The paradox: The West burns more fossil fuels per capita but has healthier air

https://www.iqair.com/us/world-air-quality-report

Source: IQAir

By Jo Nova

The trend is clear: Burning more fossil fuels per person means less polluted air

Tell the world: two weeks ago a new study showed Australians and New Zealanders breathe the cleanest air on Earth. Not far behind them are people in the US, Canada, most of western Europe and Japan.

Naturally, hypnotized journalists  either ignored the story or repeated the magic spell conclusions that fossil fuels were to blame, along with wildfires “caused by climate change”. All of them momentarily forgetting that Australians burn more fossil fuels per capita than nearly anywhere on Earth and are also renown for wildfires so big they drop ash on New Zealand.

The best air in the world turns out to be in nations that burn a lot of fossil fuels per person. The most polluted air is in poorer nations, poor sods.

Report: Only six countries met ‘healthy’ air quality standards in 2022

March 14 (UPI) — Just six countries had “healthy” air quality levels last year, as air pollution surged across the globe.

Only Australia, Estonia, Finland, Grenada, Iceland and New Zealand, met the World Health Organization’s air quality guidelines, according to IQAir, a company that tracks air quality.

Seven territories in the Pacific and Caribbean also met the threshold, which calls for an average air pollution level of 5 micrograms per cubic meter or less.

The study looked at fine particulate matter, or PM2.5, which comes from fossil fuels, dust storms and wildfires. It has been linked to a number of respiratory illnesses.

The study was done by IQAir which tracks air quality. The CEO of the North American branch has the unlikely name of Glory Dolphin Hammes, and she “attributed the global rise in air pollution to the continued burning of fossil fuels.”

[CNN] Around the world, researchers said, the main sources of air pollution last year were wildfires and the burning of fossil fuels for transportation and energy production, which wreaks havoc on the most vulnerable and marginalized communities.

“This is literally about how we as a planet are continuing this unhealthy relationship with fossil fuels,” Hammes said. “We are still dependent on fossil fuels and fossil fuels are responsible for the majority of air pollution that we encounter on this planet.”

While Hammes is concerned with our relationship with fossil fuels she might want to learn about power plant engineering instead. What matters is not whether you hate coal or love it, but whether you have good engineers.

Australians and Americans burn more fossil fuels per capita than nearly anywhere yet have the cleanest air.

Countries that use more fossil fuels per capita have cleaner air. OWID -- fossil fuel use per capita.

Countries that use more fossil fuels per capita have cleaner air   |  Source: OWID

Apparently just thinking about solar and wind power makes for “less pollution”:

Hammes said countries must learn from each other, noting that the countries with best air quality, for example, are the ones taking on specific actions to transition away from polluting industries and into greener forms of energy, such as solar and wind.

The worst air is in places that can’t afford to build centralized, well engineered fossil fueled plants.

Chad topped the list of countries with the worst air pollution, registering a level of 89.7 micrograms per cubic meter.

IQAIR, air pollution, worst countries. Graph.

Click to enlarge or visit CNN

Chad has the worst air in the world, but it doesn’t have a single coal fired power plant. Total electricity production in Chad is 314MW among 14 million people. Mostly diesel and gas.

Thirty-nine of the 50 cities with the worst air pollution were in India, which also ranked as one of the worst countries in overall pollution.

Columbus, Ohio; Atlanta and Chicago topped the list of major US cities with the worst air quality.

Obviously population density matters, but some of the most densely populated points on Earth are Hong Kong which kept levels down to 14.4 µg/m in 2022, and Tokyo which is now under 10 µg/m3.

IQAIR may not understand the energy industry, or the driving cause of particulates, but it does have cool graphics and an interactive map you can zoom in on. If only journalists could do some research and ask Ms Glory Dolphin Hammes a hard question before they repeat her incantations.

About the study:

The 2022 World Air Quality Report reviews the status of air quality around the world for the year 2022. This report presents PM2.5 air quality data from 7,323 cities across 131 countries, regions, and territories. The data used in this report was aggregated from over 30,000 regulatory air quality monitoring stations and low-cost air quality sensors.

