Adopt the Sky

Earthjustice has put up a very cool website that lets you adopt a mile of sky somewhere in the USA.

The site is fun, but the mission is deadly serious.

In June, the EPA proposed tightening the current smog standard from 84 parts per billion (ppb) to between 70 and 75 ppb. But EPA’s own scientific advisory committee said that the way to protect the nation’s health is to tighten the standard even further, to between 60 and 70 parts per billion.

“EPA has heard from, scientists, doctors, environmental and public health groups, and now it’s time they start hearing from everyone forced to breathe dirty air,” said Alexandra Allred, a Texas activist and mom whose son, Tommy, has severe asthma. “We deserve clean air. Adopting the sky is a way that we can tell EPA to clean up their act.”

People visiting www.adoptthesky.org can navigate around a big blue sky, viewing personalized messages from people all over the country who have signed the petition. The user sees floating air molecules that represent those who have already signed the clean air petition. When people roll over the molecules, a name, home state location, adopted state location, and user-generated comment or message related to preserving clean air are revealed.