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"Air pollution in Scotland 'creating public health crisis' "

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  1. chdot
    Admin

    "Though I expect driving habits, especially for short journeys, are only weakly associated with prices"

    Price of petrol is always "expensive" but a relatively small part of car ownership that so people carry on regardless.

    I wonder how many people regard car ownership/use as normal/a right and how many believe they have no alternative to how they move themselves/family/purchases.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  2. mgj
    Member

    Its because car use is free at the point of use; there is no connection between any individual journey and the fixed or variable costs, and brains are wired to keep that dissociation even when a trip involves a trip to the petrol station. Cycling is just the same, but with less pollution.

    Solution is either rationing and/or the fitting of a taxi style meter (possibly with variable pricing based on demand), but chances of the electorate voting for that are minimal. For now.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  3. HankChief
    Member

    Finally got round to watching the webcast of last week's council meeting.

    The debate on low emission zones can be found here

    Cllr Cook's objections were that whilst they were in favour of LEZs

    1. Edinburgh didn't have an administration
    2. The Scottish Government should be giving them more details on what it might include and if suitable for Edinburgh.
    3. It would cost too much

    Cllr Booth's reply is that

    1. 4 parties supported it so why not
    2. Get in early and steer design to be good for Edinburgh
    3. How much is each life (dying from airpollution) worth?

    Posted 6 years ago #
  4. HankChief
    Member

  5. Ed1
    Member

  6. Kim
    Member

    Given that Edinburgh is also a tourist city, it needs to change to become more visitor friendly. Increasingly international visitors want a traffic free experience in the city centre similar to that at home. Nor do they want to be poisoned by air pollution, even is their home motor industry is responsible for exporting the most polluting car to the UK.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  7. crowriver
    Member

    That Edinburgh pedestrian experience in full:

    Stuart Hay‏ @StreetWurrier

    This is a pedestrian St, This is a pedestrian St, This is a pedestrian St ... @LivingStreetsEd

    https://twitter.com/StreetWurrier/status/865839767694585857/photo/1

    Posted 6 years ago #
  8. ih
    Member

    Thread drift to seashore pollution!

    I rode out from Newhaven to Cramond yesterday. The tide was in and there was a disgusting brown frothy slick lapping the shore nearly all the way. In places it was 20m wide and there were more slicks visible further out. Because it was such a hot day, people were in the water at Granton, West Shore and Cramond.

    Is this what it looked like; inadequately treated sewage?

    Posted 6 years ago #
  9. Roibeard
    Member

    The sea foam may be natural - although it can look like pollution, it can be just down to algal (seaweed and plankton) products.

    With the sunlight, I'd say the spring bloom will be well under way!

    Robert

    Posted 6 years ago #
  10. gembo
    Member

    Not whale snot (now being harvested by drones) then, or the even more lucrative ambergris?

    Posted 6 years ago #
  11. crowriver
    Member

    The murky water was evident by Seafield/Porty yesterday too. Looked mostly like churned up sand, in a distinct band where waves were coming in on the full tide. The foam was possibly all the debris, rotted down seaweed, mollusc corpses etc. that the water lifted from the rocks and sand as it rushed in during an exceptionally high tide.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  12. SRD
    Moderator

    a FB friend of mine posted that there's a big algal bloom off Granton and that that affects surface tension, which makes the ocean froth more.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  13. ih
    Member

    I always associate algal blooms with a greeny colour? This is decidedly brown. It was there again today in Wardie Bay but not as bad as Friday. I'm also a bit sceptical of the churned up sand theory because Friday I saw slicks of the stuff not only against the shore but in bands further out to sea. A bit of Googling led to the discovery that the water quality isn't tested between Leith and Cramond because it isn't considered that there are any beaches there. That's obviously not the case for Porty so I wonder what those tests show.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  14. There were kids swimming (heads fully immersed, with snorkels on) in the oily-brown band of water along at Granton when I passed on Friday.

    If they're still alive today and the EEN isn't yet screeching about the Council letting poor kids swim in killer filth, then I guess it's probably OK!

