When normal isn’t actually desirable

Kinja'd!!! "Just Jeepin'" (macintux)
04/23/2020 at 08:05 • Filed to: coronavirus

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L.A. with some of  th e cleanest air of any city in the world? That’s crazy.

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DISCUSSION (23)


Kinja'd!!! pip bip - choose Corrour > Just Jeepin'
04/23/2020 at 08:09

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agreed


Kinja'd!!! Thomas Donohue > Just Jeepin'
04/23/2020 at 08:21

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Some of those pic comparisons look a bit uneven. I can only vouch for the NYC view that I’ve seen in person, but they definitely took hazy/cloudy days for the ‘before’ pics and seemingly cloudless days for the current pics.

Their point is valid and taken, but the execution is overdone.


Kinja'd!!! Cash Rewards > Just Jeepin'
04/23/2020 at 08:23

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I live in DC metro, where we have some of the worst traffic congestion in the country. The difference is noticable here in the immediate suburbs. It's nice. The air is clearer for sure.


Kinja'd!!! Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire > Just Jeepin'
04/23/2020 at 08:33

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Those before pictures, were they taken on the days with the worst possible weather and using a potato?


Kinja'd!!! My X-type is too a real Jaguar > Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire
04/23/2020 at 08:39

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Yes, there’s no doubt the air is cleaner but to show a real comparison you’d need pictures taken at the same time of year not one taken in the spring and one taken during the Santa Ana Winds when there is a lot of sand and dirt in the air. 


Kinja'd!!! facw > Just Jeepin'
04/23/2020 at 09:20

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Yeah, I agree with everyone else, most of those pics are reaches. I don’t know about all the international cities, but I can certainly say as someone who lived in NYC for years (and who visited regularly before and after) that that photo is not representative. Numerous others LA, London, etc. don’t match my perceptions either.

That said we do know that emissions are way down, and in places without strong environmental laws (like India) , it’s easy to imagine that makes a huge difference.


Kinja'd!!! DipodomysDeserti > Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire
04/23/2020 at 10:22

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When’s the last time you were in LA? That before pic looks like an exceptionally good day. I was on Catalina island in the Fall facing Long Beach and there was a very thick band of smog covering the city. 


Kinja'd!!! DipodomysDeserti > facw
04/23/2020 at 10:29

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You kidding me about LA? That before photo looks like an exceptionally good day. I was on Catalina island in the Fall, and the band of smog over Long Beach was terrifying.

It’s like night and day in Phoenix. It’s looked like it has just rained for the past month. I live in an elevated area and have a nuce view of downtown. Only smog visible is over the airport which has now started to die down as well.


Kinja'd!!! WasGTIthenGTOthenNOVAnowbacktoGTI > Just Jeepin'
04/23/2020 at 10:45

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Yeah, fuck all those people who need jobs to survive.

This might be one of the most dise ngeni ous articles I’ve ever seen.

I get that pollution is down, and that’s fantastic, and something we need to strive for, but this is ridiculous .


Kinja'd!!! Just Jeepin' > WasGTIthenGTOthenNOVAnowbacktoGTI
04/23/2020 at 10:48

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You’re inferring quite a bit from either the article or my post title, I’m not sure which.

There are a host of possible directions to go in the future that don’t necessarily involve returning to the same clusterfuck we had before COVID-19.

And really, the point to this article and my reposting of it isn’t about any of that, it’s just interesting how the world itself  changes in an event like this.


Kinja'd!!! facw > DipodomysDeserti
04/23/2020 at 10:55

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Maybe I got lucky? Beautiful weather when I was there, and not even slightly smoggy.

I can certainly imagine there are places in the US where it is helping a ton. Houston had the worst air quality of any place I’ve lived, and I’m curious as to how it is doing these days.


Kinja'd!!! WasGTIthenGTOthenNOVAnowbacktoGTI > Just Jeepin'
04/23/2020 at 11:03

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I was (am?) talking about the CBS article. Like, take the London picture for example, they’re not even from the same view point . And clearly having heavy smog on foggy days with a blue filter on the lens is going to make everything look shitty. Then juxtaposing it against a vibrant blue skied travel brochure picture just feels a little sleazy to me.

I totally agree that it’s interesting to see how the world changes during times of extreme variation from the norm, and yes, I would also like to see some positive change made in the wake of this, but a lot of that article hinges on the photography, and they blew it.


Kinja'd!!! OPPOsaurus WRX > Just Jeepin'
04/23/2020 at 11:03

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I’m pretty sure those photos are misleading. 100% pollution levels have improved but my photo form a few years ago looks closer to the post- shutdown image than the pre-shutdown

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Kinja'd!!! Just Jeepin' > WasGTIthenGTOthenNOVAnowbacktoGTI
04/23/2020 at 11:17

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I replie d before you edited your comment. Yes, that makes sense.


Kinja'd!!! WasGTIthenGTOthenNOVAnowbacktoGTI > Just Jeepin'
04/23/2020 at 11:21

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Ah, sorry.


Kinja'd!!! DipodomysDeserti > facw
04/23/2020 at 11:29

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I guess you got lucky, as LA is literally the smoggiest city in the United States, with worse air quality than Houston. Has been for quite a while. California as a whole has some of the worst air pollution in the nation. Houston wasn’t even in the top ten in the 2018 State of Air study.

http://www.stateoftheair.org/key-findings/

https://time.com/3840001/most-polluted-cities-2015/

https://www.scpr.org/news/2018/04/18/82375/this-report-ranks-the-most-polluted-cities-in-amer/


Kinja'd!!! DipodomysDeserti > OPPOsaurus WRX
04/23/2020 at 12:07

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Your   photo is from inside the smog and the below  pic is from an elevated area. I live in the foothills of the Phoenix Mountains and the smog always looks worse looking down on Phoenix than when you’re in it. Barcelona has much better air quality than Phoenix, but it still gets pretty smoggy (I’ve visited every other year for about a decade). My photo from Parc Güell.

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Kinja'd!!! OPPOsaurus WRX > DipodomysDeserti
04/23/2020 at 12:59

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were you standing next to me?

the smog doesn’ t look s bad in mine. I think that day was somewhat overcast too.


Kinja'd!!! DipodomysDeserti > OPPOsaurus WRX
04/23/2020 at 13:17

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That’s funny, yeah same spot on that rooftop dirt area. Were the two bubble performers up there when you too that pic?

That was from my first visit in 2009. The parc has taken on a much different feel over the last decade.

I could really go for for a San Miguel on the beach right now, surrounded by beautiful Catalan women.

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Kinja'd!!! OPPOsaurus WRX > DipodomysDeserti
04/23/2020 at 13:22

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I think I was there spring 2008.  It was kinda cold.  MY wife wanted to go to the beach but it just wasn;t the weather for it.  I think we were there during a period of crappy weather. 


Kinja'd!!! DipodomysDeserti > OPPOsaurus WRX
04/23/2020 at 13:43

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That beer pic was from Fall of ‘17, hence the empty beach. You visit the Gaudi museum in La Sagrada when you were there?


Kinja'd!!! OPPOsaurus WRX > DipodomysDeserti
04/23/2020 at 13:45

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I did, I tried to hit everything Ga u di I could.


Kinja'd!!! Victorinoo > Just Jeepin'
04/23/2020 at 22:53

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Click bait photos in that article. I live in NYC and the photo that they chose to describe “polluted” NYC is just fog. The city looks no different during this quarantine.