The air quality data utilized in the 2022 World Air Quality Report was sourced from IQAir’s real-time online air quality monitoring platform which validates, calibrates, and harmonizes air quality data from monitoring stations located around the world.

9.7 out of 10 based on 73 ratings

69 comments to The paradox: The West burns more fossil fuels per capita but has healthier air

  • #
    Harves

    The left will consider this data and conclude that air pollution is racist.

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  • #

    It sounds like a point in time snapshot study. Worst countries are semi desert or desert. Dust and smoke are the main contributors: in the last couple of years Australia has had heaps of rain (washes air clean) little drought (so not as much dust) and few bushfires. 2019 might have been a slightly different story.
    So as with global warming- more of a case of changes in precipitation and wind direction. Oh, and wood and dung fires inside dwellings.

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    • #

      Ken, they talk about this as live data “real-time” online and averaged across a year. They report averages from each point on the map going back at least five years. I’ve just added in that info at the bottom of the post after your question to answer it.

      Clicking on the map, Werribee near Melbourne was 8.9µg/m3 in 2020 but only 3.3µg/m3 in 2022. Fires and rain do make a difference. My problem was how all roads lead to “climate change” and how Australia had clean air because of “the transition”.

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      • #
        KP

        In the past the brightest people went to university and gained degrees, and drove the human race forward.

        Oh, said someone in Govt, degrees cause progress, we could progress even faster if everyone had degrees..

        So they lowered University standards and everyone went to university. The problem arose that everybody needed to write a thesis, and there were only a few subjects worth researching.

        Well, said someone in Govt, let everyone write their thesis about climate change and how everything affects it…

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        • #
          Dennis

          And in Australia 2022/23 the shortage of qualified trades people is causing major building and construction project problems, driving up wages/contract rates and unlikely to improve in the foreseeable future.

          A builder family member told me that when tradies turn up for an interview they are not the best and better qualified for home handyman jobs, all of the good ones are employed.

          COVID-19 lockdowns did not help as many foreigner carpenters and others left Australia in a hurry worried about the virus and being out of a job with no income and no Centrelink support. And now, after selling vehicles and tools for below market value as well none are prepared to return to Australia, and that includes from the UK.

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          • #
            David Maddison

            Good points Dennis. I am renovating a house at the moment and it is almost impossible to get decent tradesmen apart from the few that I’ve found hence me doing a lot of work myself and teaching myself new skills such as drywall plastering.

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        • #
          Gary S

          And as if to illustrate the point, two more building firms went under today.

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        • #
          DOC

          KP. I think it was governments of the left that associated better pay with university degrees.
          They never considered progress coming from learning something and actually having the responsibility of thinking. Progress is a nebulous concept to them and historically the left despised graduates. funnily enough because of that earning power. In socialism, all people are equal, regardless of talent or hard work and endeavour.

          Nobody should be paid more than anybody else. Worked well for politicians and bureaucrats, with or without degrees, who got increasing pay which went beyond what their peers as CEO’s and workers were earning, while retaining all their perks. It was all an income envy pushing ‘equivalence’.

          In the degree process, they destroyed the selection criteria for entrance, replaced lecturers in many cases with screen learning and occasional question sessions face to face as the numbers sky rocketed.Then there was the change in exam pass requirements but that’s another story.

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      • #
        Bruce

        Jo:

        This caper is how “political science” works.

        ALWAYS a “solution” in search of a “problem”.

        It is also utterly unsurprising that the “solutions” have a distinct air of “finality” about them: “Final Solutions”, as it were.

        In the words of some of the “notables:

        “We need to get some broad based support, to capture the public’s imagination…So we have to offer up scary scenarios, make simplified, dramatic statements and make little mention of any doubts…Each of us has to decide what the right balance is between being effective and being honest.
        Prof. Stephen Schneider, , Stanford Professor of Climatology, lead author of many IPCC reports

        This is the first time in the history of mankind that we are setting ourselves the task of intentionally, within a defined period of time, to change the economic development model that has been reigning for at least 150 years, since the Industrial Revolution.
        Christiana Figueres, Executive secretary of U.N.’s Framework Convention on Climate Change.

