But... how?
It's almost as if slowing down the transition away from coal for political and social reasons is not such a great idea.
Kraków, Poland in top 5 worst air quality worldwide
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Re: Kraków, Poland in top 5 worst air quality worldwide
#22I've been living there for 15years and it's the reason I've moved away. Frankly I love the city enough that I would sabotage my health for it. Not my kids health though. Asthma related problems in kids are widespreada and of course bad air quality is related to tons of other negative consequences.
I wonder though how do they compute the number (is it average across points measured in the city?). Because within city borders air quality varies wildly. There are some regions where it is actually pretty good.
Re: Kraków, Poland in top 5 worst air quality worldwide
#23Warsaw is top 15, Krakow and Warsaw are the only European cities in the top 15. For some added context, it's around -10 degrees celcius there right now. I don't know why Poland stands out here, but I know that older residential areas burn wood (in other Eastern European countries as well), because that's just how you heat an old house: these neigbourhoods are horrible to walk through in winter, because the air just s…
Burning coal and wood wouldn't be that bad. Unfortunately its quite common that people burn their trash
They burn all kind of shit in very inefficient stoves, modern wood burning stoves are pretty clean
Re: Kraków, Poland in top 5 worst air quality worldwide
#24But... how?
Assuming a large contributing factor is all the coal plants now running to sustain Germany's independence from nuclear? Berlin's air quality has also tanked a lot since the energy crisis started.
In January Germany exported more than 900GWh, in December Germany imported about 1400, but Poland also imported 290.
Re: Kraków, Poland in top 5 worst air quality worldwide
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
It’s in the valley and because Polish state is kinda weak they cannot enforce nearby villages to stop burning garbage to heat their homes.
at least try to hide your racism
I am Polish and I don't see any racism in the previous comment because it was just a statement of the fact (disputable at best). I see some in yours, because you seem to suggest that race is somehow involved in what we are talking about.
Re: Kraków, Poland in top 5 worst air quality worldwide
#26Few years ago Kraków has forbidden the use of solid fuels which improved the situation significantly. Days like today are happening much less often since then. Moreover, Kraków has probably one of the densest network of pollution sensors in the world, which is why we talk about it at all. There are places in Poland that are much worse off, but there's not that much data to back it up.
Re: Kraków, Poland in top 5 worst air quality worldwide
#27The air in Kraków is fine once you give it a good chew. I don't know why people are complaining.
LOL, Slavic humor at its best :) I live in Ostrava, some 160 km away. Entire Upper Silesia is a bad place for air quality in winter, it can often be seen on continental maps as a sore red spot. Fortunately most of the coal burning is gone, but individual people still burn all sorts of shit in their homes. PET bottles etc.
Is it in a valley?
Re: Kraków, Poland in top 5 worst air quality worldwide
#28Warsaw is top 15, Krakow and Warsaw are the only European cities in the top 15. For some added context, it's around -10 degrees celcius there right now. I don't know why Poland stands out here, but I know that older residential areas burn wood (in other Eastern European countries as well), because that's just how you heat an old house: these neigbourhoods are horrible to walk through in winter, because the air just s…
On top of that Krakow is in a valley, so the air just hangs around.
Re: Kraków, Poland in top 5 worst air quality worldwide
#29But... how?
I think it’s topology (concave) + widespread poor heating methods in the agglomeration + a very bad day + inefficient combustion engines. I’d maybe include accurate measurements. The government isn’t trying to hide that and doesn’t have the means to, and highly quality sensors are widespread.
Plus continental, so it picks up dirty air from around.
Re: Kraków, Poland in top 5 worst air quality worldwide
#30Warsaw is top 15, Krakow and Warsaw are the only European cities in the top 15. For some added context, it's around -10 degrees celcius there right now. I don't know why Poland stands out here, but I know that older residential areas burn wood (in other Eastern European countries as well), because that's just how you heat an old house: these neigbourhoods are horrible to walk through in winter, because the air just s…
Burning coal and wood wouldn't be that bad. Unfortunately its quite common that people burn their trash
Not sure what your gauge for bad is, but low-temperature burning of coal and wood, which is what you get with cheap wood heaters, produces smoke that is definitely polluting and unhealthy. You can get a wood burner that re-burns well and is very efficient and burns the smoke so completely that you mostly get CO2 and water vapor coming out of the chimney, but they're expensive.
Care to share more about trash burning? I'd be surprised if people living in Krakow or Warsaw commonly burn trash.