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Comment by skybrian | Hacker News Reader

A bit drastic. Avoiding driving on days when air quality is bad would also do.

Not being sarcastic, what level of effort are we talking about valuating clean local air at? Only actions that cause no inconvenience? Using monetary value of pollution related production vs health care costs?

It would be not that inconvenient to not drive for local trips but very inconvenient for longer trips? Or vice versa depending on where you live

I'm an environmentalist, and I agreed with a recommendation for the 2 stroke engine thing... but when I saw someone say 'quit smoking', it made me realize how small fries I am.

People are cooking over coal/wood around the world, that is far far far worse than everything I've read(and that doesnt include industrial pollution). (Although 2 stroke engines and their byproducts are cancer causing, so... that is still valid)

There are still areas in the USA that heat their homes with wood. I live near one, luckily just far enough away that I'm not sitting in the haze of smoke. I don't know how anyone can live in this town in the winter.

As for 2-storkes, I can't stand them, but they are still a necessary evil in many situations. I have gas and electric chainsaw. The electric doesn't compare in power and capability - but it is also my favorite, so I use it when I can. I love not smelling like 2-stroke exhaust, the electric always "starts" too. Then a larger tree dies or a dozen blow down at once and I have to break out the gas saw...

In my neighborhood, if we got to the point where there was a car in every garage instead of 2-4 cars per house, we'd be doing great.

(Also, if it stays in the garage most of the time, it doesn't really harm anyone. I think that's only common for retired people, though?)

I don't know how to price it. Most people don't really think about it that way.

Start with the lowest hanging fruit. I’ve converted all of my lawn equipment to electric. I won’t be converting my stove or furnace anytime soon since they are both less than four years old. We became a one car family and have not had any significant problems with it.

Our next vehicle will be a full electric but that will probably be another 3-5 years unless we opt to be a one ICE, one electric car family sooner.

That's every day in much of the world. I lived in Southeast Asia for 8 years and 9/10 days the air was unhealthy.

I recently bought an air purifier for my house and it's constantly red when used in living room that has outside windows. In other words, air quality around my house is constantly bad. By the end i moved it to an isolated room where at least we can enjoy clean air there.

Maybe consider a boxfan+furnace filter for the living room - if air quality is always bad you don't really need the sensor switching

What city? It is too generic to say "Southeast Asia". Most of it is rural. And what is meant by "unhealthy"? What measurements? I cannot believe that 90% of days were unhealthy. Why? Rainy season is never polluted -- I know from experience in Hongkong and Singapore. Once a day or more, you get a huge downpour that takes most pollution out of the air. (This is partly why Seattle fairs very well in clean air measurements... it rains so damn much. Scottish cities, too.)

Seattle's air pollution quality is so low because there's a vast ocean separating the Seattleites from the manufacturing that supplies it with new phones, appliances, furniture, clothing, building materials and just about everything from the source of the pollution.

Rain is nice, but that has very little to do with it.

The growth in moat of these countries is up so much they cant burn enough coal to keep from brown outs.

Outsourced pollution.

If you need data, just peak at a global air pollution map. Dive into the historical metrics.

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