From 2020….. 2019 was a year where pollution was going to kill us and end the world, then when the smog events of 2019/2020 did start killing people we blamed a virus. There were also dust storms which I listed here Sandstorms and the Coughing 2020
In 2020 year the press said the Lockdown was a New Normal and due to a few cars and planes being parked the world was safe again from pollution?
If you try and delve into 2020 pollution you get a lot of ‘happy press’ saying ‘we can breathe again’, let’s have a look.
‘In 2016, the WHO estimated that 4.2 million deaths annually could be attributed to ambient (outdoor) fine particulate matter air pollution, or PM2.5 (particles smaller than 2.5 μm in diameter)1. PM2.5 comes from a wide range of sources, including energy production, households, industry, transport, waste, agriculture, desert dust and forest fires and particles can travel in the atmosphere for hundreds of kilometres and their chemical and physical characteristics may vary greatly over time and space.’
Half the world’s population are exposed to increasing air pollution
Nature 2020
‘The air quality in the United States is dramatically declining, leaving about 150 million people — nearly half of America’s population — breathing unhealthy, heavily polluted air, according to the newly released “State of the Air” 2020 report by the American Lung Association. “We’re moving in the wrong direction, with nearly nine million more people breathing dirty air than in last year’s report,”
Air quality in US dramatically worse than in prior years, says new ‘State of the Air’ report 2020
In July 2019 thousands of people from Wuhan protested against garbage power plants because one rubbish dump that was promised for parkland was about to be used in a new incinerator power plant.
‘Several locals said people were detained but the exact number couldn’t be confirmed.
Over the weekend, the authorities appear to have successfully quashed the protests. Some locals said riot police were on the streets and shops around the protest sites had been ordered to shut by 6pm.
Meanwhile, China’s censors have been at work. Local voices on social media have been vanishing fast. Videos and photos of the crowded streets and clashes between the protesters and the police can be censored within hours. While there were a few reports in domestic media about the incinerator, none of them covered the protests.’
Wuhan protests: Incinerator plan sparks mass unrest 2019
This is a photo of one plant from a study in 2015.
This is a small snapshot of China’s landfill problem which for Wuhan residents would have been at least been covered in parkland before the decision to make it fuel.
‘China disposes of bulk Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) by landfilling, resulting in a large quantity of mercury that enters landfills through waste.’
So this is what Wuhan residents were protesting against, choking.
‘The present study has reviewed the waste incineration plant site selection process in Wuhan. The impropriety of the site selection can be stated from four perspectives: first, the incineration plants in Wuhan are often built close to downtown areas, residential areas or even schools. The pollutants emitted by the plants may significantly damage the people’s health. For instance, a town center with a few schools, hospitals and residential areas is located 800 meters north of the Guodingshan waste incineration plant; Second, a few plants are built near lakes or rivers and one waste incineration plant is 500 meters away from one of Wuhan’s drinking water sources; third, there are not enough facilities near the plants which can deal with the waste incineration residues In addition, all five waste incineration plants in Wuhan have the same issue of illegally disposing of fly ash.’
This is how they were treated in 2019, soldiers and tanks came in.
What was going to happen in Wuhan when 2020 New Year holidays were quickly cancelled for a viral outbreak?? Stay at home orders.
“Residents of Wuhan protesting an incinerator plant they feared was causing illness in the community found themselves frustrated by local police and local officials. When they tried to get the attention of the central government, residents found Wuhan officials blocked their attempts to reach Beijing, monitoring when they book tickets to travel to the capital.
Last year, in September, five residents made it to Beijing to petition officials. According to the article, “[t]hey were met at the train station by about a dozen young men dressed in black, who said they’d arranged for them to see some officials to discuss the issue and ushered them into three cars. Instead of taking them to a government building in the capital, the cars drove them all the way back to Wuhan, a journey of more than 10 hours.”
China Declared War Against Pollution But Fights Its Own Climate Activists 2019
The videos are revealing
Chinese people protest against waste-to-energy plant project in Wuhan 2019
China – Wuhan’s Protest Against Waste Incineration Plants 2019
Tanks Roll Into Wuhan June 2019 1.40 to be exact.
Then in 2020 the protesters get locked in.
March 6th It’s all fake!’: Chinese official heckled by residents on visit to Wuhan
Quite chilling.
In this 2020 article linked I wrote about the increased Nitric Oxide this year from solar conditions, Are We Blaming The Wrong Thing? Nitrogen Dioxide Coughing, well this was Wuhan’s Nitric Oxide before and after lockdown.
