Clearing the Air
Air pollution has become the world's greatest environmental health risk, and science is only beginning to reveal its wide-ranging effects. Globally, 19,000 people die each day from air pollution, killing more than HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and car accidents combined. What happened to the air we breathe? Sustainability journalist Tim Smedley has travelled the world to try and find the answer, visiting cities at the forefront of the fight against air pollution, including Delhi, Beijing, London and Paris. With insights from the scientists and politicians leading the battle against it, and people whose lives have been affected by it, Clearing the Air tells the full story of air pollution for the first time: what it is, which pollutants are harmful, where they come from and most importantly what we can do about them. Air pollution is a problem that can be solved. The stories uncovered on this journey show us how. Clearing the Air is essential reading for anyone who cares about the air they breathe. And this much becomes clear: in the fight against air pollution, we all have a part to play. The fightback has begun.
Stats for nerds
2recommend
4mentions
3people
2019–2026years
75% recommend25% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- There's a lot of misinformation and misunderstanding of the global energy supply presented around me nowadays. I would urge anyone to stop what they're doing and read "Clearing the Air" [1]. It's completely reshaped my understanding of this problem, and I am far more optimistic after reading it.
It addresses key questions such as "What about China?" and "Can we stop it?"
[1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/222768021-clearing-the-a...
- I recently finished reading Clearing the Air: The Beginning and the End of Air Pollution by Tim Smedley, which is excellent and well worth a read if you are interested in this area.
https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/clearing-the-air-9781472953339...
> ...a detailed blueprint for saving our cities. Suggested measures include a ban on all petrol and diesel cars in city centres; the replacement of diesel buses and trains with electric vehicles; and an end to the use of wood-burning stoves and coal fires. It’s an achievable vision, he insists. “However, whether it happens in 10 or 100 years is down to public pressure and political will.”
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/mar/31/clearing-the-a...
I also built a few monitors to add to Sensor.Community (a contributors driven global sensor network that creates Open Environmental Data), which are pretty easy to make.
- There is some interesting info on building a cheap ~$20 purifier here: https://airpollutionguide.net/
I haven't tried as cheap HEPA filters appear to be harder to get hold of in the UK. Maybe due to different heating systems.
Clearing the Air: The Beginning and the End of Air Pollution by Tim Smedley is an excellent book if you are interested in this area.
- I just finished "Clearing the Air" by Tim Smedley (https://royalsociety.org/grants-schemes-awards/book-prizes/s...) which was shortlisted for the Royal Society's prize for science books.
The first half of the book covers some of the chemistry of air pollution along with a review of the impact that this can have on health (particularly scary is the discovery that PM0.1 can be found in the blood and may be attributed to cardiovascular disease). Later chapters then talk about how air pollution has been addressed in different places and finally there is some guidance on what you can do reduce your exposure.
I discovered this book from one of the episodes of Inside Science featuring the shortlisted books: it's still up if you want to listen yourself: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0008jf1