        “Isn’t the only hope for the planet that the industrialized civilizations collapse? Isn’t it our responsibility to bring that about?”
        Maurice Strong, Founder of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP)

        Anyone still struggling with what is REALLY going on here?

        240

  • #
    Neville

    Interesting that the southern part of South Africa is very clean and yet this is where the big cities are and most of the power stns.
    And interesting that the UK and France per capita co2 emissions are now below China and yet China is allowed to build more Coal power stns at a very fast pace.
    Why is it so?

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    • #
      Patrick Donnelly

      Reread the article!
      Until a certain level is reached, pollution is high.

      03

    • #

      Neville,
      Would you go to China, and tell the delightful President Xi to stop building fossil fuel power stations, and have, instead, lots more bat-busters and solar panels [which work so well at night, don’t they?]; and wait for his response?

      I would be happy to delegate that job!
      And I suspect that you would agree!

      Auto

      10

  • #

    Yes, and fine particles indeed are a problem. Burning wood in poor Countries is a big problem for air quality (of course).

    CO2 is not a pollutant and as far as I know does not in the ‘air’ that we breathe cause respiratory problems.

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    • #
      b.nice

      CO2 doesn’t cause problems until its up around 3000-5000ppm, then only causes a bit of drowsiness.

      Closed rooms can easily reach 1500ppm, but other olfactory gases can cause problems in a closed room 😉

      Submariners acclimatise, and regularly work at high precision in a closed atmosphere of 8000+ppm.

      Humans breath out some 40,000 ppm each breath, as part of the life-giving Carbon Cycle.!

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    • #
      Graeme#4

      I’m not sure that fine particles are a problem. The EPA, in developing their 2.5 ppm standard, apparently used a lot of very dodgy studies to determine that standard.

      60

  • #
    David Maddison

    There are huge amounts of respiratory diseases in Third World countries due to indoor cooking fires using wood or animal dung rather than superior fossil fuels such as propane. Or electricity, but there’s not a lot of electricity in Third World countries and such countries are told by the UN/Left they can’t have proper coal or gas power plants.

    However, the Chicomms are colonising Africa and will build proper power stations for them. The Africans just have to give up their sovereignity and all their mineral wealth and supply slave labour for the lithium and cobalt mines, that’s all….

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    • #
      Dennis

      Power stations David, but wind turbines and solar panels are much cheaper and the fuel is free.

      sarc.

      190

    • #
      Graeme#4

      According to the WHO, around 3 billion people worldwide use open polluting fires or simple stoves fuelled by kerosene, biomass and coal. Every year, close to 4 million people, mostly women and children, die prematurely from illnesses attributable to household air pollution. Close to half the deaths due to pneumonia are among children under 5 years of age, caused by pollution from particulate matter inhaled from household air pollution.
      What these households need most is access to cheap energy.

      50

  • #
    Neville

    Thanks for your research Jo but I think the greatest paradox is why the poor African population has boomed over the last 70 years, 50 years and 30 + years.
    Of course their life expectancy has also boomed from 36 years in 1950 to 64 years today.
    But GLOBAL life expectancy was only 45.5 years in 1950 and didn’t reach 64 years until 1990.
    So how can the poorest continent with little per capita power supply increase their population from 227 million in 1950 to over 1400 million today and also much higher life expectancy as well?
    At least it proves beyond any doubt that our climate today is very BENIGN and easily sets the record for Human Flourishing for the last 200,000 + years.
    Of course the rest of the world is running in a close second place.
    Look up the data for yourselves and ask why we would want to change anything?

    https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/WLD/world/life-expectancy

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    • #
      David-of-Cooyal-in-Oz

      Perhaps the fact that a large part of Africa lies in that part of the earth said to be in the climate zone, between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, given the climate label of tropical, meaning warm?
      Cheers
      Dave B

      70

    • #

      Many African countries have oil & gas with Nigeria the main one but Libya & Algeria also high see here https://www.statista.com/statistics/1178514/main-oil-producing-countries-in-africa/. Nigeria is also the most populous country with 206 million. They are not poor. Eygpt with 102 million also has oil and gas. Ethiopia’s population of 115 million has been sustained by gifts & finance by Western countries. It has fertile soil which has been greening from an improved climate. Ethiopa also has natural gas. The major population that live in the mountinous areas are not poor.