With the feel good story attached.
“The COVID-19 lockdown in Wuhan, China, resulted in a 63% reduction in nitrogen dioxide concentrations, according to our new research. We have calculated that this drop in air pollution may have prevented up to 496 deaths in Wuhan, 3,368 in Hubei province and 10,822 in China as a whole. The potential deaths prevented may even outweigh the official Chinese death toll from COVID-19 itself which stands at 4,633.”
As many shops and businesses closed, industrial activity and vehicle use in cities across the world fell dramatically and reports emerged of pollution levels being considerably below those experienced in “normal” conditions. Such improvements in air quality and the likely associated health benefits have raised the prospect of an unlikely silver lining to the otherwise overwhelmingly negative impacts of the pandemic.”
Wuhan’s lockdown cut air pollution by up to 63% – newresearch
You can watch a feel good video here from last week, all back to normal.
Wuhan celebrates China’s National Day with creative flash mob
I don’t know if Taiwan news can be trusted but this was the Sulphur Dioxide map during lockdown, they say cremations but Sulphur is more likely to be from rubbish in incinerators.
Windy map shows spike in SO2 emissions from Wuhan, possibly signaling increased cremations
Wuhan 10 years ago, has it got better?
Next we have Italy, this is Milan from 2017, the mask is for smog.
I don’t want to spend the rest of my life with an air pollution mask #bastasmog That link has gone, Medium might want to avoid the obvious.
‘It is only the end of February, but air pollution in Milan has already exceeded the legal limit for 2019, and the Po Valley swims in a soupy smog.
“I can really feel when there’s smog, I suffer all winter long,” 45-year old Milan local Fabio Cigognini told AFP, describing the asthma-like symptoms which plague him during the cold months.
“We breathe in poison, but no one tells us anything,” he said.’
‘We breathe in poison’: Why the Po Valley is one of the most polluted places in Italy
‘Turin, Milan and Naples are the worst cities in the EU for dangerous particulate pollution, while Italy has the bloc’s highest number of premature deaths from nitrogen dioxide fumes spewed out by diesel vehicles, according to the European Environment Agency.’
These are the 55 most polluted towns in Italy Jan. 2019
Italy
The Killer London Smog in 1952 killed 12,000 people in 4 days?
Milan had similar smog all this winter…
‘MILAN: More than a dozen cities and towns across Italy introduced traffic curbs on Wednesday (Jan 8) in a bid to cut harmful emissions following a spike in pollution.
A prolonged period of sunny weather with little rain or wind has pushed up air pollution across the country, triggering smog alerts in more than 60 municipalities.’
‘The Air Quality Index showed Italy was one of the most highly polluted places in western Europe on Wednesday. Many of the more populous areas posted levels deemed unhealthy, with a top reading of 170 registered in Tuscany.
But Italy was still considerably better off than large swathes of Asia, with the Indian capital Delhi, one of the world’s most polluted cities, scoring above 300 on the index.
Italy slaps curbs on cars as pollution chokes cities. 2020
‘The Commission warned that citizens in these five countries were being forced to breathe ‘illegal air’ due to the high amounts of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) that were being emitted into the air.
NO2 is primarily emitted through transport and causes serious health issues— including heart disease, wheezing, coughing and bronchitis. Children and the elderly are especially vulnerable. ‘
Italy ranks second on the list of countries with the highest number of premature deaths from particulate matter (the sum of all hazardous solid and liquid particles in the air) pollution in Europe.
The pollution in Italy derives mostly from diesel vehicles and the burning of solid fuels, the report said.
“Air pollution in Lombardy is alarmingly high. It has similar levels of pollution to the most heavily industrialised regions on the continent despite the fact it is one of the richest. It has the means to resolve this crisis but continues to dither,” ClientEarth’s CEO, James Thornton, said.
Italy slapped with air pollution lawsuit 2017
Italy, Spain, France and the UK were also hit by the sandstorms this year but the pollution control has never been good.
‘The European Commission has threatened legal action against France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK after they failed to protect their citizens’ health against dangerous levels of air pollution.
Limits on NO2 are being broken, which can cause lung infections and heart disease.
In 2013, NO2 killed almost 70,000 people, which was almost three times more people than were killed in road traffic accidents that same year.
Children with asthma and elderly people with heart disease are particularly vulnerable to problems that coincide with breathing air polluted by NO2— such as wheezing, coughing, and bronchitis.’
