I always had the question is the source of pollution at least the air quality is local or can it travel across globe ?
Most polluted cities of 2018
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Re: Most polluted cities of 2018
#52In a world where individualism and short term profit is valued above all. What do you think happens when we buy asian gadgets on amazon with same day delivery, mindless pollution, from the first step to the last. Go out, and look at the streets, hundreds of cars with (90% of the time) a single person in it. Moving 2 tons of steel for a 80 kilos meatbag, now that's efficiency. We could almost ignore that if it wasn't…
If you buy your mango frozen, it's quite likely that the majority of the transportation CO2 is the trip from the grocery store to your home. From the plantation to the grocery store it's being transported in large quantity by highly efficient trains, boats and semi-trailers.
Re: Most polluted cities of 2018
#53Why not measure surface area polluted and how much of that is in a country, rather than very long lists of individual cities? E.g., China - 100km2, India 500km2 (making up numbers), rather than list 300 cities from each country as nearly equal pollution?
It seems to be more useful in the current format if you are trying to decide where (not) to live
Re: Most polluted cities of 2018
#54I was fascinated to see how low New York was. Given the immense amount of car traffic, anyone have an idea as to why its so low?
Motor vehicle exhaust is tiny compared to the pollution from coal-burning. Eliminating coal has drastically improved the air quality in industrialised cities of Europe and North America.
Re: Most polluted cities of 2018
#55Why not measure surface area polluted and how much of that is in a country, rather than very long lists of individual cities? E.g., China - 100km2, India 500km2 (making up numbers), rather than list 300 cities from each country as nearly equal pollution?
It seems like the data is available if you want to give it a go
Re: Most polluted cities of 2018
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
And the irony is that the people who have kids tend to be the ones who care the least about these things (whether because for them it's much harder to do anything about it or because they are ignorant). Talk about loving kids.
The people who have kids are also the ones causing the most harm to the environment. The single most effective way to diminish your impact on the environment is to not reproduce.
I would say that it depends in many factors. It could be that a single wealthy person in a city in USA consumes and produces waste as a family of 10 in a rural area in Africa. Thus seems that there are plenty of other ways to diminish your impact.
Re: Most polluted cities of 2018
#57Anyone know why is pollution is worst in winter? heating? We were in India in the winter, and the smell everywhere was like smoke from burning.
Think there is a different explanation depending on the country. In China, for instance, production is usually ramped up in the months leading up to Lunar New Year which occurs in Jan/Feb.
Re: Most polluted cities of 2018
#58Why not measure surface area polluted and how much of that is in a country, rather than very long lists of individual cities? E.g., China - 100km2, India 500km2 (making up numbers), rather than list 300 cities from each country as nearly equal pollution?
It seems to be more useful in the current format if you are trying to decide where (not) to live
Why pick one city which is clean but maybe 50km from another which is heavily polluted? I'd rather know pollution like a weather radar shows clouds or cold fronts... Then I can just eliminate entire regions for where to live.
Re: Most polluted cities of 2018
#59How widely known is it that Indian cities are so polluted? I feel like I only hear about pollution in Chinese cities. I feel like the fact that this is dominated by Indian cities would come as a surprise to many.
I always heard that surprisingly they could top China on some days - apparently poor farming practices involving mass burns could make it seasonally extra bad.
Given their reputation of being farming, IT/call centers, and chemical/plastic factories as opposed to heavy industrial China - granted both are more nuanced than the stereotypes because they are nations of over a billion and a third each. If you ask about them having a non-fictional industry the answer is probably yes.
Re: Most polluted cities of 2018
#60Thanks for hijacking my back button
I found that quite irritating too. At first I thought I was doing something wrong or the browser was not behaving well. Then I realized it's the website that's hostile.