Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Will my kids die earlier than they should?
Not a pleasant thought but my kids spend a lot of time on Green Lanes going to and from school and I worry about how this might effect their health in future years. The pollution is often visible and they are probably breathing in all kinds of invisible poisons. Does anyone know where I might be able to get some credible and independent stats on pollution levels on Green Lanes to put my mind at ease (at least relatively)?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Brian Johansson on
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Ruben - you have so much wrong here. Firstly, the post is about the level of pollution. Your implication that urban living = cars smacks of cognitive dissonance and is like the smoker saying "we'll all die anyway". The point you have missed is not to do away with all cars (or to "ban cars from roads"), it's to improve air quality.
So, whereas I am sure you may be super efficient in your car usage (I assume that's how you're actively supporting air pollution reduction - or does support mean turning a blind eye to people who protest now and again) the issue is for the rest of us to be encouraged to use polluting cars less not more. There are many examples of such changes occurring successfully in urban areas (copenhagen, amsterdam, berlin, etc etc).
Ironic statement about rubbish collections. Rubbish is just waste. Pollution is just waste. Doesn't more rubbish collections we are consuming too much? Rubbish collections are designed around capacity. Not consumerism.
How about we just consume less? There's too much shit in the world.
Our children will have highly relevant facts to hand (in the future) about the time when something could have been done (today), but when many of us chose to do nothing. Personally, I'd like to look them in the eye and say I did what I could.
That wasn't making rash judgements about people making factual statements about a significant public health issue.
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Permalink Reply by Ruben on
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the rubbish collections is not ironic and I share your view. I did not mean consuming more but rather I'd have my tax spent on the lorry coming in twice a week so the foul smell and flies (especially in summer) don't accumulate so much. I'd rather have half a bin collected twice than a full bin once.
The planting of trees helps negate the air pollution and makes the neighbourhood better. Super. All in for it. That's positive approach. Anything like that will have all my support.
My point was not about defending cars. Rather the fact that in london we pollute a lot less than the countryside (no tractors, no long car drives, etc) but we are more densely populated, so even if we do a fraction, the concentration of it is always going to be higher. Plus government targets into building more homes is only going to make things worse: if the target was to get 240,000 homes more that could put between half to 1 million more people in london. they will produce rubbish, have cars (even if a very small percentage). How many measures do you need to put in to offset that?
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Hi Ruben
Well I think it's important to talk in facts first. The issue of air pollution in cities is due to the choices people make. If you want to talk about environmental issues in the countryside - that is a different issue.
I don't share your view on rubbish. There are better ways for the local authority, contractor and households to vastly improve on waste management. We are not incentivised to 'do the right thing' and instead it becomes something for those of a good nature. Putting more trucks on the road does not solve anything long term.
To return to the point, per capita pollution may be less here/more than elsewhere, however this is an issue of density and maximums. I get tired of the 'well the chinese are doing this so why should we...' approach. This discussion is about our area. There is too much air pollution (fact) and it effects our health (fact). Significantly. The costs of this are much higher I assure than the cost of waste disposal. This is affecting us.
The final fact is that there is huge scope to reduce pollution. If everyone (including those additional households you mention) rode a bike or drove an electric car there would be much much less air pollution at higher density. Now how do we get to that place? Do we want to get there?
So rather than seek to compound problems by pointing over there and saying "well they do this", focus on the problem in front, and lets think about some ideas to reduce road pollution in our own area, and be part of a local solution to a local problem.
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Permalink Reply by GillianM on
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http://www.harringayonline.com/forum/topics/new-study-on-air-pollut...
This is the post I was thinking of.
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Permalink Reply by Sapphireblue on
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When mynow adult daughter was born we moved out if London into rural Oxford ... for the very reasons you describe... apart from fact I missed London, felt isolated, no adult company, rained a lot... , kids had to be driven miles to activities, they crop sprayed (with small planes)the surrounding fields with dangerous chemicals, without thought for drift, on a regular basis... My happiest day was driving back over the North Circ sitting next to driver of our Removals van...
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Permalink Reply by CanadianMichael on
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I am glad Scotland voted No (and I volunteered Monday at Westminster calling up Scots asking them to) but I supposed your kids missed an opportunity to increase their life expectancy... http://order-order.com/2014/09/15/rainfall-down-life-expectancy-up-...
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Permalink Reply by Chris on
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I'd be more worried about the pollution on the tubes, some days you can even see a smoggy haze from one end of the platform to another.
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