Groups Pressure Feds to Tighten Air-Quality Standards

is taking public comment through the end of March.

Patrick Drupp, director of climate policy for the Sierra Club, said the World Health Organization has called for an even lower standard of five.

“We have the solutions to address it; we have scientific evidence to address it. We have all the moral imperative to address it,” Drupp stressed. “This is something they really have to do to ensure that people actually breathe clean air.”

By Desert Star Staff

The Environmental Protection Agency is proposing new rules on soot to clean up the nation’s air.

Advocates say it is a step in the right direction but does not go far enough. The current rules allow 12 micrograms per cubic meter. The EPA wants to take it down to nine or 10, but clean-air groups want it lowered to eight.

Monica Embrey, California energy campaign director for the Sierra Club, said a standard of eight micrograms would save 24,000 lives a year.

“Soot is a deadly mix of metals, chemicals, and substances that are so small, they can be inhaled into our lungs and enter our bloodstreams,” Embrey pointed out. “Which can cause various health issues, including respiratory diseases, cancers, and death.”

The fine particulate matter that can trigger asthma comes from vehicle exhaust, heavy industry, oil and gas sites, wildfire smoke, and blowing dust. The Trump administration overrode scientific recommendations and left the standard unchanged. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce said tighter standards would stifle manufacturing and hurt the economy. The agency

Tens of millions of Californians live in counties already exceeding the existing air-quality standard, including Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, and San Diego counties in Southern California; Fresno, Kern, Kings, Madera, Merced, and Tulare counties in the Central Valley; and Marin, San Francisco and San Mateo counties in the Bay Area.

ESOTERIC ASTROLOGY AS NEWS FOR WEEK MARCH 1 – 7, 2023

PISCES - REVEALING THE LIGHT OF TRUTH

Monday at sunset the Hebrew feast of Purim begins. This is the feast of Queen Esther as she tells the truth of her culture and identity. Her truth saves her people. T he twelve signs of the zodiac each reveal a different level, angle and pathway of Light. In Pisces, the work of the Soul is revealed in the words “Pisces is the Light of the world, ending the darkness of matter”.

Pisces is the last zodiacal sign, holding all gifts, abilities and seeds of the preceding signs. Pisces offers those seeds to Aries at spring equinox. Pisces also holds the sufferings of humanity which explains the otherworldliness of Pisces. Often, we see this otherworldliness in the behaviors of the those born under the light of Pisces (Sun, moon, ascendant).

Pisces is the sign of love, sacrifice and of giving. Pisces does not feel at home in the world of matter. Their keynote is “I have left the Father’s House of Oneness, & turning back (to earth, to humanity), I save.”

The true spiritual history of our world is that long ago, each of us responded to the sacrificial call, symbolized by Pisces, to “to and maketheself a useful instrument and save the world”. And so we “went forth, descended into matter, making ourselves instruments of Goodwill for the purpose of radiating to humanity, the kingdoms and Earth, the Love the world seeks. Pisces produces that love. And thus “saves.”

Festival of Truth and Joy. Monday, at sunset, the Jewish feast of Purim begins. It is the “feast of truth and deliverance”. Queen Esther, in 5th century Persia, by revealing the truth about her culture and identity, saved her people from death. During Purim, a sweet pastry (filled with prunes, apricots or poppy seeds) called