A global problem, it seems

Josh Voorhees has a Slate article about smog:

From The New York Times: "Parisians taking public transportation to work on Friday were surprised and delighted to find subways and buses free for the next three days, but the reason was a bit less cheerful: air pollution had reached an unusually high level and was expected to continue unabated through the weekend. Bad air quality might be familiar to tourists here from Beijing or Mumbai, but in this elegant capital where strict limits on building height create the illusion of plenty of fresh air, pollution is rarely this severe so early in the year and for so long. 'Due to a persistent episode of pollution with fine particles,' the Environment Ministry will impose exceptional measures, said Philippe Martin, the minister, in a somewhat cryptic statement."
From The Associated Press: "The belt of smog stretched for hundreds of miles, from France's Atlantic coast to Belgium and well into Germany. It was the worst air pollution France has seen since 2007, the European Environment Agency said. Nearly all of France was under some sort of pollution alert Friday, with levels in the Parisian region surpassing some of those in the world's most notoriously polluted cities, including Beijing and Delhi. ...The smog is particularly severe here, because France has an unusually high number of diesel vehicles, whose nitrogen oxide fumes mix with ammonia from springtime fertilizers and form particulate ammonium nitrate. Pollutants from the burning of dead leaves and wood contribute as well."

Rico says so much for 'smoggy London town', let alone Los Angeles...