Five countries face fines after breaking EU pollution laws
Another country that put curbs on traffic was Iran during the 2019 winter, major smog events before all the viral pneumonia.
‘Air pollution forced schools to close on Sunday in parts of Iran including Tehran, as the capital lay under a thick cloud of smog considered hazardous to health.
The pollution level in the capital was “unhealthy for sensitive groups” and officials warned the young, elderly and people with respiratory illnesses to stay indoors, with sporting activities suspended.’
Intense smog forces schools to close in Iran, trucks to steer clear of Tehran. November 2019 (link changed)
Pollution covers all the so called hot spots for pneumonia this year, not a coincidence.
This article from 2020 makes you wonder if New York is just a choking filth zone.
A good chunk of this ‘spot on’ article sums up America’s toxic iceberg, read it all.
WHAT RACISM SMELLS LIKE … Even during the pandemic, Newark has seen an increase in permitted pollution. In April, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection expanded the permits of crematoriums so that they can operate around the clock to keep up with the mounting number of coronavirus fatalities. With five of the facilities located just a few miles from her home, Gaddy described the harmful air pollutants they emit as “just another thing to think about when we’re trying the mourn the loss of our family members.”
New Jersey
“The sheer number of chemicals and the facilities that emit them has made the fight for clean air in Newark nearly impossible. Gaddy can’t pinpoint blame for her family’s asthma — or for the cancers that have stricken her father and brother — on the fumes from many diesel trucks that roll through her neighborhood on their way to the port because the nearby Superfund sites could play a role. So could Newark Airport and the nearby Covanta incinerator, which burns more than 1 million tons of garbage from New York City and the rest of Essex County and was only recently was fitted with a filter that the company had installed on incinerators in some more affluent New Jersey neighborhoods more than a decade ago. Direct causality in a highly polluted area is almost impossible to prove.”
Newark has been an industrial and manufacturing hub since leather-tanning companies sprang up there in the 1800s. As with many of the country’s most toxic areas, the concentration of polluting facilities began in earnest as white people left and the people of color who remained didn’t have the political power or money to stop the influx of dangerous industrial plants. Home values dropped as the spewing of chemicals increased, intensifying the disparity between Newark and the more affluent suburbs, and making it even easier for companies to build dangerous facilities in the city. Today, while New Jersey’s population is 59 percent white, Newark is only 8 percent white, according to the most recent census numbers. The South Ward, where Gaddy lives and much of the industry is clustered, is just 3 percent white. Yet despite the indisputable clumping of dangerous pollution in Newark and other poor areas of New Jersey, the battle to keep companies from heaping even more pollution on Newark and other overburdened spots has been steeply uphill.”
“In 1994, President Bill Clinton signed an executive order that was supposed to address the inequities by requiring all federal agencies to make environmental justice part of their mission. But a decade after the order passed, the Environmental Protection Agency’s Inspector General found that the EPA had failed to comply with Clinton’s order. And three years after that, the United Church of Christ issued a report finding that the problem had become worse rather than better and that government officials had “knowingly allowed” people of color “to be poisoned with lead, arsenic, dioxin, TCE, DDT, PCBs and a host of other deadly chemicals.”
“the Trump administration is also in the process of rolling back 100 environmental rules, many of which were passed to protect vulnerable low-income communities near industrial facilities. Among the changes being implemented by the Trump EPA are the weakening of restrictions on power plants, coal ash ponds, and various forms of air pollution, all of which will impact the members of the Navajo Nation living near Four Corners Power plant in the San Juan basin in New Mexico.
Four Corners is one of the largest coal-fired power plants in the U.S., and ash from the coal, dumped on the reservation since the 1960s, has contaminated groundwater with toxic metals. While the Obama administration put rules in place that would have forced the closure of unlined ash ponds by 2018, the current EPA — led by Andrew Wheeler, a former lobbyist for Xcel, one of several coal companies that opposed the rules — is rolling them back. The result is that the Navajo people in the Four Corners region and many other communities living near coal ash ponds will have to continue to live with contaminated water.
“People here use that water for their crops,” said Carol Davis, executive director of Diné C.A.R.E., an organization that has fought against asbestos dumping, medical waste incineration, logging, uranium mining, and oil and gas drilling on Navajo land. Davis noted that the tribe’s growing area is located between the power plant and a coal mine, “which means we’re probably eating contaminated food,” she said. People in her community have elevated levels of heart problems and asthma, which they reasonably believe may result from the contamination.”
