To celebrate the occasion of a gang of toothless millionaires pushing a disc around for glory (and money), the New York Rangers sponsored a flight from La Guardia to Newark yesterday, and the Times (with a photographer!) was on hand to witness the five minute flight. Reporter and Rangers fan Tony Gervino writes that the whole trip, "door to door," took five hours, "almost twice as long as the game itself." And what about the fact that Delta and the Rangers just spewed a ton of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, not to mention all the people who had to drive to the airport because they—WOOOOO GO RANGERS! more ›

A new DOH study [PDF] tracked levels of fine particles like elemental carbon, nitric oxide, nitrogen dioxide throughout the city's summer air. And though all the maps are different, they paint the same picture: New York is really soiled. more ›

One of the city's wealthiest neighborhood is also among its most polluted, according to a new air quality study. Researchers examined data from 150 sensors mounted atop light poles to figure out which communities had the highest levels of air pollution from contaminants like elemental carbon, nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide, which "can irritate lungs, worsen asthma and boost the risk of heart attacks" — and the Upper East Side turned out to be one of the worst, according to the Daily News. more ›

As you may have read in our newsletter, on this day in 1966 New York City experienced the smoggiest day in the city's history... and the details read like a horror movie. After 9/11, the NY Times touched upon three particularly smoggy years in the city, saying "Most of the horrors of New York's environmental past, like the grim air episodes in 1953, 1962 and 1966, were chronic and cumulative. Most past events had a thousand sources and causes — a vague diffusion of responsibility that made no one responsible." more ›