      40

  • #
    Albos broke Australia

    When the lights start going out and our country’s coffers dwindle because of the ALP climate change alarmists policy’s, all you climate change alarmists, GREENS, TEALS, ALP, striking school kids,can pat yourselves on your back for destroying your future, enjoy, bwahaha.

    50

    • #

      AbA:
      See at the top of the page, please.

      ” JoNova
      A perfectly good civilization is going to waste…”

      Sad – but has a real risk of happening ….

      Auto
      PS – I’m not suggesting you’re wrong

      10

  • #
    David Maddison

    Apart from a highly benign climate, I think Africa’s population is up due to reduced child mortality due to vaccination for traditional childhood diseases (not covid “vaccination” which had a poor uptake and would have made no difference to childhood or adult mortality).

    Apart from vaccination there is widespread use of hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin to treat or prevent various diseases like malaria and parasitic diseases like river blindness and elephantisis with incidental benefits conferring resistance to covid.

    200

    • #
      David Maddison

      That was meant to be a reply to Neville at #6. I deleted it with the edit function and replied to Neville as intended but this comment re-appeared and the reply to Neville got trapped as a duplicate….

      40

  • #
    Dennis

    My 4WD 3-litre Diesel Euro-5 emissions rated has a very clean exhaust pipe and towing a heavy trailer boat or caravan does not produce diesel-like exhaust emissions.

    Recently serviced at 130,000 Kilometres, purchased new 2017.

    110

    • #
      KP

      When catalytic converters were introduced there were advertisements saying a new car emitted cleaner air than it sucked in around LA or San Francisco.

      170

      • #
        Dennis

        Another clean burning Diesel fuel technology was abandoned, Diesel-Gas, injected LPG with Diesel and for a 3-litre engine 20 per cent recommended but subject to tuning, the gain was 20 per cent more torque and power measured at the rear wheels, the gain was from better combustion of Diesel and lower emissions resulting.

        Diesel fuel burn was typically around 80 per cent without LPG injected and 90 plus per cent with.

        And also consider the ships engines and electricity generators now using CNG only.

        90

  • #
    Chris

    Analysis and comparisons of pollution levels between countries on a per capita basis is meaningless. Note in that regard that all of the countries relied on to support the writer’s findings are sparsely populated.

    24

    • #
      Dennis

      Australian Federal Immigration is determined to increase the population here, next target 35 million from the present 26 million, and since May 2022 400,000 migrants settled which I assume included the Rudd Labor Government entry into Australia (Temporary Protection Visa) 50,000 that the Albanese Labor Government decided can stay here, resettled and family reunion permitted.

      80

      • #
        KP

        In that case we should drop AUKUS and form a close alliance with Indonesia, making us a country that would be difficult to invade.

        It will get us out of the Yank’s wars and speed up the inevitable, that of Aussie becoming another Asian country with a white minority.

        40

      • #
        ozfred

        And ensuring that the urban populations in Australia continue to grow?

        20

    • #

      “Analysis and comparisons of pollution levels between countries on a per capita basis is meaningless. ”

      Not at all. It shows that their line blaming fossil fuels for pollution is wrong.

      Sydney and Melbourne are cities of 5 million largely powered by fossil fuels, yet air quality is good.

      The truth is that wealth comes from cheap energy (among other things) and with wealth, people can build and maintain old but largely clean power plants in large grid networks, even ones that run on dirty brown coal.

      All the wealthy nations look after the environment and minimize air pollution. All the poor nations don’t have that luxury. Therefore things that damage the economy and reduce GDP are a threat to the environment.

