George has discovered another thing that is murdering us all in our beds as we live ever longer lives in ever better health. Now it’s ammonia:
Many rural people will be surprised to see how polluted their air is, but that’s because the media seldom mention the major source of these particles: ammonia from farms. A study by researchers at University College London found that even in cities, ammonia from farms produces more particulate pollution than the cities themselves do. Farm ammonia contributes 25% of the PM2.5s in London, 32% in Birmingham and 38% in Leicester, while these cities generate from 13-24% of their own PM2.5 pollution (the rest blows in from mainland Europe or comes from construction and road traffic outside the city, shipping emissions and dust from distant deserts).
Well, yes, although the paper we’ve found indicates that farms and ammonia aren’t the source of the particles, they are what allow the particles to form out of dust and so on. But OK, let’s run with George.
It is true that very few areas of the world meet the standards for non-pollution:
We explore if this guideline is attainable across different regions of the world using a series of model sensitivity simulations for 2019. Our results indicate that >90% of the global population is exposed to PM2.5 concentrations that exceed the 5 μg m–3 guideline and that only a few sparsely populated regions (largely in boreal North America and Asia) experience annual average concentrations of <5 μg m–3. We find that even under an extreme abatement scenario, with no anthropogenic emissions, more than half of the world’s population would still experience annual PM2.5 exposures above the 5 μg m–3 guideline (including >70% and >60% of the African and Asian populations, respectively), largely due to fires and natural dust.
That is, the PMI 2.5 limit that WHO currently insists upon is something that’s simply not achievable in a world which includes weathering - dust that is. As to why we’ve a limit so nonsensical that’s just because WHO halved the limits recently.
Yes, we do in fact mean this. The current guidelines, the ones that lead to those stories about 98% of Europeans being killed by air pollution, are based upon a standard that is not achievable even if there were no humans at all to produce pollution. We would suggest these standards are perhaps a little too strict. As in, ludicrous.
At which point the most obvious point to make is that the ULEZ - or any more of them - is clearly nonsensical. The pollution isn’t caused by the vehicles so limiting vehicles won’t change the pollution. And don’t forget that our proof here is direct from the pen of George Monbiot.
We can, and should, go further though. As George says, if the pollution comes from both fertiliser (ammonium nitrate, that artificial stuff that keeps us alive by feeding us) and also from animal dung then we’ll have to stop using both. That means, of course, no meat. But that also has a further effect. For if we can’t use the usual fertiliser, and also we can’t use animal dung because we haven’t got any, then we’re going to have to draw straws for the 90% of humanity who get to starve to death.
Oh, and we’ll also have to kill off that rewilding idea because we’re going to have to use absolutely every scrap of land to feed the 800 million of us left after that cull. Because if we’ve not got fertiliser of any type then that’s just the amount of land we’re going to have to use - all of it.
At which point perhaps it might be possible to inject some sense into the conversation. As always, everything is a series of trade offs. So, on the one hand we’ve air pollution standards the same as we had before Sept 2021. On the other hand, trying to meet this new standard, the death of 90% of humanity, the wiping out of every piece of nature that’s not a food crop and even then we still cannot meet the standard because meteorology and geology - that dust.
We suggest - just as a proposal you understand, a subject for discussion - putting the WHO back in its box and firing up the barbie for a steak. You all will be driving around to partake, yes?