About 90% of the world’s population is exposed to dangerously high levels of air pollution, says the World Health Organization. Toxic air leads to the early death of an estimated 7 million people every year, including an estimated 3.8 million deaths from indoor cooking with polluting fuels. More than 90% of air pollution-related deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries, but even in high-income European cities, air pollution is knocking 2–24 months off people’s lives.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/air-pollution-blamed-for-7m-deaths-every-year-worldwide-zd3fklt88
Special Pollution Tax on use of car for more than 10 days per month and keeping more than one car in a single family under same shed should be imposed in every polluted cities so that urban people can learn to share a vehicle for common destination/ route.
This will definitely reduce the pollution level in the cities.
one of the effective means of controlling air pollution is to have proper equipment in place. This include devices for removal of pollutants from the flue gases through scrubbers, close collection recovery systems, the use of dry and wet collectors, filters, electrostatic precipitation etc.
Since plants are the sinks of carbon dioxide hence 'green belt' plantations must be raised around industrial units and urban areas.
The forest cover should be protected and deforested areas must be restored through reforestation.
Since vehicles substantially contribute to air pollution hence their engines should be redesigned in such a way that may minimize the emissions of pollutants. Installation of catalytic convertor in vehicles should be made compulsory.
Building of higher smoke-stacks facilitates the discharge of pollutants as far away from the ground as possible. Industries should be carefully located so as to minimize the effects of pollution after considering the topography and the wind direction.
Special Pollution Tax on use of car for more than 10 days per month and keeping more than one car in a single family under same shed should be imposed in every polluted cities so that urban people can learn to share a vehicle for common destination/ route.
This will definitely reduce the pollution level in the cities.
This is a global issue in both developed and developing countries and there are in fact several steps and ways can be used to reduce or at least overcome this matter. For instance, by saving energy we can reduce carbon emissions which is one of the contributor factors to air pollution. Also, using more environmental friendly cars can also help in reducing it. One of the best examples is the Japanese experiences ... They are started using and riding bicycles and attempted to avoid riding bikes. There are many more factors can help in reducing air pollution but I can only now share these 2 factors. Overall, its good and interesting question,
Dear Abdallah,
Please also have a look at these useful ResearchGate links.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/289533677_Evaluating_strategies_to_reduce_urban_air_pollution
Article Management of Air Pollution Control in Cement Industry
Article Air Pollution and Control Legislation in India
https://www.researchgate.net/post/What_is_your_suggestion_to_reduce_air_pollution_in_big_cities
Good luck!
There are serious environmental crimes being committed in Iraq. These crimes, such as burning of solid remnants and trafficking of toxic waste and hazardous chemicals, including the storage of these dangerous chemicals and trying to get rid of them illegally, have contributed to the pollution of the environment and have negatively and dangerously affected the lives of individuals and living creatures. Additionally, individuals or institutions have established industrial or oil installations near the cities that are devoid of the most basic means of environmental safety. It should be noted that these installations have contributed to the spread of toxic dust and discharge of toxins into the air. This has caused the occurrence of acid rain which is a health risk to the public. Further, acid rain can damage plants, relics, historical and natural landmarks.
Our suggestion for the Iraqi legislator is adopting a strategy to protect the environment in Iraq, because it becomes one of the main issues in national environmental laws and stopping aggression on various environment elements and protecting them from pollution for the survival of life and protection of human rights. Prevent serious effects resulting from targeting air and other elements of the environment, especially after the scientific, industrial and economic progress that the world has witnessed, the survival of the environment for a long time without the required care and legislative protection and the spread of disease and epidemics.
Ameel Jabbar Ashour
Employ phytoremediation programs to assist with decontamination of polluted soil and water. Implement massive efforts of urban reforestation to improve air quality in cities. At the same time, effective policies and their applications are strongly needed in conjunction with education (from elementary schools to graduate level studies) in order to prepare professionals but also to move the larger public to understand better what pollution is and all its ramification in affecting public and environmental health.
Agree with Kenneth There are too many people on the planet in need of energy to carry on with their lives. This WILL produce increasing amounts of pollution.
Informed choices in own lifestyles and to make choices in the interest of larger system and not isolated ones would help the future.
The way to prevent more than half of the 7 million deaths (i.e. the 3.8 million who die from indoor pollution) is to allow and facilitate the rapid development of sub-Saharan Africa and the remaining poor regions of India by the use of fossil fuels.
