80% of City Dwellers Breathing Dangerous Levels of Polluted Air, says WHO:-
Three million premature deaths caused by ambient air pollution occur each year because 80 percent of urban dwellers are exposed to dangerous levels of air pollution.
“Urban air pollution continues to rise at an alarming rate, wreaking havoc on human health,” Maria Neira, the head of WHO’s department of public health and environment, said in a statement.
The rising air pollution in urban cities is hurting millions worlwide, and it is worst in poorer countries, WHO notes. Those people effected usually succumb to death because of respiratory diseases, stroke, heart disease and lung cancer.
In UN’s latest air pollution data base, the report, which looked into data gathered from 795 cities in 67 countries between 2008 and 2013 conclude that four out of five city dwellers live with dangerously intoxicating air. The data examined PM10, particulate matter measuring less than 10µm, which can include dust, pollen and mould spores; and PM2.5, particles measuring less than 2.5µm.
The report also took into account the disparity between the rich and poorer nations. With the latter being 98% affected, while just 56 percent of people in rich countries were affected by the massive air pollution
Most of the low to middle income countries breathe air that exceed WHO’s safety standard.
The highest levels of small and fine particulate pollution, known as PM10 and PM2.5 respectively, were generally found the eastern Mediterranean and South-East Asia, with the average annual levels often exceeding five to 10 times the safe limits in low and middle-come states.
Dr. Carlos Dora of WHO emphasized the importance of eliminating industrial emissions to achive long-term improvement in cutting carbon emission, as well as utilizing green transport, solar and wind power.
In a press release, he said: “when air quality improves, health costs from air pollution-related diseases shrink, worker productivity expands and life expectancy grows. Reducing air pollution also brings an added climate bonus, which can become a part of countries’ commitments to the climate treaty.”
3 Recycling Trends You Need to Know Right Now
Reduce > Recycle > Reuse
The recent years have seen many exciting developments in the field of recycling. Many countries have taken the task of recycling their wastes while some countries seem to be having no success at all. As an individual, here are some things that you need to know about recycling – some latest trends that have been developing. Perhaps, you can implement these in your lifestyle and look forward to a better and waste-free planet Earth.
Plastic Bans
It’s not a mystery that most plastics take hundreds, if not a large number of years to photodegrade (which is still awful for the earth), or that they’re uncontrollably perilous to neighbourhood biological communities and untamed life. That is the reason numerous urban communities are beginning to address the plastic waste produced inside their outskirts.
Styrofoam specifically has been examined broadly, and cities and towns have been banning polystyrene. While it’s financially savvy and sufficiently robust for bundling, its light weight makes it inclined to being effortlessly spread by the wind, and it can leak styrene into the earth and groundwater.
Disallowances on Styrofoam, plastic shopping pack bans, and even bans on plastic bottles are ideally the push to eliminate unsustainable and pervasive plastics from earth’s surface.
Composting
Just 5% of the 26 million tonnes of sustenance waste in 2012 stayed away from a landfill. This implies there are still a large number of massive amounts of nourishment sitting at the base of a landfill that could have been transformed into a solid manure material for individual or city use. That is the reason more districts across the nation are beginning to make programs for natural material composting, and some are notwithstanding making it required.
3-D Printing
3-D printing has opened up ways to assembling that were at no other time thought to be opened: from business use and large scale manufacturing, even down to more private, individual use at home. 3-D printing innovation may even have the capacity to assemble a house in a day. Obviously, this innovation dangers expanding our reliance on plastic significantly further.
Thankfully, some are discovering crushed plastics from around your home – even used Legos and other plastic waste – can be a feasible alternative for printing. Certain reused plastics are less expensive per pound than virgin plastics at any rate. 3-D printing has endless positive applications, yet we ought to guarantee that the materials utilized are as economically sourced as could be allowed.
The Amount of Plastic Waste on Earth Is Enough to Wrap the Whole Planet
The amount of plastic wastes on the planet today is enough to cover the planet with plastic, according to an Australian organization. With 5 billion tons of plastic waste it looks like it is true.
Man begun producing plastic on the onset of the 20th century and since then there were 5 billion tons of plastic wastes.
This problem is so alarming that paleontologist, Jan Zalasiewicz, said that if the plastic wastes will be transformed into a cling wrap, it will be enough to cover the globe.
That’s why experts are hoping that mankind to seriously consider the conservation of our planet.
One possible solution is to increase recycling rate when it comes to plastic. Another is to lessen or even deviate from producing non-biodegradable plastics.
The scenario of future generation unearthing fossilized plastic is appalling. This is the consequence for man’s penchant to produce too much plastic without thinking about disposal.
