VO: “Our nation’s greatest natural treasures are suffering the consequences from our extreme use of energy. Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the most frequently visited park in America – 10 million visitors per year… and it’s the most polluted.”
JIM RENFRO (Air Quality Specialist, GSMNP): "Air pollution at great Smokies National Park is one of our-our worst problems. It's a huge issue that we're facing. It's damaging the very resources that we are mandated to protect. Visibility has declined 60% over the last 60 years. We are altering the natural process of an ecosystem. On average, 83% of that haze, on our haziest days is from sulfate particulate which come from power plants.”
VO: “This is not the only park that is affected.”
MARK WENZLER (director of Clean Air Programs for National Parks Conservation Association): “Every single national park in the United States has haze pollution. Power plants still remain the largest individual source of air pollution in all of our national parks.”
RENFRO: “There are consequences. Every time we flip that switch we’re contributing to the problem here.”
VO: “One of the byproducts of burning coal is ground level ozone pollution.”
RENFRO: “We know that ozone is a pollutant that affects breathing in people, and if you see ozone damaging living tissue here on this plant, it kind of makes you wonder what it's doing to your lungs.”
TEXT: Nashville, TN on a bad air day
VO: “The entire human life cycle is affected, beginning from the inception of life.”