Paragliding offers a unique opportunity to experience air and air pollution. You can smell it, feel it and taste it. It's a visceral experience.
Whenever I fly at Marshall in Los Angeles I can't help but think about the legacy of pollution left to us by our parents and grandparents. I understand how it happened. They had the best of intentions. They were developing business so their children would live better lives, just as we do now. But look at how it turned out: toxic, ugly, nothing less than a disgrace.
The launch at Marshall is at least 1,000 feet below the inversion layer, where it pollution tops off and clean air begins. At first you don't think about it, and that makes sense: you're reading conditions, making sure it's safe to fly. But once you get airborne and catch the first thermal up the anticipation can be very strong. It's bumpy at the inversion layer. You definitely know when you're there.
If you're lucky enough to punch through you get another view, the alpine-sweet air over LA. At first you don't notice the smell, just the temperature. It's cold. Sooner or later your thermal tops out and you glide looking for the next ride up. Invariably the time comes when there's no more lift. You sink back into the pollution.
The smog looks like a floor - like you can stand on it. As you descend that illusion disappears. When you pass back into it you can feel it on your skin. It's sticky. You can feel the density. It's disgusting.
The first time I had that experience all I could think is, "I'm not leaving this world as polluted as I found it." Our forefathers may not have known better, but I do.
As our first production machine is assembled I take enormous pride in knowing that I'm not a shut-in, an environmentalist who's all talk. I'm doing something about this. Landfills are indefensible. The 200-ton-per-day facility in Watsonville, CA pumps out over 180,000 tons a year of toxic organic air emissions not to mention methane and the inevitable breach of the water table.
It's amazing that the people that run that city want to continue that pollution. In fact, they don't know what they're doing. They're like our forefathers: doing the best they can for their children and not realizing that they're destroying the environment their children will inherit.
Of course the burden of proof remains on us. Once this machine is validated and there is indisputable proof that dioxins are not detectible from our machine it will be a lot easier to clean up the planet. That time is only weeks away. Very exciting.
I wish I could take everyone paragliding so they might increase their appreciation of clean air. This is not a scientific argument to be made before the Board of Supervisors. This is the source of my passion: Leave the planet better than you found it.
