Fighting Smoke with Smoke

I admit it. I smoke.

Picture taken in Fairfax last Tuesday. Yes, really.

Now, living in Marin County, I could be forgiven, even applauded for smoking weed. ("Hello, Fairfax!") I could be tolerated, though still get unfriendly glares, for smoking tobacco. Thankfully, I don't do either of those things, except for an annual cigar, usually with my father-in-law. What I do is much worse, much less forgivable in the San Francisco Bay Area. I burn wood in my fireplace.

On those rare nights when my cellphone does not have a message from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District telling me what not to do, I heat just the room my family is in with a fire in the fireplace, rather than heating an entire two-story house with the gas furnace. I realize this may be painful for many Marinites to read. ("He seemed like such a nice guy until I found out he was poisoning the air. Well,...actually, now that I think of it, he was really more sarcastic and snarky than a nice guy, but still...")

So, you can imagine how relieved I was to read in today's paper that the MENSA club over at the Bay Area Air Quality Management District has people out in Priuses patrolling looking for fires. That's right, folks. They are out in cars driving through neighborhoods looking for smoke.

Al Gore: "BAAQMD is a key driver of climate change."

Now, I realize that many people believe Priuses are hybrid vehicles that run on electricity and love, but they actually run on a gas-fueled, carbon-emitting engine that is used to charge up batteries and run the car. If you have driven in a hybrid around Marin with its hills and winding roads, then you know that the gas motor is usually running when the car has to navigate our hilly terrain here.

That means the BAAQMD is actually out polluting while they are out trying to prevent pollution. And, we are paying people to go out and pollute while pretty much every local, state and federal government organization is saying they don't have enough money to provide basic services anymore. Does this make sense to you?

Light'em if you've got'em!