Landscape Architect Articles

Will You LED the Way?03-30-15 | 11

Will You LED the Way?
By George Schmok, Publisher

When I was kid growing up in Southern California, I used to be able to tell the time of day at high school by going outside and looking toward the mountains. If it was between 7:00 and 9:00 a.m., you could see almost all of the surrounding mountains and foothills. By noon, only the top halves of the mountains were visible, and by 3:00 you could barely see the peaks. This was due to the daily smog cloud that grew more intense as the day developed, as more people drove around, and as more factories spewed their emissions into the air.

I remember driving out to San Dimas (on several most excellent adventures) to go water skiing on Puddingstone Lake. We would leave school at 2:30, get to the lake by 3:30 and water ski until it got dark at 7:30 or so. On the way back, if you took a deep breath you could feel the inflammation in your lungs from all the heavy breathing of the SoCal smog.

This was around the same time that rivers were burning in Ohio and those that didn't burn were becoming so polluted they could almost be walked across. If you are around my age, you also remember that Indian chief standing by the side of the road with a tear in his eye after uncaring revelers threw trash bags out of the car, only to burst at his feet.

Just before those times, there was a general laissez-faire attitude toward the environment and the impact of man upon said environment. However, that began to change in the mid-'70s.

As people became aware of the damage being done, forward thinking individuals began to press for cleaner emissions from cars and factories in L.A., while in the Midwest, polluters were being fined and forced to clean up their discharges into the rivers; and everyone was beginning to see those now, infamous signs that say littering carries a $250 fine.

Because of that awareness, today in L.A., I can see those mountains all day and go on four-hour bike rides (albeit not as hard as water skiing for four hours) with my lungs feeling great. Rivers are no longer burning, and while some are still being polluted, those instances are becoming more rare and when discovered almost always result in massive fines and devastating public relations.

So on we move to the new millennium. While L.A. and the U.S. have become shining examples of the success that comes with forward thinking combined with action, countries like China, India, Egypt, Pakistan, Iran and Russia have not experienced the grand awakening and are still immersed in smog and pollution.

Now, I am not a big believer in Al Gore's version of global warming. Climate change is inevitable. Droughts occur. Floods occur. Glaciers grow and recede. When the Arctic is warm the Antarctic grows colder. Tomorrow, Saturday March 28, it is expected to snow in Boston and climb close to 90???(R)???AE? in Southern California. Neither are records. The last time it was this hot on this day in SoCal was 27 years ago in 1988. In fact, according to NOAA, The average temperature for the contiguous U.S. during March 2014 was 40.5???(R)???AE?F, 1???(R)???AE?F below the 20th century average . . . the 43rd coldest March on record, and the coldest since 2002.

That said, there is always room for improvement in what we do and how we do it. And guess what . . . America is once again leading the way. As a country we should be proud of our leadership role in producing products that are sensitive to the environment. And one prime example is the recent introduction of all things LED.

Back when those in government choose to ban the incandescent light bulb, I was a bit outraged, especially because the only real alternative at the time was those pig-tailed fluorescent lights. Back then my solution to excessive electrical bills was to install timers on the lights my kids used, and to install dimmers on every light we could. The problem was that those cruddy fluorescents could not be dimmed. Today, however, LEDs have taken over all other light forms and are geometrically brighter and less energy consumptive than anything in our past.

So while many feel that global warming, climate change, fossil fuels, nuclear energy and emerging countries are all topics of concern and debate, no one can debate that as long as we continue to identify environmental issues that can be altered (how close the Sun gets is out of our hands), we will continue to make improvements.

I think it is great for our nation to debate these things and root out what is being done for power and control and what is being done for the good of man. And putting politics on the shelf, as long as we continue to look for ways to make things better, things will continue to get better. What is your next bright idea?

God Bless . . .

George Schmok, Publisher