Earth Day Equity: Air Quality in Beloit

Beloit, WI, Tuesday, April 22nd – A 2024 international report identified Beloit, WI as having the worst air quality in the US for a city of its size. Census data shows that a third of Beloit’s roughly 36,500 residents are people of color while nearly one-fifth of the city’s population falls below the poverty line. We will discuss the factors contributing to the city’s air pollution, a citizen science initiative aimed at monitoring it, how solar power could help alleviate this and the city’s plans to address the problem.

The event will feature a panel discussion co-sponsored by the Couillard Solar Foundation, the Beloit chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and Healthy Climate Wisconsin. The event will be held at the Beloit Public Library, and all are welcome.

The speakers will be Brittany Keyes of Healthy Climate Wisconsin, Beloit Alder Yusuf Adama, and Montre Moore of the Midwest Building Decarbonization Coalition.

The data for that report came from a citizen science project. One of the organizers of that effort, Pablo Toral, a professor of environmental studies at Beloit College, told The Wisconsin Examiner: “There are many communities in Wisconsin where I would hypothesize that the air pollution is much worse than Beloit — but they don’t have any sensors.”

The World Health organization in 2021 called for reducing Particulate Matter levels of 2.5 microns (about 1/20th the width of a human hair) to 5 micrograms per cubic meter. In 2023, Beloit’s average PM 2.5 levels registered at almost three times that standard, 14.8 micrograms per cubic meter. By comparison, San Francisco’s levels were 5.8 micrograms per cubic meter while Chicago’s were 13.
The report noted that climate change is exacerbating these conditions.
“In many regions, intense pollution events coincide with extreme heat, exacerbated by air stagnation events where weak winds hinder ground-level ventilation, allowing pollutants to accumulate…As climate change progresses, the frequency of such events is anticipated to increase.”

Details:
Light refreshments will be available, but we ask that attendees pre-register.

This is the registration link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf1pxj5Gr14tiyHe44C7ksn_6fy5HPJ5bY4N8HNQ4EcS-yzxg/viewform?usp=sharing