Air Pollution in California
Air Pollution in California
In the 1940's California was supporting a population of seven million people and contained 2.8 million registered vehicles. Within the next twenty years the population more than doubled to reach 16 million while the number of registered vehicles all but tripled increasing to eight million. This has been a common trend in California's documented history from the early twentieth century to today. There have been many historical and environmental factors that have assisted in contributing to increases such as these in California. One such factor was World War II, from the late 1930's to 1945, which triggered a boom in the population of California and the beginning of the urban sprawl. Increases in population such as this resulted in a massive increase in pollution but more specifically air pollution. To counteract the drastic increase of air pollution in California, then Governor Earl Warren signed the Air Pollution Control Act authorizing each county in the state to create its own air pollution control (California Air Resources Board). Since the inception of this "clean air" act many private and governmental organizations were created setting rules, regulations, and standards against pollution and writing them into law. While the average individual is able to make decisions which ultimately affect the quality of our air by making it less polluted organizations hold a far greater power in controlling the quality California's air. Combining the organizational factors with the efforts of the individual has drastically decreased the rate at which we pollute our environment and increased the quality of the air here in California.
With the end of the Second World War California saw a massive urban sprawl and a population surge. This not only increased the demand we were placing upon California's natural resources, but also triggered a huge decrease in the quality of California's air. Since population was increasing and the
In the 1940's California was supporting a population of seven million people and contained 2.8 million registered vehicles. Within the next twenty years the population more than doubled to reach 16 million while the number of registered vehicles all but tripled increasing to eight million. This has been a common trend in California's documented history from the early twentieth century to today. There have been many historical and environmental factors that have assisted in contributing to increases such as these in California. One such factor was World War II, from the late 1930's to 1945, which triggered a boom in the population of California and the beginning of the urban sprawl. Increases in population such as this resulted in a massive increase in pollution but more specifically air pollution. To counteract the drastic increase of air pollution in California, then Governor Earl Warren signed the Air Pollution Control Act authorizing each county in the state to create its own air pollution control (California Air Resources Board). Since the inception of this "clean air" act many private and governmental organizations were created setting rules, regulations, and standards against pollution and writing them into law. While the average individual is able to make decisions which ultimately affect the quality of our air by making it less polluted organizations hold a far greater power in controlling the quality California's air. Combining the organizational factors with the efforts of the individual has drastically decreased the rate at which we pollute our environment and increased the quality of the air here in California.
With the end of the Second World War California saw a massive urban sprawl and a population surge. This not only increased the demand we were placing upon California's natural resources, but also triggered a huge decrease in the quality of California's air. Since population was increasing and the
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