Air Pollution
Air pollution vs self-suffocation
Buildings Are Making People Sick - Here's How
Buildings are essentially large containers of air. Even though people, pets, and furniture can occupy them too, in some buildings, almost 50% of their volume...
www.youtube.com
"Air is largely an invisible substance and some architects believe that their job is akin to making air and its flow visible."
Brainstorming
- What are the dimensions involved in air quality (pollution quantity, pollutants, humidity, scents...)?
- How does are pollution vary across the world?
- How does are pollution vary across different parts of a city?
- How does weather influence air quality?
- How does air quality influence health and wellbeing?
- How do we measure air quality today?
- How will air quality be measured in the future?
- What solutions are currently being used to improve air quality?
Glossary
- VOCs: Volatile Organic Compounds
- Smog = Smoke + Fog
Weather
- Flooding → rise in mould
- Warmer weather → longer pollen seasons
Types
- Particle pollution: mixture of sold and liquid droplets suspended in the air
- Ground-level ozone pollution (smog): Created when pollutants from cars, power plants, and other known sources chemically react in the air under sunlight
Solutions
- The Clean Air Act of 1970
- Designed to regulate the pollutants most directly correlated to being detrimental to human health
- Added over 1.5 years to the lifespan of average Americans
How London’s Trees Help Boost the Local Economy
Shady trees mean less air conditioning and increased worker productivity in the summer months.
www.bloomberg.com
The findings from the ONS echo a 2015 report partly funded by the London Mayor’s office, which found that the city’s 8.4 million trees removed an estimated 2,240 tonnes of pollutants (mostly ozone) from London’s atmosphere annually, a process that would otherwise have cost 126 million pounds. They sequestered carbon up to a value of 4.79 million pounds and saved the city 2.8 million pounds by alleviating storm water run-off.
“Often when a heritage tree is threatened with removal, you hear, ‘We’re going to plant ten trees to replace it,’” says Phil Wilkes of University College London, author of a study mapping the carbon absorption of London’s trees. “But younger, smaller trees don’t absorb anything like the same amount of carbon, and five or ten years down the line they’re far easier to get rid of if someone wants the land for something else.”
Air Pollution
- In one study of 400 Londoners, life satisfaction fell by 0.5% for every extra 10 milligrams of pollution in their area.