Western Wind, When Wilt Thou Blow?

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Revenge. The scare, in its way, was nature's revenge for man's abuse of his environment. Few areas of the U.S. are free from air pollution. Damage to American property is estimated at $11 billion in the 7,300 American communities plagued by smog. Though New York and a handful of other communities have started anti-pollution programs in recent years, few begin to compare with the tough program of Los Angeles, which—despite its reputation as smog capital of the U.S.—has kept its air breathable by prohibiting all coal fires, allowing oil burning only five months of the year and early recognition of the need for auto exhaust control devices (which, under federal law, will be mandatory for all '68 models).

More stringent precautions may be needed nationwide. By 1980, says Frank M. Stead, chief of California's Environmental Sanitation Division, air pollution will be so heavy that no amount of existing controls will suffice to regulate it. The only solution, wrote Stead in a paper released last week, is the elimination of all gasoline-burning cars and trucks in California within the next 14 years. As a possible replacement, Stead proposed electric vehicles.

* In which large fuel consumers, incinerator operators, vehicle drivers, and home and apartment-house owners are asked voluntarily to reduce or stop burning fuels and wastes. In Stage 2, reduction becomes mandatory; in 3, ''a serious danger to public health" is declared and stringent limitation placed on all traffic and commercial activity.

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