Pittsburg's pollution was once so bad that it blacked out the mid-day sun!

Following my article on the state of air pollution in China I figured it best that I showed you what it used to be like here in the 1950's since I referenced it in that article.

I was first made aware of this when I was in high school Algebra II class. See my teacher at the time was Charles Beck and he told my class how utterly terrible the pollution was in Pittsurg during his upbringing there. In fact he said it was so bad that just him walking to school would cover his face in black soot that he would have to wash up before school-- or anytime that he walked outside for that matter.

For everyone that does not know how bad it was there is a collection of pictures which depict it over at the Huffington Post Website. It actually became this way post World War II, because as I am sure you all must be well aware that Pittsburg was once the leader in steel production. Couple with that at the time there was absolutely zero pollution controls on powerhouse that made the electricity required for steel production-- not to mention the coke (low-ash, low-sulfur bituminous coal) that goes into the steel making process something that I know of no substitute for (if their is would somebody please tell me what it is)? Of course there was a booming auto industry whose automobiles made the pollution even worse.

But after seeing this you can see how bad the air must be in China right now. But the Chinese do not have to develop ways of keping their pollution in check-- us and Europe has already done it for them!