A scientific reason to hate this 90-degree unfit for humans weather: Ozone Action Day

Tomorrow is SE Michigan's first Ozone Action Day, when dangerous levels of ground level ozone (smog) create health risks, especially for children, the elderly, and people with lung ailments or compromised immune systems.

It sounds like a damn good reason to me to watch baseball on TV rather than mow my lawn (with my low-ozone battery mower!)

I assume SEMCOG meant to say Wednesday, July 7, not Saturday. You can sign up for your own e-mail alerts at the links below.


SEMCOG, the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments, announces that Saturday(sic), July 7, 2010, is the first Ozone Action day of the year. This is the 17th year of the voluntary program that helps keep Southeast Michigan's air clean.

Several days of hot, humid weather, high temperatures, little wind, and little chance of rain have contributed to the high concentrations of ground-level ozone expected tomorrow.

Here are some things Southeast Michigan residents can do to help keep the air clean on the region's first Ozone Action day of the season:

* Try not to refuel on Ozone Action days. If you need to refuel on an Ozone Action day, fill up in the evening when the weather is cooler and don't "top off" the tank.
* Reduce automobile use on Ozone Action days. Plan to carpool, use public transit, or walk.
* Relax on Ozone Action days. Choose the lawn chair over the lawn mower.

Additional information and tips are available online at www.semcog.org (look for Ozone Action under Hot Topics on the home page) or at 800-66-33-AIR. Residents can also request e-mail notification of Ozone Action days. E-mail ozoneaction@semcog.org and put "Notification" in the subject line.

Phosphorus ban takes effect for dish detergent - one small step toward cleaner swimmin' holes

Michigan’s beaches and swimmin’ holes will be busy this weekend with 90-degree temps and an armada of Michiganders doing what Michiganders do best. Swimming in the world’s best freshwater ecosystem and, uh, drinking beer.

So it’s timely that one small step toward keeping our beaches clean took effect yesterday. That’s when it officially became illegal to sell automatic dishwasher detergent with phosphates in them. Phosphates, as Tina Lam’s excellent Detroit Free Press story explains, contribute nutrients to our waterways that result in runaway weed growth, algae blooms, and the depletion of life-giving oxygen in the water.

A similar ban on phosphorus in lawn fertilizers is pending in the Michigan House of Representatives. More than 95 percent of residential soils tested have more than enough phosphorus – the remainder runs off into storm sewers and, eventually, into creeks, rivers and lakes. It’s an especially quick assault on a waterway when lakefront property owners use phosphorus-laden fertilizers. There should be a special place in hell reserved for riparian landowners who fertilize with phosphorus to the water’s edge.

Anyway, Tina’s article points out that phosphorus detergents do get dishes cleaner, which is generally true. But as more states go to phosphorus-free, good old American ingenuity is already making better and better products.

It reminds me of the furor over low flush toilets that were mandated in the mid-1990s. Critics screamed that 1.6 gallons per flush could NEVER do the job. Then Congressman Joe Knollenberg of Farmington Hills was the loudest, speaking about "suffering Americans" forced to use “tiny toilets.” You don’t hear that much anymore. Seems our entrepreneurs were up to the task.

But even if it takes a while for the phosphorus-free detergents to catch up, isn’t it worth a extra minute of scraping dishes to protect our beaches and swimming holes?

Happy Independence Day weekend. And remember, we’re celebrating our freedom from political and religious oppression and taxation without representation. As far as I know, the Founding Fathers said nothing about freedom to pollute our lakes to escape the oppression of rinsing a dinner plate.

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Al Gore: Crazed sex poodle?

A woman accusing Al Gore of sexually assaulting her described him as “crazed sex poodle,” http://bit.ly/9TydL1 and told him to “get off me you big lummox" http://bit.ly/b6bUMF which has the right wing Gore haters in a fine lather.

Al is definitely a big lummox. And could be a crazed sex poodle. But none of that has any bearing on climate change science. The latest from NOAA: “The combined global land and ocean average surface temperature for May 2010 was 0.69°C (1.24°F) above the 20th century average of 14.8°C (58.6°F). This is the warmest such value on record since 1880.” http://bit.ly/ZYxCn