Kinda childish, but I agree with most of that. Looking at the larger picture, there have got to be lots of ways to lower pollution. The technology that got adopted isn't the one I would have chosen. It's too short sighted, too simplistic, poorly designed & poorly implemented. Crappy technology and crappy politics too. I wish someone would stand up and get it right.
There has just got to be a simple way to add on some device to enable older machinery to be productive longer. If there was, I imagine most people would do that. Regardless of cost it would be cheaper than replacing everything like we are doing now.
But whether they got it right or wrong, I am still glad there are people out there making an effort to work on the problem. Just because I think they got the solutions wrong doesn't mean I'm not glad that they are at least trying to clean up the air, water, and ground. Anyone living in a town can see it in the air. Also being near any body of water - ranging from little steams, lakes, or the seashore - you don't need to look very hard to see problems that need to be fixed.
Sometimes I just take a trip and look around. Basically a lot of too much trash in the ground and pollution in ground and air - and most of it caused by pure old "me and mine" selfishness. Remember the old days when peope threw trash out the car window? I'm half ashamed to say that where I grew up the ignorant ones still do.
As for California, not sure I'd agree there, though because I got to see it first hand. For several generations my family spent half the year up and down the west coast doing farm work there. Great memories right after WWII and through the 50s & 60s of families working out there doing field and harvest work. After which we would go home to fish and run hounds until Fall came around again. An ideal life it seemed, at least until this new wave of Spanish-speaking immigrants working for less $$ took all our jobs away. Still, from what I remember the farmers out there from Washington state down to middle of California seemed pretty much like farmers anywhere else. They had the same concerns but were lots richer, of course. And with better climate and land. Maybe having generally good crops was why they were able to see the pollution problems early on. Where crops are more marginal, there are people who still don't see the problems. Even worse, a few are too self-centered to care.
But that's changing. We will probably get it right eventually.
rScotty