It’s true: there’s an EPA standard as to how much pollution can be in the air as measured over any one-hour period, and Atlanta has met, rather than exceeded, that standard. For the first time since 1978. 27 years: imagine how much time we would have needed with no MARTA at all.

We don’t meet the stricter eight-hour standard yet. Still, enjoy it now before the IKEA opens up and everyone’s burning up all sorts of fuel to haul their do-it-yourself dining-room tables home.

The Southern Environmental Law Center has more info, I say not entirely disinterestedly, as I went to middle school with one of the attorneys working on their Atlanta Clean Air program.