Air Pollution How to solve it

[gaz]

Gunnislake Festival

The prize for most amusing scarecrow title went to Caroline Lake for ‘Little Red Climbing Hood’

[horizon]

By the way, for those interested in joined up government, Chris Grayling has announced the building of the Stonehenge tunnel. This will speed up all those cars heading for Cornwall. GWR has announced that the new trains running to and through Cornwall will have only a third of the bike spaces (two I am told). The local harbour master was heard suggesting (on the radio) that cyclists shouldn't be on the local roads. Hey ho.

[Cyril Haearn]

Then one could save precious minutes and drive to the deep-green eden project for the day

More and more often when I read the news I ask myself, is it the first of April?

In January 2017 the local paper reported plans to install overhead wires along the Autobahn to power trucks (for environmental reasons). We have a perfectly good railway parallel where plenty of goods are carried.

After the two election surprises last year I would love to take a time machine a few decades into the future and see what happens..

[Mick F]

Alma Terrace has cars parked outside, and the traffic coming up the hill has to give way to traffic coming down because the parked cars are on the left going up.
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@50.52245 ... 312!8i6656

Off-topic :
Swing round to the left . . . It looks like one of the residents has has enough and is about to jump !
What's all that about ?

Scarecrow competition.

Last summer, it was nursery rhyme characters.
Any guesses?
Maybe a suicidal Red Riding Hood?
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@50.52245 ... 312!8i6656

[Boyd]

Well, if hou moved them to where they worked and shopped it'd help reduce pollution somewhat.

Nice one. They should also consider all the second homes in said locations resulting in people working locally having to travel huge distances because they can't afford to buy a house where they work.

[Mick F]

Gunnislake Festival

The prize for most amusing scarecrow title went to Caroline Lake for ‘Little Red Climbing Hood’

Sorry Gaz.
I missed this.
I replied to a post on page one, but didn't look at page two first.

We know Caroline quite well BTW.

[mercalia]

one solution gas masks? I think better idea a small oxygen tank?

air quality or lack of

[661-Pete]

one solution gas masks? I think better idea a small oxygen tank?

air quality.jpg

Nice idea, but what that chap's wearing looks like a dust filter (I have a similar one, worn when I'm using an angle grinder or similar). Will keep out dust and grit, and some protection against asbestos (but don't rely on that!) - but useless against the really nasty stuff like NOx, CO and part-burnt hydrocarbons.

[ed_phelan]

I see that the European Commission has given the UK a final warning with regards to its air quality - http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style ... 81191.html

I wonder who will pay for this? Oh well, once we are out of the EU we can take back control of our air and live in even more pollution.

[Mick F]

They were talking about this on R4 this morning and it was discussed (briefly) of getting rid of diesel cars and vans or at least charging them to enter town and cities.

I'd go one further.
Issue permits to enter towns and cities. Sort of data tag system you have on toll bridges.
If all cars and vans had them, the charge could be varied according to the pollution level at the time and how polluting the vehicle is.

[al_yrpal]

I see that the European Commission has given the UK a final warning with regards to its air quality - http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style ... 81191.html

I wonder who will pay for this? Oh well, once we are out of the EU we can take back control of our air and live in even more pollution.

"Germany, France, Italy and Spain also received the warning, with cities including Berlin, Lyon and Barcelona singled out for their unacceptably high pollution levels."

So, its not just in the UK that this problem exists. Best to keep things in perspective.

Although I agree that something must happen, the threatened action is the result of a European Directive issued by the non 'people' elected Commission headed by the mighty figure of Junker, Mayor of Luxembourg City. We should quake in our boots!

Al

[mercalia]

The BBC speaks

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-39170488

[Stevek76]

Given most of the traffic (typically 70-80%) causing the air pollution in most of the towns is generated by residents of it or people going there to work in it I'm not convinced moving people to clean air zones is going to do much more than move the pollution.

Although I agree that something must happen, the threatened action is the result of a European Directive issued by the non 'people' elected Commission headed by the mighty figure of Junker, Mayor of Luxembourg City. We should quake in our boots!

But passed by a majority of the, far more democratically elected than Westminster, European Parliament.

[mjr]

Although I agree that something must happen, the threatened action is the result of a European Directive issued by the non 'people' elected Commission headed by the mighty figure of Junker, Mayor of Luxembourg City. We should quake in our boots!

Jean-Claude Juncker was elected EU Commission President because he's the nominee of the largest party in parliament, the EPP, who took 30% of the popular vote (despite standing no candidates in the UK). I can think of another country where the nominee of the largest party in parliament becomes leader of the cabinet too...

Back to air pollution of a more literal kind: has anyone looked at the other five options for Cornwall linked by the BBC?
1. Taxi Licensing Review
2. Anti-Idling Enforcement
3. Cornwall Council Air Quality Programme (including Electric Vehicle (EV) Staff Salary Sacrifice Scheme, Council Pool and Fleet Vehicle Policy, Council Fleet Vehicle Emission Reduction, Cornwall Council Travel Planning, Council Procurement Policy)
4. Planning Air Quality Priority Areas
5. Compulsory Purchase/Relocation
6. Clay Area Dust Review

I doubt it's really taxis, people leaving vehicles idling or council vehicles that's fouling up Gunnislake. The planning policy areas may help stop future problems but seems unlikely to solve the current ones, so unless there's china clay dust there, it does look scarily like they're heading towards buying part of Gunnislake and flattening it - anything to avoid the obvious option of congestion charging, eh?

[pwa]

One thing that came out of the BBC's coverage of the issue this morning was the inevitable difficulty if trying to link pollution to deaths. Of the much talked about 40,000 figure about 10,000 can be attributed to nitrogen dioxide and therefore diesel emissions. If you accept the methodology. But it is really not much more than a "best guess", and the real figure, which we will never know, could be much lower or much higher. I'm not sure this makes much difference in practice, because we must work with a precautionary principle and act on things that look like they may well be a serious problem.