saved because of reduced driving by transit riders. This is the equivalent of every person who takes transit driving a car that gets 100 miles per gallon!

Combine Multiple Errands into One Trip: Combining multiple errands into a single trip is a simple habit you can develop to reduce air pollution. First, doing all of your errands at once reduces the number of miles you drive because you don’t make multiple trips down the same road. Combining your errands also keeps your engine warm, which allows it to operate better and improves fuel efficiency. Not only does combining errands lead to improved air quality, it saves you time and money on gas, too!

Trick or Treat for Cleaner Air!

image by Teo used under Creative Commons license

Happy Halloween! On the scariest holiday of the year, New Yorkers across the metro area will dress up in costumes and walk around their neighborhoods trick-or-treating. The phrase is actually a question for the person answering the door, who then has the choice of giving the visitor a treat or having the visitor play some kind of trick on the person. In the spirit of Halloween, we’re going to list three facts about air quality — can you guess which ones are tricks and which ones are treats?

#1: Small changes to my transportation behavior can have a big impact on improving air quality.

#2: New York’s only harmful air pollutant is ground-level ozone.

#3: There’s nothing wrong with topping off my gas tank to get the price to a round number and to ensure I get as much out of each trip to the gas station as possible.

Take a moment before reading on to guess which of the above statements are true (treats) and which are false (tricks)!

---

Answers:

#1: TREAT! Small changes to your transportation habits can and do have a big effect on improving air quality. For example, in 2009 New Yorkers reduced air pollution by almost 8.5 million pounds every week just by doing simple things like taking mass transit, carpooling and combining multiple errands into one trip.

#2: TRICK! Although ground-level ozone is the cause for most days when air pollution is high, there is another form of air pollution that we need to be aware of called particulate matter. This matter has fine particles small enough to be absorbed by the body when you breathe them into your lungs; once inside the bloodstream, these particles can produce harmful effects on your health.

#3: TRICK! Topping off your gas tank, instead of stopping when the pump clicks, causes gasoline fumes to escape into the air where they turn into harmful air pollutants. You can go a long way to improving air quality just by stopping when you hear the gas pump “click!”

A Global Air Quality Comparison for United Nations Day

image by MPD01605 used under Creative Commons license

October 24 marked the 66th anniversary of the United Nations, commonly known as “United Nations Day” around the world. To honor this day, let’s look at how two international cities are addressing the issue of air quality.

In the early 1990s, air pollution in Delhi, India, was becoming a serious problem. In response, India’s Ministry of Environments and Forests launched a plan to improve air quality and to significantly reduce pollution levels. Officials instituted a fleet of buses powered by compressed natural gas (CNG), implemented more stringent clean-fuel requirements and emission levels and even imposed a pollution tax. The results: From 1993 to 2000, ambient carbon monoxide was nearly cut in half and lead concentrations fell by 75 percent. As buses continued to be converted to CNG from 2000 to 2003, sulfur dioxide levels decreased by 34.8 percent and particulate matter levels fell by 7 percent. This led the U.S. Department of Energy to award Delhi the Clean Cities International Award in 2003 for its aggressive efforts in curbing pollution.

In the 1980s, Prague, Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic), was one of the most-polluted European cities. Since then, city leaders have enacted programs to decrease the usage of brown coal in power plants, which has significantly reduced sulfur dioxide levels. Now, similar to many urban areas, these officials face air-quality problems because of emissions from vehicle traffic. They have an emergency plan in place where, if air pollution rises above set limits, they stop traffic in the center of Prague to re-route polluting vehicles around the city and to force travelers to find alternate methods for traveling within Prague.

As you can see, air pollution in urban areas is a problem around the globe because of increases in vehicular travel. With so many transportation alternatives in the New York metro area, there are many options that are less polluting. Whenever possible, we encourage New Yorkers to take mass transit, carpool, bike or walk to their destinations to help reduce air pollution and to improve our own air quality.

Continue Watching for Air Quality Action Days this Autumn

image by D Sharon Pruitt used under Creative Commons license

Fall signals the peak period for ground-level ozone pollution has passed, but reducing New York’s air pollution requires effort year-round. Air Quality Action Days are most common during summer, but ground-level ozone and particulate matter can reach unhealthy levels at any time of the year. Clean Air NY wants to encourage you to continue taking action to improve air quality this fall.

One of the most effective ways for New Yorkers to reduce air pollution is to cut the time spent driving alone. Even if you do so only occasionally, taking alternate forms of transportation, such as mass transit, carpools and vanpools, goes a long way to lessen the many harmful pollutants entering our air from vehicle exhaust. If you have to drive alone, you can decrease the miles you drive by combining all of your errands into one trip and by bringing lunch to work.

If you don’t already get our Air Quality Action Day updates, which we send whenever air pollution is predicted to be high, sign up now! To receive these updates via text message, simply text the word “clean” to the number 42269. You also can follow Clean Air NY on our social media sites. “Like” our page on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. Whichever method you choose, signing up will alert you when air pollution will be at its highest levels and you will be able to take action to reduce pollution at the most critical times.

Make Your Boss Look Good To Honor National Boss Day

image by faramarz used under Creative Commons license

This year in the United States, National Boss Day was observed on Monday, Oct. 17. There’s probably no better gift than making your bosses look good to their own supervisors. In honor of the holiday, Clean Air NY encourages you to tell your bosses about the benefits of teleworking. You’ll enhance your bosses’ standing while you reduce air pollution.

Imagine if your bosses could tell their supervisors that they found a way to improve employee productivity and to reduce overhead costs at the same time. It would almost certainly make them stand out as people who are generating positive results for their companies. Numerous studies have all concluded that telework produces these results.

Employees who are able to telework on at least some of their workdays wind up rewarding their companies with improved performance and longer tenures. A meta-analysis of 46 telecommuting studies by the Journal of Applied Psychology “found that telecommuters reported more job satisfaction, less motivation to leave the company, less stress, improved work-family balance and higher performance ratings by supervisors.” Telework also saves the companies money by reducing overhead costs for employees who spend less time in the office. And best of all? Working from home means you’re not driving to the office and back, so you’re reducing emissions and improving air quality for everyone!