This weekend is Burns Night. And for those without Scottish roots, relax, no-one is burning anything - there was enough of that at Hogmanay!
So we thought we would return to our occasional topic of air pollution in Glasgow. But first a quick quote from Burns himself on the subject of tim’rous beasties in To A Mouse:
I’m truly sorry Man’s dominion
Has broken Nature’s social union,
An’ justifies that ill opinion,
Which makes thee startle,
At me, thy poor, earth-born companion,
An’ fellow-mortal!
Unfortunately we do feel that nature’s social union has been broken, with no better evidence than the levels of air pollution we are all exposed to. And it breaks unions within societies too, as this study from researchers in Glasgow has found. The study found that communities of Indian origin were significantly more likely to live in areas that had the worst decile (10%) of air pollution. Chinese-origin groups fared little better.
This will not be surprising to readers of this blog. We have covered ‘air inequality;’ many times. So what is Glasgow city doing about it? In our last guest blog from Glasgow, Derek spoke about various traffic-related improvements, including targeting the notorious Hope Street. But is there hope? This report shows early promise from the impact of the new Low Emissions Zone. It does emphasise early promise, and that there is a long way to go still.
Makes my blood boil
As for the actual burning, last night was Clean Air Night and it looks like the campaign went really well this year! Lots of local authorities and campaign groups were actively spreading information about the harms of domestic wood burning. Well done Global Action Plan!
An organisation that’s had more of a shock this week is the World Health Organisation. As many will know, the WHO leads work on air pollution and health, including setting the targets that we write about regularly here. This week the US pulled out of the WHO. Thankfully the US Environmental Protection Agency is doing its best to keep Americans safe. Much as we would love to be a fly on the wall at the WHO’s upcoming conference in Colombia, there may be some soul searching…
Happy birthday to us!
From global organisation to (ahem) another organisation with global reach. Our commercial side, Air Aware Labs is one year old today. Please give us a like on Instagram and LinkedIn!
We are used to lots of user research and engagement at Air Aware Labs. So, to round off this bumper edition, please can you leave us some feedback on our survey?
In the absence of LinkedIn and Instagram Happy Birthday