    Posted 6 years ago #
  15. HankChief
    Member

    BUMP - consultation on maximum taxi age Closes today.
    https://consultationhub.edinburgh.gov.uk/sfc/age-of-taxis-and-phcs/

    Posted 6 years ago #
  16. I were right about that saddle
    Member

    Air pollution more harmful to children in cars than outside, warns top scientist

    Prof Sir David King, writing for the Guardian, says walking or cycling to school would be much better for children’s health.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  17. Morningsider
    Member

    Now - if I can just apply the usual "logic" that is used to deal with cycling issues. The solution to children inhaling great gusts of pollution while strapped into cars is simple.

    Ban children from cars.

    Too draconian? We could just berate parents who don't install oxygen masks in cars instead.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  18. Ed1
    Member

    Research is a bit old modern cars have air recycle buttons which can reduce by up to 80 percent according to some random web site. It may be a car with recycle on is better than cycling in respect of breathing. The trouble with smoking in a car is that can’t have recycle on

    Posted 6 years ago #
  19. chdot
    Admin

    "

    But now state-of-the-art green structures are being brought in to help purify the atmosphere in two of the city’s busiest streets – Royal Exchange Square, near Glasgow’s Gallery of Modern Art, and Killermont Street, by the bus station.

    Known as CityTrees, they are covered in a moss-like plant that sucks potentially deadly nitrates from the air.

    "

    http://www.scotsman.com/news/environment/living-sculptures-to-tackle-toxic-fumes-in-glasgow-city-centre-1-4473411

    Posted 6 years ago #
  20. crowriver
    Member

    Why don't they just ban vehicles from the most polluted central streets instead?

    Posted 6 years ago #
  21. chdot
    Admin

    "

    New diesel and petrol cars and vans will be banned in the UK from 2040 in a bid to tackle air pollution, the government is set to announce.

    "

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-40723581

    Posted 6 years ago #
  22. chdot
    Admin

    "

    Environmental law firm ClientEarth, which took the UK Government to court to force action on air quality, said: “The 2040 diesel and petrol ban, while important, is a diversionary tactic and doesn’t deal with the public health emergency caused by illegally polluted air, now.”

    "

    http://www.scotsman.com/news/transport/scottish-government-urged-to-ban-petrol-cars-by-2030-1-4515180

    Posted 6 years ago #
  23. chdot
    Admin

  24. Min
    Member

    The Government cannot shy away any longer from the issue of cars clogging up and polluting our cities,

    Wanna bet?

    Posted 6 years ago #
  25. Baldcyclist
    Member

    "banned in the UK from 2040"

    Not Scotland, 2050 for 'most' petrol/diesel cars and vans.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  26. crowriver
    Member

    2050 eh?

    I *might just* be alive long enough to shuffle around central Edinburgh without inhaling the heady aroma of benzene, diesel smoke, and petrol fumes.

    That is, if the pollution hasn't killed me before that.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  27. chdot
    Admin

    "Not Scotland, 2050 for 'most' petrol/diesel cars and vans."

    Well IF 2040 happens for England, it's unlikely there will be special 'export to Scotland' models.

    Posted 6 years ago #
  28. chdot
    Admin

  29. chdot
    Admin

    Scotsman commenters

    "

    My crystal ball is smoking, i am looking into the future ah i see it, it is 2019 the SNP parties funding has increased massively Car manufactures based in China and Car dealers have increased their donations enormously.

    "

    "

    Not so long ago we were told to by fuel efficient cars this lead to the increase in diesel cars. Now we owners of them are being told we will not be allowed to enter certain ares, this is a restriction on our personal freedom to access places such as the Museum of Scotland, not acceptable

    "

    And a lot more

    Posted 6 years ago #
  30. I digress slightly, but have comments disappeared completely from the EEN? I see comment numbers on some stories on the main page, but there are no comments in the actual articles themselves & no option to add any.

    (I can't see Scotsman comments either as they're using Disqus which won't load for me in Firefox at work)

    It's actually quite pleasant not seeing the endless rage & frothing at the foot of each story....

    Posted 6 years ago #

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