      China is cleaning its air as it grows wealthier, though it still runs very old dirty plants as well as hot new advanced ones. And as I said in the post, the most densely packed cities on Earth — HK and Tokyo manage to have moderate to good air, unlike most of Africa and parts of China which don’t.

      What’s meaningless is saying that solar and wind power are making Australian air cleaner.

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      • #

        Joanne mentions this: (my bolding here)

        China is cleaning its air as it grows wealthier, though it still runs very old dirty plants as well as hot new advanced ones. And as I said in the post, the most densely packed cities on Earth — HK and Tokyo manage to have moderate to good air, unlike most of Africa and parts of China which don’t.

        It’s actually an amazing thing when you go looking for something like this. Now, no one from the green side of the fence would even bother to look for something like this, and I only chased it down with an obscure text entered into a search engine, and finding it hidden away on page three of the links which came up.
        In a manner EXACTLY the same as what happened in the U.S. between the end of WW2 and the mid to late 60s, power plant technology improved out of sight. Across the U.S. there were literally hundreds and hundreds of tiny coal fired power plants, ranging in Nameplate from 1MW to 10MW, and some larger ones, even up as high as 200MW. The average output was around 25MW.
        As the technology improved, new plants came on line with 500MW units to 660MW and with four Units at each plant, so total Nameplates between 2000MW and 2640MW.
        Now, with much larger Nameplate, hand in hand with that was transmission distances increasing out of sight. (and hey, isn’t transmission distance something that green believers have zero concept of, you know wind plants in Cairns delivering excess power into Victoria and all that, an absolutely impossible thing)

        So as these large plants came on line, those tiny little tiddlers (with huge emissions of all sorts of pollution) all were closed down. It got to the stage that plants even up to 400MW were closing down as new plants came on line, now with four Units of 720MW (total Nameplate of 2880MW, umm , you know like Eraring)

        (Blah blah blah)

        The exact same thing happened in China as those new tech UltraSuperCritical (USC) plants came on line.

        Only (harking back to what I mentioned above) what happened here was that someone thought ….. hey, why not retrofit some of those older larger Units to the new technology.

        So, that’s what they did, and are still doing.

        The tiny little tiddlers (and now 250MW is considered a tiddler) are all just totally shut down, no need for them whatsoever.

        However, middling units 300MW to 500MW and more in some cases, are all being retrofitted with the new USC technology.

        But hey, Tony, that coal loving dinosaur WOULD SAY THAT, wouldn’t he, eh?

        So, here’s the link to just what the Chinese are doing.

        Now, here, keep in mind that USC has a 20%+ lowering of CO2 emissions compared with the older technology, and hand in hand with the new tech, these plants also lower EVERY other emission considered as pollution.

        Oh boy, the lessons we could learn from the Chinese.

        They don’t just flat out ignore all this $h1t. They just go out and find ways to do it better.

        We give China a hard time for what they do, but they are in fact LEADING the World in coal fired power.

        ALL of the biggies (did I emphasise that word … ALL enough) are now mostly based in China, and China is leading the advancement of power plant design.

        Poke $h1t at me all you like you greenies.

        All I’ll do is sh00t you down.

        Tony.

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  • #
    OldOzzie

    Editorials

    If only Deb Haaland’s blank stares could power vehicles

    by Washington Examiner

    Where do electric vehicle batteries come from? Interior Secretary Deb Haaland seems to think maybe they come from the Rare Earth Fairy.

    This was the takeaway from her wide-eyed and persistently clueless testimony in late March before the appropriations subcommittee on the interior and the environment. Under questioning from Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MT), himself a former interior secretary, Haaland repeatedly gave the impression that she knows nothing about the department she heads or the ramifications of the policies she is pushing through it. Her repeated blank stares and hesitant, sheepish answers suggested she was only for the first time hearing crucial facts related to the nation’s natural resources.

