Breathing Clean Air
CBS 13’s John Iander went to Yosemite not to see the mountains or the beautiful waterfalls, but to take a look at the air. In this interesting report Iander took a look at what researchers at UC Davis are learning from the air in Yosemite.
CBS 13: “Since 1985, air samples from over 170 major national parks in America are sent to Davis for analysis. Air samples are cataloged then tested to determine what ultra fine pollutants have been trapped. That can be fallout from a volcano, man made pollution, or just nature moving things around.
“In this particular time period we had lot of very high dust storms in the Saharan desert, and long range transport they end up in some of our sites,” said Brian Perley, Air Quality Scientist.
The air samples are showing that not only does pollution come from our own back yard, it literally now comes from around the world. Today, pollution is coming for emerging industrial nations like China. Those small particles can cause haze in our national parks and greatly reduce visibility. They can affect our respiratory health.”
Photo by Alex Lazara via Flickr.
For over 30 years now I've enjoyed hiking, backpacking, fishing, photographing and exploring Yosemite and the Sierra Nevada. 
