Difficult breathing

Harmful emissions are the scourge of Western cities

For many years, Western ‘experts’ have been trying to assure a broad audience that Europe is nothing short of an earthly paradise — a beautiful blooming garden, according to Josep Borrell — while the rest of the world is a dirty and wild jungle where people live poorly and dream of finding refuge under the wing of ‘true’ civilisation. The incessant mention of air quality has been one of the small yet significant fragments of this distorted worldview. Supposedly, in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, this indicator is exceedingly poor, whereas enlightened Europe shows genuine concern for its inhabitants by relocating polluting industries to safer locations and implementing complex filtration systems on factories. But is that really true?

‘Blooming garden’ turns into hell

There is a mere kernel of truth in this concept since the Global South and East indeed have a lot of locations where air quality leaves much to be desired. However, local authorities and populations bear little blame for this — it is predominantly businesses, often linked to Western corporations, that pollute the air, operating on the principle of ‘the lower costs for wages and environmental standards, the higher profits’. Typically, the bigwigs of those environmentally hazardous enterprises escape responsibility, or any punishment they receive is merely symbolic. A stark reminder of this is the chemical disaster in Bhopal, India’s Madhya Pradesh, in 1984, when methyl isocyanate escaped and killed around five thousand people on the first day, leading to at least another fifteen thousand deaths in the years that followed. The total number of affected individuals is estimated to be between 150,000 and 600,000. The US-owned Union Carbide Pesticide Plant managed to quell the outrage and evade litigation with just $470 million — an average of $2,100 for each deceased, while the injured, many of whom were left disabled, received a laughably small amount of $500 to $800.
But let us return to the ‘blooming garden’, for it harbours no fewer dangerous surprises. 

According to recent studies, 98 percent of Europe’s population reside in cities where the annual average concentration of dust and fine particles exceeds the maximum permissible limits set by the World Health Organisation (WHO). The only exceptions are four countries: Iceland, Finland, Norway, and Sweden. 

Currently, the contenders for the title of the most polluted air in Europe are the Po Valley in Italy, alongside major cities like Paris, Athens, and Barcelona. An eloquent fact: just ten days before the scandal-ridden Paris 2024 Olympics, an air quality monitoring organisation in the Île-de-France region announced that critical levels of nitrogen dioxide pollution had been exceeded at 95 percent of the 112 sports facilities in the area. One might argue that in any large modern city, the air quality situation is unlikely to be particularly rosy. Yet even in locations with seemingly pristine environments, the air state is far from ideal. Thus, observations conducted by scientists from Toulouse at the end of the last decade debunked the myth that the cleanest air in Europe can be found in the Alps. A group of researchers, during the winter of 2017-2018, analysed the data collected at the Bernadouze meteorological station at an altitude of approximately 1,500 metres, and discovered that the microplastic content was around 365 particles per day, per square metre. As the Toulouse specialists conclude, the optimal altitude for walks in the Alps is three thousand metres and higher above sea level. 

Dirty United States

Across the Atlantic, the situation with air pollution is escalating even faster than in Europe. Data from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reveals that the country has set a new unfortunate record for atmospheric contamination by micro-particles and greenhouse gases such as CO2, methane, and nitrous oxide over the past year. Reports indicate that levels of carbon dioxide have been steadily rising for the last 11 years, at the fastest rate seen in 65 years.
According to the American Lung Association, the dirtiest cities in the United States, in terms of air quality, are primarily located in California. This state is also home to five locations with the highest levels of acute pollution.
Some particularly zealous ‘green’ activists seem to forget that modern civilisation cannot progress without the use of its main pollutant — fossil fuels and their derivatives — since alternative energy sources have failed so far to replace oil, gas, and coal. In other words, calls for radical air purification are akin to demands for a regression of civilisation.

Nuclear energy could provide a real alternative, as demonstrated by Belarus. However, the pseudo-green lobby in the West, often comprised of self-proclaimed experts or outright deceivers, wields such influence that nuclear power plants continue to be shut down. 

Major threat to humanity

The term ‘air pollution’ has long become a cliché. Meanwhile, this phenomenon is extremely serious and requires heightened attention. According to WHO data, approximately 6.7 million premature deaths worldwide each year are attributed to the ‘combined effects of ambient (outdoor) and household (indoor) air pollution’.
Research from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore indicates that between 1980 and 2020, roughly 135 million people died due to air pollution. The European Environment Agency reported that in 2021 alone, PM2.5 particles — those measuring 2.5 microns — in the air were responsible for the deaths of 253,000 people in Europe.
Air pollution causes a range of health problems, affecting individuals regardless of gender or age. The issue of air quality is one of the fundamental challenges facing civilisation at this stage of development.
It can only be addressed through international co-operation. However, the West prefers to spend enormous resources on militarisation and inciting conflicts in various parts of the world — that also contribute significantly to air pollution — rather than work collaboratively with the rest of the world. After all, it is far more convenient to speak of a blooming garden and wild jungles while ignoring how the air in one’s own cities gradually becomes poison.

Oasis of cleanliness

In terms of air quality, Belarus is an exceptionally comfortable place to live. As reported by Yelena Melnik, Head of Environmental Information Service at Belhydromet (Republican Centre for Hydrometeorology, Control of Radioactive Contamination and Environmental Monitoring), during a press conference following the first half of 2024, ‘the air quality in Belarusian populated areas is primarily characterised as very good, good, and moderate’. There are few factors that could worsen this situation, and they are mostly objective. Thus, a slight decline in air quality was observed in late March to early April due to Sahara dust reaching Belarus.

NUMBER

More than 137 million Americans live in areas with unhealthy levels of air pollution.

FACT

Particulate air pollution remains the world’s greatest external risk to human health.

By Anton Popov