“The Trump EPA’s March 26 decision not to penalize violations of pollution rules during the pandemic has led to an increase Covid-19 deaths, particularly in mostly Black and low-income areas, according to a study released in May.
By examining data from more than 21,000 industrial sites, American University professor Claudia Persico and her co-author, Kathryn Johnson, found that increases in pollution, particularly the tiny bits of air pollution known as PM2.5, were associated with higher deaths from Covid-19, and that the increased pollution had a particularly large effect in counties where a high proportion of residents are Black, unemployed, or low-income.
Death Alley
The direct connection between increased pollution and Covid-19 deaths comes as little surprise to the people of St. John, Louisiana, who have lived with unsafe levels of air pollution for years and are now facing some of the highest death rates from Covid-19 in the state. Since at least 2015, the parish, which is mostly Black, has been home to the U.S. census tract with the highest cancer risk from air pollution. St. John, which also has elevated death rates from heart disease, stroke, and diabetes, is part of the industrial corridor along the Mississippi River known as Cancer Alley, which has recently been rechristened “Death Alley” to reflect the range of ailments that prematurely kill residents there.
Like Newark, there are multiple polluters and pollutants in St. John. In addition to ethylene oxide and chloroprene, two carcinogens that contribute to the area’s astronomical cancer risk, at least 43 other industrial chemicals are found in the air in St. John, as well as PM2.5, the tiny particles that emanate from several nearby chemical plants and oil refineries.”
Ravagedby Covid-19, Polluted Communities Demand Environmental Justice
Does any of this reach our news? Or is this our shrug the shoulders ‘normal’ world.
Uranium contaminated site collapsed into the Detroit River during the Thanksgiving holiday 2019
The desert is not safe either.
‘New Mexico contains hundreds of historic uranium mines. Although active uranium mining in the state has ceased, rates of cardiovascular and metabolic disease remain high in the population residing close to mines within the Navajo Nation.’
Uranium in mine dust could dissolve in human lungs
This is an excellent article that points to new fracking petrols as a source of extra cyanide, cyanide causes similar symptoms to COVID, and Jim West pin points areas that coincide with fracking fuels and pneumonia. The article was blocked from Facey since it was written which shows how ignorant fact checkers are, there is nothing even remotely weird in this article.
Social media is weird for blocking it. Plenty about New York
COVID-19: Finding the Environmental Trigger
So New York is a pollution epicenter and Saharan sandstorms swept through the South of the USA in June 2020 and do so every year.
Whenever media reported coughing from sandstorms during 2020 and 2021 they said it was because Florida and Texas had Republican voters who were anti-vaxers.
This is the sort of bigoted mindless gibberish the media has devolved into.
What about Brazil and environmental protection?
These are fires from September 2020
‘The Cosme e Damia Children’s Hospital in Porto Velho, at the edges of the Amazon, said cases of children with breathing problems have “increased sharply.” So far this year Brazil recorded more than 72,843 fires in the rainforest’
‘“The kids are affected the most. They’re coughing a lot,” Elane Diaz, a nurse in the Rondonia state capital of Porto Velho told the Associated Press (AP) as she waited for an appointment for her son at the Hospital 9 de Julho. ‘
Children in Brazil are struggling to breathe because of all the smoke from the Amazon fires 2019
The deaths this year are still from COVID though, strange, considering the fires. 2.10.2020
‘Rondônia records one death by Covid-19 and totals 1,368 deaths; cases reach 66,473.
‘This year’s Amazon fire season is one of the most serious ever, even though it’s not attracting near the media attention as last year. More than one thousand major fires have already been detected in the rainforest biome this year, with 82 major fires reported in protected areas and Indigenous territories, as of September 10, 2020.’
…’most Amazon fires are not acts of nature. Rather, the majority of fires burn over recently deforested land, with the blazes intentionally set by land grabbers, farmers, and landowners, converting newly cleared forest into pasture and croplands — sometimes as part of a longstanding process of illegally converting public lands to private lands.’
The view from above: How do we know what’s really burning in the Amazon?
NASA photo taken September 6, 2020…
‘There are several reasons to anticipate that the 2020 fires in the Amazon could be even more intense than in 2019. Deforestation in the first half of 2020 is up by 25 percent in relation to the same period last year. By April 2020, the newly deforested area, combined with the area cleared but not burned in 2019, already totaled 4,509 square kilometers in the Amazon that could be set ablaze during this dry season – roughly the size of 451,000 soccer fields. ‘
August 26, 2020 “The Air is Unbearable”
Health Impacts of Deforestation-Related Fires in the Brazilian Amazon
‘Dense smoke from neighboring areas is carried by the wind in thick, toxic clouds, impacting the health, subsistence livelihoods and survival of residents. Last year’s Amazon fires blackened the skies and blotted out the sun as far away as São Paulo, Brazil’s largest city more than 2,000 miles from the blazes. Conditions are as bad or worse in parts of the Amazon this year.’
