And another thing. In this internet world of ours, what media outlet would announced the findings of a controversial report without linking to the damn thing? The BBC, for one. “The city’s air quality is well below EU targets and is having a ‘severe impact’ on the NHS, the London Assembly’s Environment Committee said. The research also found that emissions from diesel vehicles remains the main source of pollution. It urged the mayor to take more ‘bold action’ on the issue.” Why is it that whenever a political quango (or the media) calls for “bold action” I want to run the other way? Turns out the headline figure comes from here: “Government estimates suggest that air pollution contributes to around 1,000 premature deaths in London each year, but recent data from the European Environment Agency suggests that this could be closer to 3,000. However, both of these figures are estimations for London, based on calculations from UK figures, since the Committee is not aware of accurate, empirical data for London.” More specifically, here: “recent report from the European Environment Agency indicates that air pollution contributed to 650 deaths per million people in the UK in 2005. This could indicate up to 3,000 deaths for London based on its population.” Science much? Anyway, public transportation (i.e., busses) kills. Who knew?
“It urged the mayor to take more ‘bold action’ on the issue.”
“Bold action” is a euphemism for something the public doesn’t like, but that elite opinion supports.
Make that diesel buses kill, as well as other diesel vehicles.
The proposed solutions include biogas-powered buses, using biodiesel for fewer emissions, hybrid-electric buses, and EV’s – looks like the trolley/tram is due for a comeback.
They need some good GM Hybrid Buses
Since British Leyland is long gone, may I suggest mayor Boris to consider American Leyland’s product? It’s backed by our best salesmen Barack!
Wow, talk about a misleading headline. The report blames emissions from diesel vehicles, of which buses and taxis are but a fraction. Aren’t something like half of all the passenger vehicles sold in England diesel powered, as well as nearly all of the small, medium and large trucks?
The point is that most diesel engines emit very high emissions levels, particularly of particulates, and that said pollution is a real health hazard in densely populated areas with high amounts of diesel powered vehicle traffic. Nothing new or controversial about those findings.
Well, it’s undeniably true that, were it not for buses, those 3000 theoretical people would have lived forever and ever.
Honestly, I get what they’re trying to say and it’s important to try and quantify the nebulous effect that environmental hazards have on a population, but unless 3000 people are getting sqaushed by buses in the streets of London each year, this is alarmism and silliness.
Makes “swine flu” seem like a piker (I mean the H1N1 virus). All people in London should be wearing masks, not only to protect themselves, but to help clean the air with each inhalation.
Maybe a science-minded (and bored) member of the B&B could calculate how many hard-breathing Londoners it would take to clean the particulate emissions from one double-decker?
Sing along with me the journalists’ version of Billy Joel’s We didn’t start the fire:
Killer buses on their way
Global warming, Y2K
Swine got flu, people too
Apocalypses pay my way
To see how ridiculous this is, think for just a minute about what the situation would be if all the diesel-powered vehicles in London were instead powered by gasoline. Think that would make a huge difference in emissions? Probably only incremental, but fuel costs would be higher….
Not only that, but think of all the nasty, bad carbon dioxide that Londoners would exhale if they had to run or walk to get where they were going. Dear me….
This figure of 3000 premature deaths does not surprise me at all. Of course, the truest comparisons are years of life lost, and asthma rates among children rather than this single number.
A recent visit to London convinced me that the air is polluted in a way that large U.S. cities not in mountain bowls are not.
For all the claims of modern clean diesel vehicles, even the newest VWs seem to have the back bumpers covered with soot.
Gasoline-powered vehicles have the advantage that they end up stopped on the side of the road relatively quickly once they become gross polluters. Diesels seem to belch on for ages longer.
Richard Chen: “Make that diesel buses kill, as well as other diesel vehicles.”
Step into a locked, sealed room with an idling gasoline vehicle, and an idling Diesel vehicle and see which one actually KILLS.
I know which one will kill, and it isn’t the Diesel.
–chuck