industrial places have less of a demand on higher education
Air pollution linked to “huge” reduction in intelligence
51–60 of 188 posts
Re: Air pollution linked to “huge” reduction in intelligence
#52industrial places have less of a demand for education
Re: Air pollution linked to “huge” reduction in intelligence
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
If by "electrification" you mean "switch to public transportation," I agree with you. If by electrification you mean "burn dinosaurs four miles away," then I don't agree with you.
Burning dinosaurs 40 miles away will improve air quality in cities, even if it's the same amount of pollution, the bulk is away from dense population
It's also much, much easier to filter the output from one plant instead of 40,000 cars. Even if the same amount of pollution were produced (it wouldn't be), nowhere near the same amount would be released into the air.
But we definitely need to improve power plant emission standards as we move to electric.
Re: Air pollution linked to “huge” reduction in intelligence
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do you know for sure that it's a nuclear plant in the picture? I'm asking because those iconic cooling towers are also used for coal plants. > The hyperboloid cooling towers are often associated with nuclear power plants,[1] although they are also used in some coal-fired plants and to some extent in some large chemical and other industrial plants. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooling_tower Direct link to the pictu…
Even if it's not a nuclear power plant it's still a cooling tower releasing only water vapor.
Some new designs release both water vapor and other gases in the same tower, but yeah, those look like cooling towers releasing just vapor.
Re: Air pollution linked to “huge” reduction in intelligence
#55Electrification of surface transport is the most obvious way to improve air quality in dense cities. This needs to be a priority.
If by "electrification" you mean "switch to public transportation," I agree with you. If by electrification you mean "burn dinosaurs four miles away," then I don't agree with you.
On top of the excellent comments made by rayiner, tfha, and jwr, we wouldn't even be burning dinosaurs miles away if we switched entirely to nuclear power.
Re: Air pollution linked to “huge” reduction in intelligence
#56Electrification of surface transport is the most obvious way to improve air quality in dense cities. This needs to be a priority.
human powered transport like walking or cycling works great in dense cities, it's more space efficient so it scales better too.
cycling isn't space efficient and doesn't really scales that good. It is a luxury ttransportation mode for low/mid density US cities not capable/not willing to build true mass transit modes. Look at the packed subway in say Moscow (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCZKXHsZo68) and compare to the best possible bicycle situation - mid-80s China http://www.theurbancountry.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/83... - around 10 times density difference :) Take that photo, cut 1/5th in height (2-3 abreast) and put large distance between very enthusiastic riders (incl. speeding electrics) - such modern bike lane shows very low efficiency of space utilization/bandwidth and very insufficient capacity to move any significant number of commuting bodies.
Re: Air pollution linked to “huge” reduction in intelligence
#57I think it is misleading to display a picture of chimneys of nuclear power plants, when the only thing they release is clean water droplets: no SO2, NO2 or PM10. edit: Actually, not 100% sure it's a nuclear power plant. Thanks for your comments
I agree there are worse types of power plants than nuclear: no SO2, NO2 or PM10, but at the risk of the release of Cesium-134, Cesium-137, Iodine-131, Xenon-133, strontium-90, plutonium-239. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/radioactive-isotopes-from-fukushima-meltdown-detected-near-vancouver/ https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/radiation/nuclear-accidents-fact-sheet
Depending on the rates, I'd take a risk of Cesium than the certainty of SO2, CO2, NO2, etc.
Re: Air pollution linked to “huge” reduction in intelligence
#58Having a hard time with this one--so many variables in play. I mean, maybe overpopulation causes a drop in overall intelligence and air pollution is just a symptom of overpopulation?
Re: Air pollution linked to “huge” reduction in intelligence
#59Beijing central district anybody?
Re: Air pollution linked to “huge” reduction in intelligence
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
China is putting ~10k electric buses a month on the road: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/04/china-is-adding-a-lon...
And they are still using coal to produce electricity.
This World Resources Institute graph^1 shows intense growth in solar electricity generation in China so they are at least moving away from fossil fuel electricity generation at a rapid pace and fossil fuel electricity generation is plateauing^0
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity_sector_in_China#/m...
[1] https://www.wri.org/blog/2018/08/distributed-solar-pv-china-...