    “Are you aware that China controls, by proxy production, the supply chain of critical minerals that are critical to both the [electric vehicle] world and defense?” asked Zinke. “Are you aware, by multiple studies, that in order to satisfy the present requirements of [electric vehicles] and critical minerals to defense, it would take an increase of 2,000% of mining for 20 years?”

    Again and again, Haaland thanked Zinke for sharing his information as if she had never heard it before. But these were more than fun facts. The Biden administration gives a great deal of lip service to energy independence and simultaneously makes policies aimed at a so-called clean energy transition. But the two are not compatible. The latter involves pushing everyone toward using windmills, solar panels, and electric vehicles, among other things. Yet at the same time, under Haaland, the Interior Department has been blocking domestic mining projects, without which any clean energy transition is just a fairy tale.

    We noted previously, concerning California’s folly of pursuing electric-only vehicle sales by 2035, that “it is wishful thinking to believe that California,” and most other states for that matter, “will be able to produce enough electricity by 2035 to charge all the cars it is trying to force its residents to buy.” But as we pointed out, this isn’t even the biggest problem. A study by Scientific American found that even if the world’s production of lithium were to triple overnight, it would only provide enough of that metal to maintain, not even to build but just to maintain, the batteries of an all-electric American vehicle fleet. Keep in mind that this would be to the exclusion of the entire rest of the world, which presumably would want some of that lithium.

    And it isn’t just lithium, either. Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) pointed to a World Bank study that shows demand for the metals involved in electric vehicles alone — copper, nickel, cobalt, and a host of others — would rise so rapidly that it is hard to imagine ever meeting demand. For example, the world would have to produce in the next 25 years the same amount of copper as it has in the last five millennia.

    In short, a green energy future is probably impossible under the best circumstances. And unfortunately, the circumstances are far from the best.

    The first obstacle is the Biden administration itself. Haaland, as Zinke pointed out, has recently blocked off mining in northern Minnesota’s Duluth Complex, one of the world’s largest undeveloped mineral deposits.

    Given the scarcity of domestic lithium mining — there is only one lithium mine in the entire country — a pro-electric vehicle policy only increases U.S. dependency on China and decreases its energy independence.

    That might be inconvenient under normal circumstances, but senior members of the Biden administration believe the United States might find itself at war with China very soon. And in the nearer term, China is already aiding Russia’s war against Ukraine, which could soon force President Joe Biden to impose economic sanctions. Where will Biden’s electric vehicle materials come from once that happens?

    Is Haaland up to the task of figuring this out? Given her clueless and hesitant responses, one must ask: Is Haaland ignorant of the Biden administration’s mining policy, its energy policy, its defense policy, or (most likely) all of the above?

    One could say Biden’s left hand doesn’t know what his right hand is doing. But more likely, this is a reflection of the true nature and goals of the modern environmentalist movement.

    This isn’t about saving the planet. It’s about destroying capitalism and lowering human living standards.

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    • #
      Dennis

      Build Back Better, you will own nothing and be happier – WEF octopus arm of the UN.

      110

    • #
      Ronin

      “Under questioning from Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MT), himself a former interior secretary, Haaland repeatedly gave the impression that she knows nothing about the department she heads or the ramifications of the policies she is pushing through it.”

      A bit like our own “Sarah Sea patrol”.

      140

  • #
    Neville

    Interesting to note the population densities of countries per sq kilometre. Like India has a population density that is 3 times that of China.
    And Australia, Canada, Libya etc have similar pop densities. See first link below.

    https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/population-density?time=2023

    https://ourworldindata.org/world-population-growth

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    • #
      Gee Aye

      The population density across a country is not of relevance. What is population proximity to pollution sources in those countries?

      210

    • #
      b.nice

      A lot of the population density value is to do with how much of the country is actually habitable.

      This particularly applies to Australia and Canada (not sure about Libya)

      Its not really a reliable measure.

      What might be of more interest is the population density in the major cities.

      Pretty sure Australia would still be well down the list.

