The end to leaded gas is a moment worth savoring

By Craig Welch, ENVIRONMENT Writer

What amazing things we can do when we put our minds—and the weight of government policy—behind them.

The highly toxic pollutant lead is finally out of the petrol that fuels our cars and trucks—everywhere. The last country in the world to sell leaded gasoline, Algeria (pictured above), finally stopped doing so in August.

It’s worth taking a moment to savor this good news. In fact, calling this merely an environmental success does not capture the scale of what humanity has accomplished. Lead exposure, Ingrid Lobet wrote this month, “impacts nearly every physiological domain in the human body,” especially in children. It harms the brain, affects motor skills, damages kidneys, livers, eyesight, balance, and can spark behavioral problems. “Anything you can think of,” one scientist said, lead “can destroy it.”

And yet, just in the U.S. between 1973, when the Environmental Protection Agency called for a phaseout of the toxic component, and 1996, when it finally banned leaded gas for good, blood-lead levels in American children plummeted 70 percent. The number of kids with toxic amounts of lead in their system fell by two million a year between 1970 and 1987. Now, that trend is going global.

Think about that: A planetwide staple was poisoning children, so we stopped it—in decades. Similarly, we’ve made incredible progress around the world curbing use of the aerosols and refrigerants that deplete the ozone layer. (Both leaded gas and ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons, it turns out, were brought to consumers by the same man, chemist Thomas Midgley. But that’s another story.)

It wasn’t easy. Countries adopted new regulations, which the lead industry fought. United Nations officials applied diplomacy, peer pressure, and finesse. Some, Lobet writes, got gasoline-importing countries like Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda to demand that Kenya, a refining neighbor, sell unleaded gas or they’d buy from elsewhere. Those officials also played on leaders’ egos, using maps to point out to some ministers that neighboring countries were making better progress. But it worked.

So, after a summer of seemingly insurmountable heat waves, wildfires, and hurricanes, many exacerbated by climate change; as the U.S. Congress squabbles over budget bills that could drive reductions in fossil fuel emissions; as world leaders prepare for another significant climate summit this fall in Scotland; it’s worth remembering: We can create a better world. We just have to make it a priority and work for it.

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PLANET SMART

Big changes: What priorities should we have for fixing our world? We asked 2,000 American adults what big planet-helping changes they’d like to see people focused on. Among four options listed, the top was phasing out plastics to clean up waterways. (Pictured above, the grassroots group 4Ocean cleans beaches in Bali, Indonesia daily.) Our Nat Geo and Morning Consult poll showed 44 percent of respondents regarded it as a top priority, with another 30 percent calling it an important, but lower priority. Smaller majorities prioritized ridding the world of fossil fuels, adding safer, smaller, new technology nuclear plants, and developing large-scale plants to take the salt out of rising ocean waters to alleviate droughts and shortages. The poll was conducted Sept. 2-6 and has a margin of error of two percent. Do you have other priorities for improving our world? Let us know.

Related: How the plastic container went from miracle container to hated garbage

One bottle at a time
• Nat Geo Explorer and marine biologist Heather J. Koldewey works to empower communities around the world to participate in solving the ocean pollution crisis from single-use plastics through incremental individual actions—including a campaign that encourages people to stop using single-use plastic bottles altogether

• Explorer Jenna Romness Jambeck’s work as an environmental engineer has influenced testimony to Congress and inspired discussion in the U.N. on policies that may help mitigate the crisis. She also co-developed an app to encourage public participation in identifying and cleaning up marine debris, including plastics. Download the Marine Debris Tracker app.

Read more: Keeping plastic bottles out of the ocean

TAKE SIX

• Grind glass, get sand, replenish beaches (Subscriber exclusive)
• Climate activists are being killed. There is a way to help.
• Biden wants the sun to provide half of the nation’s electricity by 2050
• Are your houseplants actually good for the planet?
• EPA blocks proposed Alaska gold mine
• California builds a ‘Noah’s Ark’ to protect wildlife from extinction

ONE MOMENT

Changing the grid: To keep the lights on, New Orleans’ grid needs to change. Community-based organizations across the Gulf Coast are working to shift the power grid from one based almost exclusively on highly centralized fossil fuels and nuclear power to more localized and equitably distributed renewable energy, Antonia Juhasz writes for Nat Geo. (Pictured above left, Terrebonne Parish sustained heavy flooding and downed power lines; at right Teena Jackson bringing baby supplies to her uncle after Ida. “It’s not our first lights out,” she said.)

READ MORE 

What’s being done
• The Pontchartrain Park Community Development Corp. is developing a community solar project that will service all 1,000 homes in the historic district

• Mississippi-based Steps Coalition is building “the first community solar farm on the Gulf Coast.” Communally owned and operated, the farm will be capable of powering 500 nearby low-income homes while providing training in solar jobs.

• A long list of local organizations contributed to a 2020 report detailing a host of alternatives on energy efficiency, solar energy, and offshore wind.

IN A FEW WORDS

FAST FORWARD

Saved forever? Italy has granted federal protection to 22,000 ancient trees. Noted for their unusual beauty, surprisingly old age, or social and cultural significance, these “monumental trees,” were protected primarily for their aesthetics or historic symbolism. They can be found across the country — in private villas, churches, and in national parks, and can live for centuries even when significant chunks of their branches and trunks have fallen apart. (Above, park ranger Alberto Cocuzzi looks at the Pontone beech tree, which locals say could be 750 years old.)

SEE THE BEAUTIFUL TREES 

How to photograph trees
• Research, research, research, taking into consideration terrain, seasonality, cultural significance, and weather. Find out when fruit or flowers are in bloom. Use the Photographer's Ephemeris to learn what times of day a tree might get sunlight

• Be patient. Circle the tree at different times of the day. If there are crowds, wait for the perfect spot to open.

• Focus. What’s most remarkable—the head, shoulders, or a full-length shot?

• Dress—not shoot--for the weather

• Be open to fog, birds, or schoolchildren adding artistic layers to the story