I am looking at doing a PhD thesis on exactly this issue. The people of Fairbanks have good hearts. It is the main reason I moved here. If I were to pull over in cold weather on the side of the road and turn my vehicle off, someone would stop to offer help before I could get out and open the hood. Seriously. If you have a "save the whales" bumper sticker a dude with a MAGA hat will stop.
My neighbors understand the science of cold - frostbite- danger. Right now the AQ on the east side of town, and the village of NorthPole Alaska further east is unhealthy for sensitive groups. Little kids outdoors playing in this have an increased risk of asthma, the more they are exposed the higher the risk. Also basic science.
But on the west side of town, where I live, the AQ is healthy.
You can zoom in on the middle of the state at this link: (broken link removed to https://dec.alaska.gov/air/air-monitoring/alaska-air-quality-real-time-data)
I live to the left/west near the civilian airport, west of the "NCore" Sensor. The "A Street" sensor is only a couple miles east of that, but at a lower elevation. The "Hurst Road" sensor is about 13 miles further east and an even lower elevation.
Right now today I am allowed to burn with a stage I waiver, but it is self evident to a third grader looking at the years of data collected that the smoke from my stack is going to end up in North Pole, and stay there harming little kids and old ladies until the inversion reverses. Why am I allowed to burn today? Why am I burning today when I know what I just shared? Am I really willing to harm other people's lungs because my feet are cold? My wife is in long pants, fuzzy socks and a sweater today, I am not burning nearly as quickly as I would like, but I am burning.
The PhDRN program I want requires a Masters in Nursing or equivalent to apply. I am thinking about doing an MSW to strengthen my answer to both some of these questions and my eventual terminal degree application; both the social workers I inquired to about this started gushing like a well shaken cans of soda pop yesterday. They were both MSWs and went straight to autonomy, the dude in the MAGA chooses to stop to help a leftie motorist in the moment, but may not choose to stop burning in AQ alerts because he has autonomy over both choices; both MSWs pointed out the risk of frostbite, the danger is immediate and well understood, where risk factors for asthma is a more theoretical appearing item to the lay person.
I think I may be an Ahole since my stove is running, even though I do so legally today.
I got #1 boiler fuel delivered 11-19-21 for $3.3995/ gallon. I don't what they are going to buy with that new $0.0005 per gallon. Back in 2013-2014 I was paying $3.70 to $3.86 per gallon, mostly well under $3/ gallon since then.
We don't have active smoke patrols. We do have a new last year rule that anyone can file a complaint to be investigated anonymously. Then ADEC (AK Dept Enviro Conserv) will investigate and possibly be the complainant. The accused can still confront the complainant in court, but the complainant will be ADEC who will conduct their own investigation based on the anonymous complaint. I am sure it will be front page news if a suit is ever brought.