Seeing Stars

 

An article I published in The New Wolf in July 2011:

Not since the Industrial Revolution has London seen this much pollution. Without such pollution London would see a thirty percent drop in cases of asthma in children, and peoples’ average life expectancy would rise by two years. The main culprits for pollution in cities like London are the burning of fossil fuels, manufacturing in factories, and methane emitted from landfills. The emission of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen and sulfur oxides, and more from fossil fuels does not only come from petroleum-run machinery like cars, trains and airplanes, but also comes from some sources of electricity. Put simply, petroleum is used to produce steam, which gives electro-mechanical generators energy to produce electricity. 

In April of this year, many of the nation’s towns and cities, including London, reached more than double the safe levels of air pollution enforced by the EU. Aside from air pollution, London suffers from light pollution caused by streetlights, household lighting, car headlights and billboards. They project light into the sky, which lights up the air, preventing starlight from reaching us and contributing to an increase in greenhouse gases. For all of these reasons people in cities struggle to see stars in the sky at night.

The UK government acknowledges the importance of targeting pollution, but so far has not done enough. Boris Johnson pushed back an important phase of the Low Emission Zone by another fifteen months to January 2012.

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Image not my own