How Pollution Moves Through the Earth
A company may only pay taxes in the country in which it is established, but in reality, the pollution that it can produce, does not care the least about the borders.
When we see those images of large landfills burning in some part of Africa or the dark cities of China - to give a few examples - where levels of external pollution are registered that occupy the first positions in the world. One of many thoughts … That's a long way off. They will manage! »
Well, actually, we should start to consider, not only practicing recycling in containers - which is already a moral obligation - but also that we live under the same roof and sky, and that, sooner or later, it will affect us! And if you don't believe it, then I leave you an animation produced by NASA.
This NASA video shows how the wind moves pollution particles around the world without knowing borders. (Also from the maps article to understand cities is the tool in the same vein as AirVisual Earth)
The white tufts represent smaller particles that generally come from industry and the burning of crops. These particles get into people's lungs, causing heart attacks, cancer, respiratory illnesses, and other problems (Red tufts represent large particles, like sand, that are not as worrisome).
we cannot pretend that pollution from afar does not harm us, and we cannot pretend that our pollution does not harm others
Three months ago, NASA published an interesting article on the human impact on clean air policies. It attempts to answer questions about the effectiveness of existing policies to improve human health. For example, how many lives have been saved thanks to strict air pollution policies? How many illnesses have been caused by lax policies?
At this point, NASA spawned two projects. In the first, improvements in air quality in the United States between 1990 and 2010 were shown to cut deaths from air pollution by nearly half.
Deaths from air pollution during that period decreased by 47%, from 135,000 to 71,000 people (Between the years 1990 - 2010).
The second project focused on a global vision of asthma (Study called Environmental Health Perspectives and can be read from HERE). High levels of air pollution were found to cause millions of visits to hospitals annually.
The aforementioned study found that; between 5 and 10 million annual visits to hospitals are for asthma. They could have been the result of inhaling air polluted by ozone and fine particles respectively.
Policies to clean the air can reduce the global burden of asthma and improve respiratory health around the world
"Our findings suggest that policies aimed at cleaning the air can reduce the global burden of asthma and improve respiratory health around the world."said project director Anenberg (George Washington University).
But… Who pollutes the air the most? Although the following graph, we have already published it a few times on our blog. Remembering it doesn't hurt!
Original Statista infographic. In most countries we breathe increasingly toxic and polluted air. Many cities; from Madrid, Paris, Rome or Berlin they have had to declare the environmental red alert many times.
The search for new solutions is urgent! Airborne particulate pollution is a really serious concern, which knows no limits.
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