Living green

For most north Orange County residents, particularly the baby boomers who head today's households, a deteriorating environment used to seem as far away as the gang problem in Los Angeles. That was about 10 years ago. When heads were turned, things had a way of catching up. These days, nobody would argue that north Orange County is sequestered from gangs. There are, however, those who still believe that people who say the earth's natural resources are endangered are just blowing smoke. Meanwhile, metropolitan areas nationwide are running out of places to bury their garbage, and the air in Mexico City and other places is becoming increasingly unbreathable. As our freeways filled with gas-guzzling cars, the sky turned from blue to brown. While the air in the Los Angeles basin is markedly better than it was in the 1960s, it still is the most unhealthful in the United States.