Figures 6-20 to 6-22 show the same change. While there was still
more air pollution among less advantaged groups, the changes show
how effective public policy decisions can be in improving air
quality. Improvement in particulate pollution has been so dramatic
that everyone's air has improved, and differences between groups
have narrowed greatly.
WHO
CAUSES POLLUTION?
Before
proceeding further, one point should be made clear. The close
parallel between poverty, low occupational status, low rents,
segregation, and air pollution is not one of cause and effect.
Disadvantaged people are not primarily responsible for air
pollution. On the contrary, the richer a family is, the more it
contributes to pollution because it uses more energy. Also, whites
as a group use significantly more of all types of energy than do
blacks. Previous chapters have shown that as incomes rise the
consumption of electric power, gasoline and industrial products
rises, and consumption of fuels, directly and indirectly, causes
most air pollution.
The
correlation between income, race, and direct fuel consumption by
household is very high. In the case of electricity and natural gas,
those in the $16,000 and over category consumed almost twice as
much per household as the poor. In the case of gasoline, well-to-do
households use more than five times as much. Whites, on the
average, use 19 percent more electricity and natural gas and 113
percent more gasoline than do blacks. In fact, disadvantaged people
are largely victims of middle- and upper-class pollution because
they usually live closest to the sources of pollution—power
plants, industrial installations, and in central cities where
vehicle traffic is heaviest. Usually they have no choice.
Discrimination created the situation, and those with wealth and
influence have the political power to keep polluting facilities
away from their homes. Living in poverty areas is bad enough. High
pollution makes it worse.
POLICY
CHOICES AND EFFECTS
One general
proposition is worth stating before discussing policies and their
effects. Pollution becomes most damaging above a certain level, or
threshold. The ecosystem, including human beings, can absorb
varying amounts of pollutants with little harm. Above a threshold,
however, effects become serious and worsen rapidly. This kind of
thinking is involved in setting air quality standards. Because of
this threshold phenomenon, general reduction in any air pollutant
throughout a metropolitan area by say, 20 percent, should most
benefit those people who live in areas above or near the federal
standards. Having shown a positive correlation between air quality
and income, the effects of a reduction in air pollution (other
things remaining equal) should be