      100

  • #
    Ross

    The technology is already present to improve emissions from the likes of coal powered generators. Key pollutants that adversely affect human health include carbon monoxide, lead, sulfur dioxide (SO2), oxides of nitrogen (NOX), ground level ozone and particulate matter (PM). A new pulverized coal plant, with flue gas scrubbers, fabric filters, catalytic reduction and other control equipment and processes, reduces NOX by 83%, SO2 by 98% and PM by 99.8% compared to a similar plant without such pollution control features. (US Dept of Energy) In Australia, most but possibly not all those controls are already in place. Then if our current fleet of coalies were to be upgraded to UC, USC or HELE level there would be even more improvements. But no, let’s blow them up instead.

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  • #
    Peter

    A bit of a false connection IMHO. A lot of the smoke is SE Asia comes from the burning of used rice paddies in preparation for next seasons planting, as well as bush and forest fires, not really related to the use of fossil fuels in any directly correlatable manner.

    100

  • #
    Ross

    In reality Australia should be a lot more smokey. Captain Cook observed almost the entire eastern coast of Australia covered in smoke during his 1770 voyage. Some natural ignition (dry storms etc) but a lot from aboriginals. During most of spring and autumn controlled burns should be significantly conducted to reduce fuel in order to prevent those large bushfires. We know they aren’t due to all sorts of reasons.

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  • #

    I have always mentioned that there is something inherently dishonest about using the per capita argument that green friends of the dirt always resort to.

    Now, look again at that top chart.

    See the Country which is fourth on that list there ….. Estonia.

    Those filthy profligate Estonians, mindlessly burning fossil fuels like there’s no tomorrow.

    You have to go down five more Countries to see those responsible thoughtful people in China, so careful and thinking about their emissions.

    Umm, there are 94 Cities alone in China with a population greater than that of Estonia.

    The population of China is 1,087 times that of Estonia.

    Per capita is misleading in the extreme.

    Tony.

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    • #
      KP

      “The population of China is 1,087 times that of Estonia.”

      ..and yet they both only get one vote at the UN..

      10

  • #
    Stephen Harper

    How prescient was Kurt Vonnegut Jnr? In 1961 in he published his dystopian sci-fi short story Harrison Bergeron in which we met the fabulously named character Diana Moon Glampers,
    Handicapper General whose job it is to regulate and eradicate individuality and ensure that no upstarts with brains ever get ahead. She is the poster child for the D in the DEI enforcers who
    infest corporations, academia and government departments today. Diana would be proud of Glory Dolphin Hammes, someone with a totalitarian-sounding name who you can admire for her
    devotion to her cause. Glory is a queen of cognitive dissonance – and we should all be grateful that her remit does not extend beyond aerosol particulate matter. Heaven help us if she gets
    as far as did Diana Moon Glampers.

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  • #
    Stephen Harper

    Should be ” the E in the DEI enforcers”. D’uh! Must have one of Harrison’s devices in my brain.

    10

  • #
    Neville

    AGAIN here’s infant mortality rates for Africa from 1950 to 2023 and a big improvement although the population has also increased by 1200 million in the last 73 years. Think and then explain what’s wrong with the CLIMATE since 1950?
    And AGAIN don’t forget that Africa alone suffered about 90% of the HIV AIDs and Malaria deaths over that period of time.
    That adds up to the most BENIGN climate in Human history.

    https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/AFR/africa/infant-mortality-rate

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  • #
    Neville

    More overwhelming PROOF that the climate has been BENIGN in Africa since 1900 or 1950.
    In 1950 Africa’s Urban population was about 14.7% but by 2015 that had increased to 49% and now continuing to grow at a fast rate.
    Does anyone not understand why this extra data proves CONCLUSIVELY that their climate must have been be very BENIGN over the last 123 years and especially since 1950, 1970 or 1990?
    Just read the first paragraph from WIKI.

    Ahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urbanization_in_Africanother

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    • #
      Gee Aye

      Ok. It is BENIGN. What about it?

      15

      • #
        b.nice

        So there is absolutely no reason for worrying about “the climate”

        All this anti-CO2 nonsense is meaningless in terms of the climate, which is rather STABLE and BENIGN.

