Clean-air crisis demands urgent action

On Saturday morning I met a friend for breakfast at a local diner. We weren’t sure whether to sit outside because of the surging delta variant of COVID-19 or inside because stinging smoke from wildfires consuming northern and western California had spread into the Bay Area.

Our small dilemma was a microcosm of what many Americans are going through or will be soon. The combination of multiplying COVID-19 variants and mounting environmental damage is making the air dangerous to breathe, inside or out.

What to do? Clean air is the quintessential public good. It’s supposed to be free, abundant and safe. Few Americans alive today have ever before worried about microscopic particles containing deadly infections or deadly bits of carbon.

And yet largely because we’ve taken it for granted, and therefore as a society didn’t pay enough attention to public health or to the disintegrating environment, the air we breathe is no longer safe. We now need to rely on masks, air filters and other devices to protect our lungs. And it’s far from clear how long this will go on or if and how it will ever end.

It’s not as if we weren’t warned. But it’s been bizarrely difficult for us as a society to focus our attention on this most basic of all needs.

I’m tempted to blame Republicans, capitalism, greed, the oligarchy. But these feel like cop-outs.

Our collective tendency is to wait until big problems become catastrophic before dealing with them. Most of the time we’d rather not pay attention. We have all we can do to make a living, bring up our kids decently, save a bit for retirement, hopefully have a bit of fun along the way. We assume others will take care of the biggest threats.

Or we tell ourselves there’s nothing more we can do. We may try to live modestly, recycle and conserve energy, use masks and get fully vaccinated. We might even write a few emails to politicians advocating for cleaner air and stronger public health measures. Beyond this, it can feel hopeless.

Hell, I was in a president’s Cabinet. I personally know dozens of members of Congress. I have a big megaphone. But when it comes to this simultaneous pandemic and environmental crisis, I sometimes despair too.

Americans speak a lot about “revolution.” We’re a nation born of revolution. What we don’t talk about enough is a revolution in our thinking and behavior — realizing that we are not above and outside the natural world but part of it, that we cannot continue to exploit and plunder for profit, that there is something called the common good that requires personal sacrifice, and that those of us who are better off have a moral duty to sacrifice the most.

And yet ... I’m old enough to remember when California had smog days when the air was putrid and orange, when older and sicker people dared not venture outside and kids couldn’t play outdoors. I’m also old enough to remember when Britain had noxious air — coalfired fogs that blanketed cities, burned lungs and sometimes killed thousands.

I don’t recall the last pandemic, but I do remember when polio ripped through the land, spreading fear and paralysis. It put two of my 6-year-old friends into iron lungs.

In all these instances, we acted — as a people, as a society. We got smog out of the air. Britain cleaned up, too. And we dutifully lined up at school to get polio shots (without the howling of governors or anti-vaxxers). We eradicated polio.

In other words, despite our tendencies to wait until the last moment, to get caught up in our own private needs and wants, and to feel overwhelmed in the face of gigantic problems, we sometimes achieve the common good. It’s important to remember this.

My friend and I chose to have our breakfast outside. I’m not sure it was the right choice. Although we reduced our risk of COVID-19, the smoke stung our eyes and probably did worse to our lungs.

But I am sure this is not the only choice ahead.

Our collective tendency is to wait until big problems become catastrophic before dealing with them.

ACROSS

1 Bad singer? 4 Start (with) 8 Thingy

14 “I kissed thee ___ I kill’d thee”:

“Othello”

15 T, as in tests 16 Cause to boil 17 Ones sporting

man buns and ironic T-shirts,

say

19 Early 1900s kitchen appliance 20 Closest living

relatives of whales

22 Land of plenty? 23 Strikebreakers 24 It may get

pushed back on the weekend 28 Aggressive

campaign 32 Pelvic joints 34 Finely ground

quartz

35 They enforce discipline among legislators 40 Gusto 41 “Where’d you

get that ___?” 42 Locations of

some dives 44 Like park ranger’s pants, often

46 ___ Ziff, Marge’s exboyfriend on “The Simpsons” 47 Kind of gland 49 Three sheets to

the wind

54 Bob of “Full

House” 56 Common bit of

golf attire 57 Inseparable

… or like three pairs of answers in this puzzle? 62 Quiet

63 Little dipper? 64 Can’t stand 65 Maker of Brownie Brick Road ice cream 66 4x4 67 Meetings for

two

68 Muscle targeted by military presses, in brief

69 ___ school

DOWN

1 Get back into

shape

2 Come up 3 Lukewarm

4 ___ the Autopilot, inflatable balloon character in “Airplane!” 5 Dicing onions, mincing garlic, etc.

6 Symbol that Mac users get by pressing Option + Shift +2

7 Contents of

birdhouses 8 Home to

Planck,

Einstein and Heisenberg when they won their Nobel Prizes 9 Nightmare

personified 10 Petite, for one 11 TV journalist

Pressman with a Peabody and 11 Emmys 12 Freudian

topics

13 State since

1845: Abbr. 18 Dust-up 21 Admits 25 Noticeably

unfriendly 26 Does a groundskeeper’s job 27 Exhibited relief,

in a way 29 Smart ___ 30 Dorm room

feature

31 Tel. number

add-ons

33 It can be heavier in the summer 35 Rodentlike relative of a rabbit 36 Condition that fidget tools can help with, for short

37 Bring up

38 Not stay

neutral 39 Compete in a Summer Olympics event 43 Stephen of

“The Crying Game”

45 Most asinine 48 Deal sealers 50 Particular, for

short 51 Run-of-themill

52 Upper echelon 53 Took performanceenhancing drugs

55 Caught on

audio

57 Taunt

58 Like some highfiber cereal 59 Changing fortune, metaphorically 60 Texter’s

farewell 61 Biblical verb with “thou” 62 E.P.A.-banned

pesticide

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