Here’s an article by Peter Lehner, Executive Director of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), who writes on the levels of air pollution in Beijing, which last week reached a level of 755–on a scale of 0 to 500 (the scale on which our Environmental Protection Agency here in the U.S. rates anything over 300 as “hazardous.”) The Internet is littered with
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air pollution
NASA’s Terra satellite acquired natural-color images of northeastern China on January 3 and January 14, highlighting a drastic shift in air quality for the region.
According to the images, the opaque, gray areas are clouds or fog, which are saturated with a gray or yellow tint as a result from the air pollution.
Putting a speed limit on cargo ships as they sail near ports and coastlines could cut their emission of air pollutants by up to 70 percent, reducing the impact of marine shipping on Earth’s climate and human health, scientists have found. Their evaluation of the impact of vessel speed reduction policies, such as those proposed by the California Air Resources Board,
There are many ways to harm your respiratory system such as smoking or breathing in asbestos. For urbanites living in cities across Europe, merely living and breathing in the city can be bad. A new study released by the European Environment Agency (EEA) found that most residents of European cities breathe toxic pollutants exceeding international health standards. The most
Last time I talked about why energy matters (obviously for the internet). Today I’ll look at one half of the energy efficiency incentive package… or why we should care about saving energy (as if preserving talking cat videos was not enough of a reason).
Electricity is the cheapest form of power in most
By declining to implement tougher regulations on smog last fall, President Obama rejected measures that could have saved several thousand lives a year and prevented millions of cases of asthma attacks and other acute respiratory problems, according to a new study.
At the Camp David meeting last week, G8 leaders agreed to act on climate change and air pollution by focusing on methane, black carbon (soot), and hydroflurocarbons (HFCs).
This is the logical follow up of a move in the same direction by the United States, China and other countries back to February. However, like the
Cities are facing many problems, including the lack of parking spaces and air pollution. Regular electric vehicles would solve the air pollution issue, but not the parking one.
This is probably why the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) worked on a folding electric car codenamed CityCar. The result is Hiriko (“urban” in Basque language), a folding electric car that will soon be built by a consortium of Spanish and Basque companies.
The vehicle was presented officially to the press and general public by the European Commission’s President, José Manuel Durao Barroso, which touted it as an answer to the crisis.
A two-seater, the car has a 120 kilometers (75 miles) autonomy and can go to up to 50 kmph (31 mph), which is the maximum speed in many, if not most European cities. The limited range, speed and space make it an urban city vehicle only.
The Hiriko is powered by four individual in-wheel electric motors that enable the car to spin in a 360 or park easily. Both driver and passenger enter and exit the vehicle by the front.
The folding capacities and the tiny size ( just 2.5 meters (8 feet) long unfolded, under 2 meters folded ) of the car enable to park three of them once they are folded in a regular parking space.
Driving might differ from your daily experience as the official website notes that:
” HIRIKO will be driven by means of a haptic steering wheel, without a steering bar, and it will be electronically managed. The joystick will be an option offered to those customers who demand it.”
Folding the car can be done by activating a command on the in-built screen of the steering wheel.
The cities of Berlin, Madrid, Malmö, Hong Kong, Quito and San Francisco will soon test these vehicles. The Huffington Post reports that talks are under way with Paris, London, Boston, Dubai and Brussels.
If all these tests are positive, you may see these cars in your city sometime in the not too distant future.
EPA is proposing to take common-sense steps under the Clean Air Act to limit carbon dioxide pollution from new power plants. EPA’s proposed standard reflects the ongoing trend in the power sector to build cleaner plants that take advantage of American-made technologies. The agency’s proposal, which does not apply to plants currently
The exhaust fumes from gasoline vehicles contribute more to the production of a specific type of air pollution-secondary organic aerosols (SOA)-than those from diesel vehicles, according to a new study by scientists from the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES). Secondary organic aerosols, tiny “tar balls” resulting from combustion
Bowing to increasing public concern about poor air quality, the Chinese government has approved strict new air pollution standards, including tougher rules for ozone and for particulate matter smaller than 2.5 micrometers in diameter.
The new rules, approved during an executive meeting
With the passage of strict new auto emission and air pollution standards, California has again demonstrated its role as the U.S.’s environmental pacesetter. In an interview with Yale Environment 360, Mary Nichols, chairwoman of the California Air Resources Board, explains how her state is helping drive a clean-car revolution.
Trucking has become the most common mode for transporting goods across the land. However, all those trucks on the road burning diesel fuel can create a great deal of air pollution. Plus, higher gas prices cause increases in the prices of goods. Now is the time to consider the next era of trucking, the electric truck. At the moment, they cost about three times
The European Environment Agency published a report on the cost and toll of air pollution due to industrial facilities to the European Union last November.
The costs are staggering as the 10,000 facilities induced up to 102 and 169 billion euros in 2009 alone.
However, only a small number of these plants are responsible for the vast majority of this pollution. The EEA notes:
Fifty per cent of the total damage cost occurs as a result of emissions from just 191 or 2 % of the approximately 10 000 facilities that reported data for releases to air.
Three quarters of the total damage costs are caused by the emissions of 622 facilities — 6 % of the total number.
This proves that solving the problem of industrial air pollution could be relatively easy.
The energy sector is the most polluting one as it is responsible for 66 to 112 billion euros of damages. Excluding carbon dioxide, the pollution still costs the 27 country members up to 26 to 71 billion euros.
Other sectors like production processes and manufacturing combustion are responsible for much less pollution, and thus much less induced: 23 to 28 billion euros and 8 to 21 billion euros respectively.
Meanwhile, the report notes that carbon dioxide contributes the most to the overall damage costs with approximately 63 billion euros in 2009. But this is not enough:
Air pollutants, which contribute to acid rain and can cause respiratory problems – sulphur dioxide (SO2), ammonia (NH3), particulate matter (PM10) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) – were found to cause €38-105 billion of damage a year.
The bottom line: the European Union needs to change the way it is producing electricity and to improve its few remaining plants to get much cleaner air.