The search for unpolluted air can be
frustrating at best. The US government does provide a clean air map
on their website – www.epa.gov/iaq/whereyoulive.html.
This map only tracks the types of pollution the US government deems
worthy of tracking – Carbon Monoxide, Nitrogen Dioxide,
Ozone, Lead, PM-10, and Sulfur Dioxide. PM-10 is particulate matter
less than or equal to 10 microns. What about particulate matter
greater than 10 microns? Too bad Nitrogen Dioxide is NO2
rather than N2O which is Nitrous Oxide or Laughing
Gas.
Using this map and other “Best
Cities to live in” information from various sources, Terry
and I decided to move to Northern Colorado. Living here was fine
until the county got aggressive about spraying the weeds. Too bad
they couldn’t be like other Colorado counties which do not
spray for weeds, but use other methods such as goats.
There are other factors involved in
finding unpolluted air, such as
• Not having
neighbors who use fabric softener in their dryers
• Not having
neighbors who spray their lawns with herbicides and/or
pesticides
• Not living next to
farms or vineyards which are chemically sprayed
• Not living where
the government is going to drop chemicals in order to try to
eliminate a few mosquitoes.
And even if you could control all
these factors, every time you go to the mall, you’ll get
overwhelmed by all the perfumes and colognes; not to mention those
who threw 10 dryer sheets in with their laundry, just to be sure
they smell country fresh.
Canada seems to be ahead of the
United States in reducing the amount of chemicals people use. Nova
Scotia has their anti-perfume law and several locales throughout
Canada ban lawn spraying. The only thing I’m banned from
spraying on my lawn is water.
One idea for getting out of pollution
is to head to the hills or 14-ers as they call them around here.
(14 stands for the number of thousands of feet high a hill is.) The
idea is to get up out of the pollution.
Another idea is to move as far west
as possible, so that the breeze is only blowing off the ocean. But
there’s no guarantee the winds won’t switch and
they’ll blow out to sea instead. Taking this idea to the
extreme, you could live on an island. Then no matter which way the
wind blows, it will be blowing off the ocean. Islands sell for $300
thousand to $30 million or more and can be found on the web by
searching for “Islands for sale”. There are even some
real estate agents that only sell islands. The problem with buying
an island is that when the oceans rise due to global warming, your
island might cease to exist – a real estate investment down
the drain.
The island theme spawns another idea
which is to have a land-based island. That is, a piece of land
surrounded by national forests, BML land, or Nature-Conservancy
Land. If you’re really rich you can be your own 100 acres. Of
course then you’ll need to put most of the land into
conservancy easements in order to not continue paying taxes on the
land. And did I mention you’ll need an F-15 or transporter
just to get to town?
Book 3 My World of Air
Written by Dale Stubbart
Blessed by Terry Stubbart
