The same China that is building over 50 new coal fired power stations, as is India, and that has built 52 new airports with another 25 under construction whilst we have been discussing building one extra runway at Heathrow?
As the article says, it’s clear they aren’t doing enough. Point is they are doing something as well as what you’ve said.
That seems to be the focus, without having the robust evidence to demonstrate that the 'something' they are doing will actually achieve the goal they seem to be striving for, and without fully considering the other consequences of that 'something' and whether that could result in other problems that could be worse than the ones they think they need to resolve.
We have reduced our carbon footprint more than virtually any other country. But we have idiots lying in the road about our need to reduce our emissions and not even drill for more oil whilst China is having more and more airports open with more and more flights and reopening one coal mine would be a disaster whilst they build over 50 new coal fired power stations. Looking forward to next tear’s holiday thread as you all tell us about your cycling holidays wearing sackcloth and ashes.
It's a piss poor argument for doing nothing. It's a better argument for doing a lot more to determine what the problem is you are trying to resolve, and identify the best mitigation to resolve that, whilst at the same time making sure you don't just swap one problem for another.
Not seen any figures of the number of flights on a normal day compared to the number during covid and how those numbers relate to pollution levels.
Aye You’re right. Every country should immediately stop doing anything as soon as they’ve done more than another country. I know I help cause it with flights as well. I’m not preaching particularly. All I’m saying is we shouldn’t slate off what is being done even if that same country is doing the opposite as well. It must, logically, be better than them doing the opposite but not doing anything good. Anyway I’m allowed to fly because I do that instead of eating meat and dairy…
Published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology Letters, the study analyzed measurements of ultrafine particles, referred to as particle number concentration (PNC), that were collected before and during the first year of COVID at a rooftop site near Boston’s Logan International Airport. The findings revealed that during the state-of-emergency period from April-June 2020, average PNC was 48 percent lower than pre-pandemic levels, corresponding with flight activity that was 74 percent lower, highway traffic volume that was 51 percent lower, and local traffic volume that was 39 percent lower than pre-pandemic levels.
The point is that whatever a country producing 1% of the emissions does to reduce its emissions it will have no effect whilst a country producing 27% of the world’s emissions does not decrease its own drastically.
I read somewhere, that if all the countries that produce 1% of emissions reduced them to zero, it would reduce total emissions by around a third. That being the case, it's certainly worth us 1%ers having a good go at it, at least then we're in a position to preach to others (though China have already committed to net zero by 2060, which is only ten years later than the UK target and I reckon they're more likely to hit theirs than we are).
