Chad dw links the studies it mentions
“2x above WHO limits” means “within EU limits”. WHO recommends 5 micrograms, which is pretty unrealistic considering the population density of urban areas today. Unless we fully move off CO2 based transportation
Unless we fully move off CO2 based transportation
Which is no problem at all in urban areas.
It’s not achievable yet. Trucks are, at minimum, the last mile for transport of everything from building materials to equipment to food to medicine. EV trucks and vans are in development but battery technology isn’t quite there yet.
It would also require banning large container and cruise ships from most major ports. The former world obliterate economies. The latter would obliterate tourism industries for many major cities around the world. We’re decades away from large ships being low emission. Maersk is trialing hydrogen vessels right now to poor results.
Spoiler: Most Europeans don’t live near major ports. You can discuss a lot about cargo ships, but the cruise industry shouldn’t be at all allowed to cruise into major ports and poison the population. It’s totally possible to build clean ships. We don’t have to accept this!
I suppose it depends what you mean by “near.” Around 41% of Europeans live in coastal regions. Most of them live in larger urban areas near ports. That’s hundreds of millions of people.
I’m also opposed to cruise ships, but entire cities rely on tourism for survival. The sheer human suffering which would result from a ban is incalculable.
cruise ships do little for local tourism. The people only spend a short time, maybe buy some souvenirs and have a meal. Meanwhile the pollution drives away land based tourists, that would actually spend time and money in the local economy.
EV trucks are perfectly doable for the last mile with current battery tech. You dont need a big battery for that. Also it would be relatively cheap to build trucks using a tramlike wiring and a small battery. You could even piggyback on existing tram and bus infrastructure in many cities.
obliterate tourism industries for many major cities around the world
Not really. Banning cruise ships would be bad for cruise ship companies. But for the port cities cruise ship tourists don’t do much. They may actually cost more than they bring in. The problem is that the tourists from cruise ships have food and shelter onboard for free. So local businesses don’t get much.
Also: You can simply ban the cruise ships from running their engines in the harbor. Many are capable of getting their electricity via cables from shore. They just opt to not do that because it’s cheaper to use bunker oil. That doesn’t solve all the issues, but a lot.
The article paints a grim picture of the loss of cruise tourism.
The International Monetary Fund predicts a 6.2% drop in GDP in the Caribbean region this year due to the tourism collapse
This is catastrophic.
That was due to tourism collapsing because of Covid. It wasn’t about the cruise ships.
The reason that getting rid of cruise ships tends to be good for the economy of places on land is that tourists can arrive by other means as well. It economics you’d say that cruise ships and all inclusive hotels are substitutes. You can pretty much replace one with the other and for the economy on land hotels are better.
Unless we fully move off CO2 based transportation
My understanding is that electric cars produce similar amounts of particulate pollution compared to other cars, because while they lack an internal combustion engine, they are also heavier and that increased the amount of particulates produced through tire wear and braking.
In other words, cars as a whole are the problem. Walking, cycling, streetcars and subways are the solution.
While it is true that all cars hurt the environment (Creating a 1t box out of rare and complex materials and moving it along with the person to every place simply does) the thing with particle pollution is a myth by the anti-climate-change-mitigation movement.
Just think of the fact that they use regenerative breaking most of the time. Almost no wear on the breaks. And the battery weight is largely offset by drive train and engine.
Right but you can drag the pollution outside the environment
That would be even better. But knowing how lazy/convenient people are, it will never happen
(I don’t own a car myself and am doing just fine)
I think a lot of the convenience just has to do with what’s availible and what’s commonly done. There are cities where public transport is completely the norm (or cycling etc. are extremely common) but it has to be convenient, cheap, and availible.
In other words, the gov’t has to invest first.
Guess what, WHO is way more abouth health
So I would rather go in that direction
I agree, as I said I would love to move off carbon based transport. But the 5 microgram goal is realistically not achievable with the current state of transportation and the current political goalposts of electrification
So we should change our current technological and political ways.
WHO is ineffective and useless as we have seen during pandemics.
Ofc, nearly everything is corrupt as well
In this scenario though I would just much rather have cleaner air than have the EU and the rest of the world moving the goalposts
With the EU voting on new air quality rules, satellite data shows that 98% of people face pollution above limits recommended by the World Health Organization.
It’s wild to me, old enough to remember the thick clouds of yellow smog that used to blanket Los Angeles and acid rain dissolving historical buildings and statues, to see how far we’ve advanced in reigning in air pollution. I can kind of understand the struggle that older generations have in updating their ideas about what is and is not acceptable. All the more reason to have age restrictions on politicians to try to make advancement possible at the speeds required to save the species from climate change.