During the latest flight of Solar Impulse over the Pacific, the pilot has had an alarming view. Pilot Bertrand Piccard said he passed by a sea of plastic wastes which is as large as a continent which goes to show that this is indeed a global problem visible in all parts of the world.
Environmental Impact on Health:-
Note – Datas are important in this case which can be quoted to write answers which will be more authentic than just stating a statement that is not backed up by data.
Receive Daily Updates
Recent Posts
Steve Ovett, the famous British middle-distance athlete, won the 800-metres gold medal at the Moscow Olympics of 1980. Just a few days later, he was about to win a 5,000-metres race at London’s Crystal Palace. Known for his burst of acceleration on the home stretch, he had supreme confidence in his ability to out-sprint rivals. With the final 100 metres remaining,
[wptelegram-join-channel link=”https://t.me/s/upsctree” text=”Join @upsctree on Telegram”]Ovett waved to the crowd and raised a hand in triumph. But he had celebrated a bit too early. At the finishing line, Ireland’s John Treacy edged past Ovett. For those few moments, Ovett had lost his sense of reality and ignored the possibility of a negative event.
This analogy works well for the India story and our policy failures , including during the ongoing covid pandemic. While we have never been as well prepared or had significant successes in terms of growth stability as Ovett did in his illustrious running career, we tend to celebrate too early. Indeed, we have done so many times before.
It is as if we’re convinced that India is destined for greater heights, come what may, and so we never run through the finish line. Do we and our policymakers suffer from a collective optimism bias, which, as the Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman once wrote, “may well be the most significant of the cognitive biases”? The optimism bias arises from mistaken beliefs which form expectations that are better than the reality. It makes us underestimate chances of a negative outcome and ignore warnings repeatedly.
The Indian economy had a dream run for five years from 2003-04 to 2007-08, with an average annual growth rate of around 9%. Many believed that India was on its way to clocking consistent double-digit growth and comparisons with China were rife. It was conveniently overlooked that this output expansion had come mainly came from a few sectors: automobiles, telecom and business services.
Indians were made to believe that we could sprint without high-quality education, healthcare, infrastructure or banking sectors, which form the backbone of any stable economy. The plan was to build them as we went along, but then in the euphoria of short-term success, it got lost.
India’s exports of goods grew from $20 billion in 1990-91 to over $310 billion in 2019-20. Looking at these absolute figures it would seem as if India has arrived on the world stage. However, India’s share of global trade has moved up only marginally. Even now, the country accounts for less than 2% of the world’s goods exports.
More importantly, hidden behind this performance was the role played by one sector that should have never made it to India’s list of exports—refined petroleum. The share of refined petroleum exports in India’s goods exports increased from 1.4% in 1996-97 to over 18% in 2011-12.
An import-intensive sector with low labour intensity, exports of refined petroleum zoomed because of the then policy regime of a retail price ceiling on petroleum products in the domestic market. While we have done well in the export of services, our share is still less than 4% of world exports.
India seemed to emerge from the 2008 global financial crisis relatively unscathed. But, a temporary demand push had played a role in the revival—the incomes of many households, both rural and urban, had shot up. Fiscal stimulus to the rural economy and implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission scales had led to the salaries of around 20% of organized-sector employees jumping up. We celebrated, but once again, neither did we resolve the crisis brewing elsewhere in India’s banking sector, nor did we improve our capacity for healthcare or quality education.
Employment saw little economy-wide growth in our boom years. Manufacturing jobs, if anything, shrank. But we continued to celebrate. Youth flocked to low-productivity service-sector jobs, such as those in hotels and restaurants, security and other services. The dependence on such jobs on one hand and high-skilled services on the other was bound to make Indian society more unequal.
And then, there is agriculture, an elephant in the room. If and when farm-sector reforms get implemented, celebrations would once again be premature. The vast majority of India’s farmers have small plots of land, and though these farms are at least as productive as larger ones, net absolute incomes from small plots can only be meagre.
A further rise in farm productivity and consequent increase in supply, if not matched by a demand rise, especially with access to export markets, would result in downward pressure on market prices for farm produce and a further decline in the net incomes of small farmers.
We should learn from what John Treacy did right. He didn’t give up, and pushed for the finish line like it was his only chance at winning. Treacy had years of long-distance practice. The same goes for our economy. A long grind is required to build up its base before we can win and celebrate. And Ovett did not blame anyone for his loss. We play the blame game. Everyone else, right from China and the US to ‘greedy corporates’, seems to be responsible for our failures.
We have lowered absolute poverty levels and had technology-based successes like Aadhaar and digital access to public services. But there are no short cuts to good quality and adequate healthcare and education services. We must remain optimistic but stay firmly away from the optimism bias.
In the end, it is not about how we start, but how we finish. The disastrous second wave of covid and our inability to manage it is a ghastly reminder of this fact.