Several books suggest more hopeful alternatives.
The quality of the air we breathe has an immediacy missing from many other environmental concerns. Smog is apparent to urban residents throughout much of the year. On especially bad days, emergency rooms fill up with young and old for whom the simple act of breathing has become difficult. Harvard School of Public Health studies indicate that 60,000 Americans die prematurely each year from respiratory and cardiovascular illnesses linked to air pollution. Because air pollution is so prominent, it provides the most visible symbol of our inability to square economic needs with ecological concerns.