On 23 Oct 2023, there was a post on the Nextdoor site which asked people if they thought that air pollution in Suffolk was an issue.
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| Suffolk County Council on Nextdoor site 23Oct 2023 |
I haven't noticed anything unusual and I live in a rural area with lower traffic and so I ticked "No". I also looked at some pages on the Suffolk County Council website. But, I suspect that the majority of people who saw the above post then did no more than tick a box and move on. Suffolk Climate Emergency Plan. Page 4 of the plan says that carbon emissions from the 4 main causes will have to be reduced to almost zero. The 4 causes are -
- homes / buildings - need to become more energy efficient. Heating to be fully decarbonised, eg by replace gas boilers with heat pumps.
- transport decarbonise by reducing travel, using public transport and replace petrol and diesel fuelled vehicles with zero carbon vehicles.
- industry reduce its energy use and switch to zero carbon fuels such as solar, wind and hydrogen.
- electricity supply needs to become zero carbon, switching generation from fossil fuels to renewable energy technologies such as solar and wind.
I don't think that many of the public have grasped the seriousness and scale of the changes coming to our way of life in the coming years. . It is easy to see why carbon taxes, carbon storage, and Central Bank Digital Currencies are being prepared to be introduced.
As we can see, these Suffolk Documents are all about working towards the original Paris agreement of 2015. This agreement grew to be the 17 UN sustainable goals that we have today. The UN also has a strategic partnership with the World Economic Forum (WEF) to achieve the goals . Progress will be monitored at the COP28 meeting in Dubai on 30 Nov 2023.
A concern that many people have is that a grab for power is being made by the unelected WHO under the guise of saving the planet. As I said in an earlier blog This is why it is worth paying attention to proposed International Health Treaty Ammendments .
Concerns about air pollution in Suffolk
The DW
German news network had reported German Green coalition Government closed all their Nuclear power stations.
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| German Green Coalition shuts Nuclear (DW news April 2023) |
And also there were reports (eg Reuters) that some one blew up the cheap oil pipeline to Russia. That has put their country in a bit of a pickle with no cheap energy to manufacture all those Audi , BMW, VW cars , and those Bosch tools and white goods etc etc. And so Germany started burning dirty coal (lignite). So, when the wind blows, we would surely get the air pollution here too (and not a lot we can do about it)?
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| Germany burns lignite (reuters Dec2022) |
What is the situation regarding pollution in our region?
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| check air pollution at addresspollution.org |
UK AIR monitors air pollutants for DEFRA (Dept for Environment Food & Rural Affairs). It has 5 monitoring stations in our region (although only the one at Sibton is close).
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| Defra monitoring station at Sibton |
Readings for the last 7 days at
Sibton (near Halesworth)
Norwich Lakenfields
Wicken Fen (near Ely)
Cambridge Roadside
St Osyth (near Clacton)
The WHO air quality guidlines (AQG)
The guidelines explain the process of how the Air Quality Guideline levels were determined and on page 135 gives the recommended levels of pollutants in microns per cubic metre.
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| P135 WHO global air quality guidelines |
Final observation
It looks like in the future, people will need their journeys between home, school, work, and shops to NOT involve private cars. Governments and insurance companies will no doubt increasingly find ways to discourage their use. Walking , cycling, bus, and train will be the main options for most people .