China × Cleantech — March 2020
Welcome to the next issue of China x Cleantech. For our full China × Cleantech history, stroll over to the “Future Trends” section of our website.
Welcome to the next issue of China x Cleantech. For our full China × Cleantech history, stroll over to the “Future Trends” section of our website.
Californians have now been sheltering in place since March 20. While social distancing is slowing the spread of COVID-19, it’s also significantly reducing air pollutant and greenhouse gas levels across the state. Residents from San Diego to Sacramento are seeing clearer skies and breathing cleaner air, even in the center of cities that rarely experience a noticeable reduction in air pollution.
Let’s start with just a few adjectives about our daily lives — overexposed, overwhelmed, stimulated, toxic, deficient. It’s not enough that many young people lack good nutrition, but they are also challenged by circumstance by a lack of clean air to breathe and pure water to drink.
A report from the Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health finds that young people are most at risk for impaired physical and mental health as a result of air pollution. If we won’t protect our planet, can we at least protect our kids?
The government of the Netherlands has been ordered by a court in the country to take immediate action to reduce air pollution levels, as current levels in some parts of the country are in breach of legal European Union particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide levels, according to recent reports.
London’s air pollution problems seem to growing rapidly in recent years (or perhaps we should say they are returning, depending on how you think of it). Hourly PM2.5 levels now sometimes exceeding those of Beijing, China. Nitrogen dioxide (NOx) levels have been surging well beyond EU legal limits (over a 5 day period in January, NOx levels exceeded the EU’s legal limit for a full year). London was recently put on a “Very High” air pollution alert for the first time.
Those suffering from respiratory problems derived from pollution in the air may soon have the chance to view real-time data regarding the conditions in their own neighborhood, thanks to computer scientists from the University of California San Diego. The researchers have built a small fleet of portable pollution sensors … [continued]
As many as 353 coal-fired power plants across 31 states should be considered for closing because the electricity they produce will no longer be economically competitive with cleaner sources of energy in America’s power markets soon. […]