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Mexico City’s air quality improves, while Britain’s falls short
Mexico City, photo by Christian Von Wissel (source: Wikimedia Commons)
Known as a city of smog, the Mexican capital of Mexico City has significantly cleaned up its act – with a little help from Mother Nature.
From an article in the Independent:
“The pollution problem is still there, but it is a fact that we have been fighting pollution for more than 20 years and the improvement is undeniable,” said Gustavo Alanis, with the NGO Mexican Center for Environmental Law.
Favorable weather along with developments in transportation infrastructure, such as increasing bicycle traffic and revamping the city’s bus system, have helped improve air quality in the Mexican megacity. Another huge factor has been Mexico City’s policy of limiting car traffic: each vehicle can only be on the road 4 out of every five week days.
Though Mexico City still has a pollution problem, improving air quality has been no small achievement in this massive metropolitan area of over 20 million inhabitants.
The UK on the other hand, is failing to meet pollution targets set by the European Union.
From another Independent article:
Britain is Europe’s worst emitter of nitrogen oxides and exposed 1.5 million people to unsafe levels in 2007, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). Long-term exposure can cause breathing problems, worsen asthma and bronchitis in children and aggravate allergies.
Though the UK has made significant progress in some areas of pollution, it falls short of safe standards for nitrogen oxides as well as particulate matter and ozone, all harmful pollutants. Britain may face up to £300 million in fines from the EU for failing to meet legally binding targets for pollution.
Londoners live with the worst air quality in Britain. Eight million people live amid millions of vehicles and close to several airports. But some policies targeted at improving air quality have been scrapped or delayed since the election of Boris Johnson as Mayor of London. These include plans to charge £25 per day for the biggest, heavy-polluting vehicles, and a westerly extension of the congestion charge.
–Independent
The UK government is expected to ask for more time to meet the EU goals in order to avoid paying the hefty fines.
by Graham Land
Tags: air quality, Britain, EU, Independent, Mexico City, nitrogen oxides, Pollution, UK
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