Saturday, November 09, 2019

A Few Green Issues

As this posts title signifies there are many more green issues than are canvassed below for example, tourism.

The need for action by mankind to reduce the effect of human life on the planet is acute.
The recent reports of the pollution in Delhi India where the atmosphere is almost poisonous being over 50 times the recommended limit, are stark. A reporter in the Times signified that the position there is so poisonous that his children have to be kept indoors until the spring when the pollution begins to abate. They have to be entered meanwhile for schools which have indoor air cleaning for which the fees are expensive.

Much of the problem in India apparently arises from the residue of crops in the field  being burnt after harvesting, though obnoxious fumes from motor traffic plays a huge role in the difficulties as well. 

Old fashioned factories producing huge amounts of fumes are another major part of the issue as I assume are coal fired power stations, which in the UK at least, are being phased out along with coal mining, very quickly.

Apparently the new but very temporary, law  in Delhi, outlawing motor traffic vehicles with odd registration numbers one day and then even numbered vehicles being outlawed the next, as the French did in Paris,  is not having a a noticeable effect and many are simply hiring second cars with different registration plates to overcome the driving bans.

The same issue in China a few years ago was dealt with more or less successfully though with some draconian measures, resulting in over 7,000 polluting factory closures being necessary before the improvements began to come through.

London by contrast comes through remarkably well though is still over-polluted. 

Nuclear electricity generation  was  thought of as overcoming some of these problems.  The French have invested heavily in nuclear power stations but the huge difficulties in building the current generation of nuclear power stations not to mention the costs, probably signify that that is no answer. Also there are problems I believe, with some of their existing nuclear power stations.

Fusion power may be the way forward in years to come.  

Meanwhile wind energy for the UK appears to be providing a partial answer.  Electric cars of course would assist as well but really only if they are powered by electricity produced with minimum pollution. Of course  decent electric cars would need to be capable of travelling relatively long distances before needing to be re-charged. Recharging  electric cars would then need to be speedy and hopefully, inexpensive.

A long way to go then in my view.

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