2012: The Year in Graphics - Graphic.
Infographic. Animated. Interactive. Links. Soundscapes of Smog. *Listen* to some of America's most pristine and polluted airways.
Oakland's Caldecott Tunnel (allaboutgeorge/Flickr) In the flat lands of California's Central Valley, oil pumps obscured by waving lines of fuel-richened air dip and rise on the horizon. Two hundred miles to the north and west, aging eighteen-wheelers pound through an urban bypass tunnel, staining the walls black with diesel fumes. Farther to the north, High Sierra pines scent the mountain air with notes of cinnamon and nutmeg, sending blue wisps of haze trailing gently upward.