7 September 2020 — Good Law Project
Air pollution means that not only are you more likely to contract coronavirus, but you are also more likely to die if you do. That is what multiple scientific studies from around the world say. Yet so far, the Government has refused to clean up our air.
22 April 2020 — Political Concern
A Moseley resident drew attention to yesterday’s Guardian article which reported that high levels of air pollution may be “one of the most important contributors” to deaths from Covid-19, according to research conducted by a geoscientist Dr Yaron Ogen, at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg in Germany (Abstract and access to full text here).
(Ed): There are more cases of COVID-19 in London and Birmingham (pictured above), where high levels of air pollution have been recorded for many years.
2 April 2020 — True Publica
By Manuel João Ramos, Centre of International Studies, ISCTE University Institute of Lisbon: The Big Smoke: that was the name given (another was the ‘great smog’) to the episode of atmospheric temperature inversion (ATI) in London in the winter of 1952-53, which, associated with a viral outbreak, caused the death of 6,000 people and acute respiratory disease in another 100,000. (1)
30 October 2018 — Climate & Capitalism
World Health Organization
UN report says polluted air is poisoning millions of children. In 2016 alone, 600,000 children under 15 died from infections caused by polluted air.
Every day around 93% of the world’s children under the age of 15 years (1.8 billion children) breathe air that is so polluted it puts their health and development at serious risk. Tragically, many of them die: the World Health Organization estimates that in 2016, 600,000 children died from acute lower respiratory infections caused by polluted air.
26 October 2017 – TRNN
Pollution causes far more deaths than tobacco, infectious disease or war, and causes 4.6 trillion dollars of economic damage per year, according to a major new study published in the British medical journal The Lancet (inc. transcript)
7 March 2017 — Friends of the Earth
[Now here’s a good idea, I might even get one myself. WB]
I’m excited to announce that we’ve now launched what we hope will be the biggest ever citizen science air pollution experiment. And we’d love you to take part.
For a minimum donation of £15 your Clean Air Kit will let you test the air quality where you live – or in the places that matter most to you.
10 June 2016 — 38 Degrees
A public health emergency: that’s what MPs are calling Britain’s air pollution crisis. [1] Thousands of lives are cut short every year from toxic air polluted with chemicals like nitrogen dioxide and sulphur dioxide. [2] There’s even evidence that it’s permanently damaging our childern’s lungs. [3]
But we’ve got a chance to end the emergency. In ten days’ time, ministers across Europe will meet to agree new laws to cut air pollution – but British politicians are deliberately blocking them. If the deal falls apart, lives will keep being lost. [4] But if we cause a public outcry, we could force our politicians into agreeing to cut toxic pollution.
1 October 2015 — Socialist Worker (U.S.)
Volkswagen chose profit over the planet
The auto giant only did what the capitalist system demands of every corporation: it put profit first, no matter who got hurt
It’s only been a week, but it’s already being dubbed one of the biggest-ever corporate scandals.
Volkswagen, the world’s largest auto manufacturer, was recently caught rigging millions of its cars to cheat on emissions tests. Software known as “defeat devices” was installed in more than 11 million cars that enabled the vehicles to pass emissions tests they would otherwise have failed. The illicit devices detect when a car is being tested and direct the engine to pump out far less pollutants — 98 percent less — into the air than they ordinarily do when on the road.
The New Dark Age 