Air quality and reporting fail

Data is now in for February air quality in the Twin Cities, and it doesn't look any better than November, December and January. Fewer than one-third of the days in February had acceptable air quality in the Twin Cities:



The Star Tribune finally got around to noticing the air quality fail, but curiously blamed the pollution on the weather! The premise of the Strib report is that the problem is not that we are marinating in our own filth, but that the light winds of winter are to blame! If only...four months of the weather making bad air for us to breathe? Only in the Strib.

UPDATE: I might add: IMHO journalism is supposed to empower the citizenry, i.e. illuminate issues so that we might improve our governance and world. What is the effect of environmental reporting that attributes four consecutive months of piss poor air quality on the weather? Obviously we cannot change the weather, so the story basically implies that nothing is to be done. But of course there IS something we can do: strengthen emission controls.