        We have been so, so fortunate to live in a period of a BENIGN climate (with zero evidence that will change), with plentiful cheap, reliable electricity and energy.

        Why, in their most idiotic of brain-snaps, do the far-left anti-CO2 clowns and ignoramuses want to destroy all this!

        Why do they want to destroy the future prosperity of western civilisation ???

        You are one of them, GA, perhaps you could explain your reasons !

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    Indur Goklany

    There’s no paradox here. IT is explained by the Environmental Transition or the Environmental Kuznets Curve.
    Under the Environmental Transition hypothesis, countries are continually engaged in a “race to the top of the quality of life.” At early stages of economic and technological development, countries place a much higher priority on acquiring basic public health and other services such as sewage treatment, water supply, and electricity than on environmental quality, which initially worsens. But as the original priorities are met, environmental problems become higher priorities. More resources then are devoted to solving those problems. Environmental degradation is arrested and then reversed. So the Environmental Transition is one in which economic and technological development make the transition from being problems in terms of environmental quality to becoming solutions for improving environmental quality. The wealthy countries have all made this transition, so greater wealth results in better environmental quality.

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    Dean

    Is it a coincidence that the countries with the best air quality also have low populations with very limited neighbours to the west/east.

    Please let this great site not be polluted with inane correlations posing as causation!

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    DOC

    It’s very hard to see how particulate measurements have anything to do with Climate. As far as I know a gas, even CO2, isn’t particulate. Particulate pollution has been recognised for a century or more, associated with mining, mining towns dirty industries etc causing silicosis, mesothelioma, chronic pulmonary disease etc. It’s prevention is by refining management and engineering as stated above.

    Everybody here knows this stuff. Activists however also know it. The biggest mistake the anti human CO2 concept movement has made is allowing the activists to misuse the language by using different descriptors to define their original concepts eg changing Anthropogenic Global Warming – a very specific descriptor – to ‘Global Warming’. The activist stresses global warming as a dreadful proposition, omitting man. Over time, the listening community forget the argument is about the step cause ie human beings, and comes to accept the CO2 theory as though that is all the explanation of the problem. Everything is written and spoken now as though Global warming itself is bad and due to CO2 increases. The general public never challenges the CO2 due to man concept, or even just the CO2 concept itself anymore. This use of language and loss of specificity is destroying the West with its overall grotesquely weak and deliberately unquestioning leadership.

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    Serge Wright

    The data does make sense when you consider the alternative to FF electricity in poor countries is usually wood burners. With rising electricity prices in AU, more people are turning to slow combustion wood heaters down here and you would expect pollution to increase as we move to net zero economic activity.

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      ozfred

      Regional areas never quit using wood heaters
      And both electric and FF heaters can not compete on cost, especially if the cost of the wood is only your time.

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    Bruce

    The whole PM2.5 pollution thing is a boondoggle based on corrupt science. https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/03/09/pm2-5-mass-killer-or-mass-fraud/

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    SimonB

    Could it get any more dangerous for civilization than bureaucracy employing hard left activists with junk degrees deciding the future with ZERO desire to accept the facts and data in front of their faces?
    Then have their well fed bureaucratic overlords accept this drivel without a large red F in the top corner of her 3rd Grade project!
    The scary thing for Australians is that even if a conservative government was in power they would be still hammering backwards to third world conditions in some misguided delusion of meeting their policy commitment!
    Even worse though we have the blinkered arrogance of the Marxists who looked at the carnage overseas, the increasingly cooling planet and said they were always going to save the world and by Ra, they still will, as facts have never mattered in the Marxists spiral to the theoretical utopia!
    The brainwashing being as effective and widespread as it is now, there isn’t even an opposition to fight this, that hasn’t been routinely character assassinated.

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    […] 3/31 – The paradox: The West burns more fossil fuels per capita but has healthier air […]

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    Spurwing Plover

    Tose other Nations their Carbon Footprints must be enormous just like Al Gores and Leonardo DiCaprio as well as Greenpeace

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