This means that those who are opposed to the development of the poor, and are now actively preventing the development of the poor in Africa and India must be stopped. The guilty ones are invariably the UN, the EU, the world bank and many of the so-called 'environmental' NGO's.
After the CO2 the reactive nitrogen is the main cause and a global threat to the ecology and humans. It needs to see for other food production processes instead of conventional agriculture practices and the use of massive reactive nitrogen fertilizers.
Mentioned above is so nice answers. Regarding transportation system, I think electrical transportation means are the better solutions.
Dear Dr. A. H. Fathy,
Thanks a lot for sharing important information.
Of course, the fuelwood is only one option for cooking in the Off-Grid, rural villages. Therefore, I highlighted that issue in my article:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/324475502_Green_Improving_by_Autonomous_PV_Mini-Grid_Model_in_Central_Myanmar
We can deploy Renewable Energy based Mini-Grid or electrical cooking or use the solar cooker to reduce the adverse emissions from the traditional fuelwood cooking in the rural village.
Best regards
Of course, phase out the car as is slowly happening here in the UK. More and more electrically powered motor vehicles are being used in our cities.
Switching to electric powered cars is not the same as phasing cars out. As for the implication that electricity is non-polluting, it reminds me of what my kid brother once suggested when he was in primary school -- that we should develop steam-powered automobiles because they run on water. Switching to electric-powered vehicles just relocates the pollution and/or environmental impacts.
Karl, and in many countries a good fraction of their electrical grid is powered by renewables. So even if economies of scale are neglected, you are moving a cohort of fully gasoline driven engines to become electrically powered, of which a non-zero fraction will be ultimately sourced from non GHG sources.
There are extreme cases - I live in British Columbia. Our electricity is 96% hydroelectric - my next car will be (at least) a hybrid or a full EV.
@James Garry I don't disagree that things can be improved GHG-wise, but some of the much-touted popular solutions have a significant environmental cost and that's why I added "and/or environmental impacts". Creating the infracture for hydroelectric power often has huge environmental cost, and using biofuels diverts existing cropland from food production putting pressure on land use and water systems elsewhere. Rebate programs to take less efficient vehicles off the road neglect to take into account the environmental cost that went into manufacturing those vehicles and that go into the new ones replacing them, weighed against lifespan and usage patterns of all those vehicles.
Wind and solar power are fine but on too small a scale, unless we can put massive solar power collection systems into space. In the interim nuclear power seems to be the most efficient and least GHG-polluting option. I think the solution ultimately has to be off-planet, if we can manage to get there before we revert to the Dark Ages. Here are some words of wisdom from Isaac Asimov:
“Unless we are willing to settle down into a world that is our prison, we must be ready to move beyond Earth…. People who view industrialization as a source of the Earth's troubles, its pollution, and the desecration of its surface, can only advocate that we give it up. This is something that we can't do; we have the tiger by the tail. We have 4.5 billion people on Earth. We can't support that many unless we're industrialized and technologically advanced. So, the idea is not to get rid of industrialization but to move it somewhere else. If we can move it a few thousand miles into space, we still have it, but not on Earth. Earth can then become a world of parks, farms, and wilderness without giving up the benefits of industrialization.”
— Isaac Asimov, “Our Future in the Cosmos: Space”, lecture given at the College of William and Mary, 1983.
Kenneth,
I don't think that I must *necessarily* act in accord with any such protocol.
Gasoline prices have risen by ~40% in the last year here.
It has been cheaper to operate an electric car than a gasoline car (commuting profile) for some time. It's the capital cost that was my sticking point.
Karl,
Indeed - my wife worked on some of the original engineering for Site C - a proposed mega-dam that, like all such schemes, has serious flaws.
I grew up, in the 70s, with the SPSS as a desirable notion - put the PV panels where the sun *always* shines - and move power raising off-world.
Isaac Asimov's idea implies (in my opinion) the maintenance of an extractive status quo that does not make any sense. Industrialization has its benefits yet it has been responsible for producing pollution. Planet Earth is, and remains our home! When are we going to embrace conservation instead of uncontrollable consumption? Also, a stabilization of the human population size is an imperative that should be at the top of the list for seeking remediation strategies in controlling pollution.
1-minimize urbanization of our life.
2- use clean sources of energy.
3- make the land green.
First try to stop the sources or try to modify the types of production. Or the modification of out put industries which causes air pollution.
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Medicine