Is Air Pollution Forcing us to Change the Way We Live?

The world’s problems with air pollution are well-documented; indeed, it was recently found by the World Health Organisation (WHO) that bad air quality accounts for as many as seven million deaths worldwide on an annual basis! In addition to these grave consequences, air pollution also has smaller, more noticeable effects on our daily behaviour.

Whether it’s increasing our reliance on technology, altering our commuting routes and methods or preventing our children from attending school and day-care, there are a number of ways in which pollution has disrupted our lives. Here a handful of the more prominent ones from across the globe, laid out below.

There’s an App for that

It seems technology has infiltrated almost every aspect of our lives (as has pollution, in some respects), and predicting and accommodating poor air quality is no different. There are a number of apps out there which can quantify levels of pollution in your local area and make recommendations on whether to reroute so as to avoid pollution hotspots and if exercise is a good idea. The Worldwide Air Map, launched by Plume Labs in the wake of the COP21 talks, even allows you to view air quality data on a global scale.

Transportation Tweaks

First, it was assumed that diesel engines were much better for the environment than petrol ones, leading to huge government subsidies and cuts and programmes encouraging consumers to buy diesel cars. However, the VW scandal has accompanied something of a U-turn in how we view diesel engines, meaning that now they come with a stigma and in certain areas of London, a charge. Emissions caused by diesel engines vastly affect how we buy, how we think and how we commute.

Going Green

The sanctions imposed upon the UK in general and London in particular for failing to comply with EU air quality standards has prompted mayor Boris Johnson to implement a number of schemes, one of which is his ‘Boris Bikes’. Encouraging the use of bicycles as an alternative form of transport to and from work in the capital seems like a great idea, especially when you factor in that more than 50% of all commutes in London are less than 5km in distance.

Meanwhile, certain districts in the German city of Freiburg are completely free of cars altogether in a successful bid to alleviate pollution. The French capital of Paris even held its own car-free day on the 27^th of September last year in a bid to raise awareness about the importance of improving air quality and reducing transport-related pollution.

School’s Out

While we may think we have it bad in London, air quality in China has been far worse for many, many years – there’s a reason why face masks are a common sight in many Chinese cities. Indeed, in 2011 it was found that Chinese power plants emit as much NOx as all of the passenger cars in the world combined. Since NOx accounts for as many as 9,500 deaths annually in London (where air quality is bad but still much, much better than Beijing), one can only imagine the drastic impact of such pollution in the Chinese capital.

As a result, the Chinese government last month announced the first ever ‘red alert’ for smog levels in the city. This resulted in children not being able to attend school, many businesses being shut down and half of the city’s passenger cars being forced off the road. Indeed, a similar measure was implemented in New Delhi for the first two weeks of 2016 in a bid to curb their spiralling emissions, which have led to the city being named as the most polluted in the world by the WHO.