I’d never given a second thought to the red fire retardant dropped from planes, until I read this story by Samantha Masunaga detailing what’s in it and why it’s so effective. My colleague Tony Barboza reported in April on early research from Harvard University finding that Americans living in areas with higher levels of smog were more likely to die from COVID-19. Whitney this year, you’re probably out of luck.
Damaging Santa Ana winds are on tap for Monday in the Los Angeles region, forecasters say.

The pandemic is forcing youth climate activists to save the planet on Zoom.

Consider subscribing to The Times. As California continues to burn, my colleagues keep finding fascinating narratives showing the human toll of the disasters. “A good solution for COVID is also a good solution for climate is also a good solution for improving air quality, water quality and soil quality,” she said.
Current Hourly Air Quality Index Map (Click image above to view Map) Current Readings at Air Monitoring Subregions (Air Quality Index and Concentration) (Click image above to view readings) United States Environmental Protection Agency's AirNow (External site) Data presented on U.S. EPA's AirNow website uses South Coast AQMD's monitoring data.

He said that because CalEnviroScreen takes into account all those factors — and because COVID-19 case rates and deaths are influenced by so many variables — “it’s not clear to what degree increased exposure to air pollution is contributing to the higher rates of COVID-19 in low income communities and communities of color.”.

But hey, at least Orange County now has the Very Large Helitanker? Sammy Roth covers energy for the Los Angeles Times and writes the weekly Boiling Point newsletter. Speaking of electric vehicles, Tesla set a sales record last quarter. Black and Latino people are disproportionately vulnerable to the virus for several reasons. One of the biggest impediments to electric vehicles has long been the inability or unwillingness of car dealerships to promote the newfangled contraptions, which don’t require as much of the pricey maintenance work that earns dealerships the big bucks.

‘Outnumbered’ co-host Melissa Francis is off the air and her status at Fox News is in doubt. But Jerrett described pollution as one of several interrelated factors that stem from historical inequities and combine to make people of color more likely to suffer from COVID-19. Griffith Park gondola proposal sparks opposition from area residents and environmentalists, A proposal to build a 2.5-mile gondola transport to Griffith Park is generating heated opposition from area residents and environmentalists, Sacha Baron Cohen: ‘It was pretty clear to us’ what Rudy Giuliani did in new ‘Borat’.

As the pandemic brought everyday life to a screeching halt, it quickly became clear that lung-damaging air pollution was putting communities of color at greater risk, too. It shows neighborhood-by-neighborhood pollution burdens across Los Angeles County, overlaid by COVID-19 case counts.

Gavin Newsom’s administration is taking these disparities seriously. I asked the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health about the maps.

Now the federal Environmental Protection Agency has responded to that decision by ruling that state officials, not tribes, have authority over environmental programs in those areas, as Kolby KickingWoman reports for Indian Country Today.

@Sammy_Roth: What are you more excited for tomorrow - @FERC tech conference on #carbon pricing or @buehlersdayoff taking the bump for game 1? The tallest peak in the Lower 48 is off-limits to hikers through at least Dec. 1 due to fires and poor air quality, per Christopher Reynolds and Mary Forgione.

Here’s what it looks like, with case counts adjusted for population: This one’s a bit harder to interpret, because the color scheme is a little funky; the orange areas of the map represent places with higher Latino populations, the green areas show higher Black populations, the red areas show higher Asian American populations and the blue areas show higher white populations. The other involves comparing coronavirus death counts in different parts of Los Angeles County with levels of nitrogen dioxide pollution, which is mostly emitted by cars and trucks, and also by gas-fired power plants. Let’s return to Gov. Greener areas with less pollution — such as Bel Air and the Palos Verdes Peninsula — have typically been less affected. Also, Joseph Serna wrote about advances in big data and supercomputing that might lead to breakthroughs in predicting the spread of infernos.