Note: the Koffler building is next to the GSU Pub. Discussion will continue after the formal presentation at the GSU Pub.
This talk is co-sponsored by the University of Toronto Division of The Environment and The Toronto APL SIG.
Ground-level ozone is the most damaging component of smog, both to human health and to ecosystems and agriculture. Episodes of ozone levels high enough to measurably increase hospital admissions were common in spring-fall 2000 in Ontario. Few Ontarians are aware that the problem is more severe in rural areas than in cities.
A great deal of research has been done on smog and ozone and a great deal of data is collected by governments, some of which is available on the Web. The solutions to decreasing smog are well known: what is missing is political will. This makes it more important for activists to clearly and compellingly present the problem in ways that are accurate, but which non-technical citizens will easily understand.
This talk presents the results of efforts to build zero-cost freeware tools for mapping ozone concentrations in Ontario, along with some of the problems in interpretation (differing standards and estimates of risk) and presentation (how can you boil the whole problem down into a few pictures).
If you can't make the talk, some of the results and technical discussion are on the Web at http://www.godel.net/environment/smog/Jsmog.htm