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ktxhopem3276 t1_j2aslqw wrote

Reply to comment by Sayakakunze in What are some of your favorite things about living in Pittsburgh? by Sayakakunze

The steel mill emits sulfur witch stinks really bad but if you don’t live near it you won’t smell it. So many coal power plants have closed in the last ten years our rankings have improved greatly in the air quality categories such as soot and ozone. Many large cities have worse rankings. If you are interested in reading about it here is a ranking https://www.lung.org/research/sota/city-rankings/most-polluted-cities

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testtech2522 t1_j2bdl8s wrote

Steel mills & cracker plants provide steel, NG, plastics & support to the economy. Where should we put these if not Pittsburgh. I worked in Pittsburgh area steel plant. Windmills & solar don't provide base load energy.

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ktxhopem3276 t1_j2bgax8 wrote

It would be preferable to build them far from dense areas. I don’t know how far is good enough. It would also be preferable to update some of the more ancient parts of the mon valley works but that project was canceled a couple years ago. Nuclear can be used as base load source along with pumped storage hydro like the Niagara falls power plant. Windmills and solar can provide base load via batteries and hydrogen generation. Technology will continue to advance. Pittsburgh had sixty days out of epa compliance in 2000 and only about ten in 2020.

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testtech2522 t1_j2closj wrote

"It would be preferred to be put away from dense areas"? Okay who should work there then? I am familiar with the nuclear industry we can't build enough. Batteries currently cost too much.

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ktxhopem3276 t1_j2d33iv wrote

The entire mon valley operation is 3000 people. It could be out in Washington or Westmoreland county. Whether Beaver county is far enough is more an issue of being upwind from the city instead of downwind. Just because I think heavy industry should be scrutinized and held to a high environmental standard doesn’t mean I think we can live without steel and plastic. Battery cost is rapidly decreasing and if you factor in healthcare costs of poor air quality from pollution from fossil fuels, it actually can save money in the long run. Obviously industry isn’t going to change overnight and it will take another 20 years to replace fossil fuels but it does seem a lot more possible than it did 20 years ago when when nickel cadmium and lead acid batteries were the best available.

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Ham_Ahoy t1_j2bua8t wrote

Google is actually responsible for most of the smells. They have been planting what are known as "stupid tech nerd stink stations" all over town, spouting bad ideas, smells, and general uselessness all over the city. It's a real problem. They don't contribute to society in ay meaningful way, and now they're using the equivalent of the 1980s toy "stink'ums." Rumor has it they were upset that there wasn't literal human shit all over the streets like in San Francisco, so they're trying to recreate a comfortable environment for themselves. It's also why there is a rise in homelessness. Without people suffering all around them, Google just can't operate with efficiency. Human suffering is joy to the average tech worker.

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ktxhopem3276 t1_j2c8l8x wrote

Google offices are in Mountain View which is a wealthy and clean suburb of San Fransisco. California has a lot of homeless people because they don’t have cold winters or hot summers.

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Ham_Ahoy t1_j2d279q wrote

Google has been (purportedly) smearing human feces onthe sidewalks of cities and towns all across the USA daily since they removed "don't be evil" from the mission statement.

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ktxhopem3276 t1_j2d3sjp wrote

You need medical help or a job writing for South Park but I’m not sure which

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