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Clean Air Pipeline for Smog-filled Cities

Pipe Clean Air Directly to Homes
 
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In places like Los Angeles, New York, etc., that have a smog problem, you could route inexpensive yet weather-proof pipes to pump clean air in from cleaner places, such as Canada, Montana, the Dakotas, Kansas, etc., or you could have air-cleaning factories (hopefully being green as well) which filter out the junk what makes you cough in the first place.

Then just pipe it to paying customers' homes. Whoever provides the air (state, province, country or company) gets the money.

Breathe easy.

galukalock, Feb 21 2003

Sequestration http://www.ieagreen.org.uk/disp2.htm
But then where do you put it? [Worldgineer, Oct 05 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004]

Planetary Scale Ductwork http://www.halfbake..._20scale_20ductwork
I think if you and pluterday got together... well... the world would be _way_ too noisy from all the fans. [Worldgineer, Oct 05 2004]

Portable Oxygen Supply http://www.packmedi...et/html/oxygen.html
Breathe easy...even away from home. [jurist, Oct 05 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004]

Portable Oxygen Bar http://flo2w.com/
[half, Oct 05 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004]

Blow up the Atmosphere (Idea by [UnaBubba]) http://www.halfbake..._20The_20Atmosphere
Check out the link to "Gasping" by Ben Elton. [8th of 7, Oct 05 2004]

[link]






       why not just copy spaceballs and build a massive vacuum cleaner to suck the air from canada? you could make it out of millions of 'quality' american-made automobiles.
sambwiches, Feb 22 2003
  

       Heck, why share all that good clean air with the rest of the city? Why not just strap on your own personal oxygen bottle and facemask? That way you get all the benefits of clean Canadian glacial air plus the convenience of total portability without costly investments in utility infrastructure or home improvements. Be a fashion leader, [galukalock]. The Emphysema Coalition is sure to endorse you for poster boy of the year.
jurist, Feb 22 2003
  

       Um, breathing pure O2 isn't good for your lungs or system for very long.
galukalock, Feb 22 2003
  

       The volume of air required per person per day would make this a luxury. It would probably lead to the rich polluting even more and the poor being worse off than ever.
pottedstu, Feb 22 2003
  

       Heck, ANY nice thing is *bound* to be abused in one way or another. How about passenger airplanes? How about nuclear energy? The list goes on...   

       The question is: Will the benefits (at least SOME of the cleaner air will escape to the ambient air, making it a bit more breathable; there will be revenue, jobs generated; etc.) outweigh the potential, even inevitable, risks?
galukalock, Feb 22 2003
  

       Overall, I think it would be easier to ship liquefied air, then bleed it out into your home at a rate just fast enough to keep air from coming in from outside.   

       Could have done with this in the aftermath of 9/11. And in these days of dirty bomb threats, not such a bad business to be in, I would think.
DrCurry, Feb 22 2003
  

       //liquefied air//   

       Sounds good, if it's cheaper. And if it is, you save a lot of infrastructure (and lose space in your home; oh well).
galukalock, Feb 22 2003
  

       Why bother with that when you can sell fancy bottled air to stupid rich people? (sorry, I don't actually feel that way; it's just my online persona talking.)
snarfyguy, Feb 22 2003
  

       The only way to keep the air clean is by stop polluting it. I live in the most crowded city in the world (22 million, imagine how many cars that is) and believe me, everything has been tried.   

       On a desperate attempt to improve the quality of the air, our government even made a new law: they assigned a day of the week for each two numbers (1-2 for monday, 3-4 for tuesdays, etc) so depending on the number your car's registration ends, that's the day of the week you CANT use your car. I am sure this idea would have been fishboned if they had posted here, because it's obvious it doesn't work.   

       They proposed an idea similar to this, but it basically required to make two huge holes on the mountains surrounding Mexico city's valley to install a gigantic FAN, so the air would circulate more.   

       Mexicanos locos!!
Pericles, Feb 22 2003
  

       Well, if you can't keep the air quality of the CITY clean (for any reason you like), this idea would at least let you keep your HOME's air clean.   

       Just an idea.
galukalock, Feb 22 2003
  

       As Pericles indicates, Valleys are susceptible to being not only on the producing and keeping of smog, but also on the receiving end of copious amounts of smog, from outside regions. The mighty big San Joaquin Valley in California, for example - has a great deal of smog sent it's way by forces of nature and manunkind from points N, NW, W, S and SW but adjacent mighty big Sierra Nevada mountain range on the inland side prevents smog from leaving through points NE, E, and SE. Perhaps some unremarkable mountains can be used as locations for a few million fans whirring away - powered by heat from felled trees from clear-cutting unremarkable forests, which would produce additional smoke...
thumbwax, Feb 22 2003
  

       I vote we export all our smog to San Joaquin Valley. A small price to pay for a clean and healthy nation.
DrCurry, Feb 22 2003
  

       2 words: L.A. basin.
galukalock, Feb 22 2003
  

       There's only one problem with exporting smog to SJV - it's the breadbasket of the world.
thumbwax, Feb 22 2003
  

       I suppose that it's only a matter of time until we have to pay for the air we breathe. A couple of generations ago no one would have believed that their grandchildren would have to pay for clean drinking water, yet now it is commonplace.
It's bloody pathetic what we are doing to this planet and I believe that the time is coming when we will have to decide whether we are human beings, or an out of control, cancerous parasitic organism.
  

       Even now, there are 'oxygen bars' where you pay to breathe scented O2.
galukalock, Feb 23 2003
  

       [galukalock] See link to "Gasping".
8th of 7, Feb 24 2003
  

       Yeah...ain't it always the way?   

       Sort of off-topic, about 6 months ago, Atlanta (Georgia), which has been steadily growing for the past 15-20 years, was officially declared to have a smog problem. And we live only 40 miles (60 km) away. When we moved here in '85, the city wasn't nearly so big; now it's almost upon us.
galukalock, Feb 24 2003
  

       I'm surprised not to see it here, but it might be cheeper to bore a few tunnels through the San Gabriel mountains from the valley to the high desert. If you put in a few turbines, you could pump the smog to the high desert. This would greatly increase the home values, so perhaps a property assessment could fund the project.   

       Heck, if you set a few inlets in the elevation range of the air temperature inversion layer, you might just set up passive venting based on the overnight temperature difference.
dkawaii, Aug 03 2004
  

       //A couple of generations ago no one would have believed that their grandchildren would have to pay for clean drinking water, yet now it is commonplace.//   

       More a result of marketing than of water-quality issues. To be sure, there are places in the U.S. where the tap water is not very good for drinking, but Coke et al. sell amazing amounts of bottled water even in places where the tap water is just fine.
supercat, Aug 03 2004
  

       I would think that in terms of both space and safety, it may be better to use chemical compunds which react to release one's desired 'atmospheric' gasses than to try to keep liquified air. To be sure, such compounds can pose dangers too, but they don't require pressurization or refrigeration.
supercat, Aug 03 2004
  
      
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