Yes, we can still breath clean air.
The question, then, is where can we do so. The answer is not what we expected: inside a car. Just go and try. Take a ride on a bycicle through any town, or a walk not far from any road in your city, and you’d have breath lots of NOx, SOx and COx. You can even notice the smell. Now, go and do the same inside a modern car: you’d problably have moved in a clean and filtered atmosphere (as long as your car is clean. If it’s dusty as hell, you better not take the test!).
Bad air quality, he main cause of premature dead in the EU.
Pollution was the direct cause of 500.000 deaths in 2013
Cars are the main polluters of the air surronding us. They are not the only ones, but they are the closest one and the biggest one. If we need any other probe, take a look at this manufacturer everybody is speaking about lately: Tesla. According to Elon Musk, the air inside the vehicle will be “cleaner than that of a hospital”. Furthermore, it can protect you from biological weapons. In other words: the air inside will be much cleaner than in any mountain top around us.
That gives us a clear clue: top range products value clean air a lot. That can only mean that the air around us is not clean.
There’s lots of people saying that the electric car will not have any impact on global emissions, that total consumptions will stay the same (more pollution in the places where the electricity is generated). But our cities will be much more cleaner, the air will be much more breathable. Take into account that 54% of global population live in cities nowadays (and that’s 75% in Europe and 82% in the USA).
Some might say that the solution comes from selling less cars, using public transport, etc. It probably is true, but that goes against our current trend: our economy is based on selling more, not less. And that’s not going to change overnight. At this moment, the oposite is nothing but a pretty utopia. Some say a change is coming… but that’s still to be seen.
There is a curious element in the path of pollution: us, humans.
We can buy products that respect clean air. We can ask for clean air: our politics can give priority to clean air above some other issues. Some countries are already doing that: Sweden has accepted the right to clean air.
“The right of the children to breath clean air, is above the right a driver to circulate in any road.”
Those are the words of a Swedish minister. On other side, there was a politician in Madrid claiming “her right to use the car in any street of the city” above any other question. When it becomes a mentality problem, it is quite clear who can solve the issue, right?
We need clean cars. We need less cars on our roads. We need to limit where can traffic be and where not. It will be better for everybody. Even for you, though you might not notice it.