Survival of Indigenous communities at risk as Amazon fire season advances now 2020
Tucked away in this COVID study you’ll get the gist.
‘Air pollution is known to cause damage to many organs and body systems, especially the respiratory and cardiovascular systems, being responsible for 4.2 million deaths (7.6% of total global deaths) in 2015. ‘
‘A recent study identified correlations between COVID-19 mortality in northern Italy, including Lombardy, Veneto, and Emilia-Romagna, and the high levels of pollutants in those regions. ‘
‘In England, Travaglio et al.16 provided further evidence of the relationship between air pollution and SARS-CoV-2 lethality by showing an association between pollutants released by fossil fuels and susceptibility to viral infection. ‘
‘This trend was seen in Paris, Lyon, and Toulouse and regions like the Belgian-Swiss border near Lyon and the coast from Nice to Montpellier, where there is a significant problem with air pollution and large agglomerations.
This has also been proven in the Czech Republic where the intense pollution in Prague and the highly industrialized eastern regions of the country is strongly correlated with the number of people who have been diagnosed with COVID-19.
In Poland, when comparing polluted areas and the total number of novel coronavirus infections in each province, there was again a very high agreement.’
etc… plus some conclusions…
‘High levels of air pollution affect the body’s natural defenses against airborne viruses, increasing the likelihood that people will contract viral diseases, and this is also possible with SARS-CoV-2.
• Exposure to air pollution is an essential risk factor for many of the chronic diseases that make people more likely to become seriously ill, require intensive care, mechanical ventilation, and die from COVID-19.
• Exposure to air pollution can worsen the symptoms of individuals with respiratory infections and increase the risk of hospitalization and death. Despite reductions caused by control measures taken against spreading the virus, current levels of air pollution, which remain dangerous in much of the world, are likely contributing to the number of severe cases of and deaths by COVID-19.’
COVID-19 and air pollution: A dangerous association
Can we make the world great again? Anything is possible.
This is an article to break the spell of viral obsession, there are always other causes.
In the meantime the clock is ticking, COVID will be another event but the lockdown is going to cause immense death soon, it already is but no one wants to admit it.
Since I wrote this in 2020 30 million people have starved to death.
The real problems for most of the world are no food, no water taps or toilets for 3 billion people, no housing and wallowing in pollution which could be fixed by big industries and some attempt by governments to deal with it.
”While 135 million people faced acute food insecurity before COVID-19, that number is expected to almost double this year, to 270 million people. The World Bank expects the number of people in extreme poverty to rise for the first time since the 1990s’
‘An upsurge in violence, combined with the effects of COVID in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has sent the 15.5 million people already facing crisis levels of food insecurity skyrocketing to 22 million.
In northeast Nigeria, meanwhile, 4.3 million people are food insecure, an increase of 600,000. In Burkina Faso, where fighting is taking deeper root, the number of people facing crisis levels of hunger tripled to 3.3 million people, as COVID-19 compounds displacement, security and access problems.
In Yemen, 20 million people are in crisis, with another 3 million potentially facing starvation due to coronavirus. Because of funding cuts, 8.5 million beneficiaries only receive WFP assistance every other month.
“We’ll be forced cut rations for the remaining 4.4 million by December if resources do not increase,” stressed Mr. Beasley. “The world needs to open up its eyes to the Yemeni people before famine takes hold.”
There are no more excuses for failing to act swiftly and decisively, he said. While peace agreements like that in South Sudan offer hope, it is time for the private sector to step up.
There are 2,000 billionaires in the world with a collective net worth of $8 trillion and he called them off the side-lines. WFP needs $4.9 billion for one year to keep 30 million people from dying. “Humanity is facing the greatest crisis any of us have seen in our lifetimes.”
Related reading from me, links to the old blog.
Are We Blaming The Wrong Thing? Nitrogen Dioxide Coughing
This was an intro and will be written about again.
Pandemics, Solar Flares, Cosmic Rays and Nitric Oxide
1918 Flu, Solar Flares, Streptococcus and Starvation from WW1