High Court Orders UK Government To Explain Delay In Implementing Clean Air Rules (Assignment 4 - Topic 1)

[Arslan Ijaz]

https://cleantechnica.com/2017/04/25/high-court-orders-uk-government-explain-delay-implementing-clean-air-rules/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+IM-cleantechnica+%28CleanTechnica%29

[Arslan Ijaz]

Well done to the high court for forcing this on to the Government. This is an extremely important issue but yet the Prime Minister is seeking to get aways from it because of the elections. I am sad that politics is involved everywhere, even in the issue like this. As the survey results showed that so many children are living within 150 meters range of the highways where the NOx concentration is higher than the maximum safe limit. This issue should be the top priority and be addressed right away so that people can breathe clean air instead of polluted air. NOx causes smog and acid rain which is dangerous for the people. It causes many lungs diseases like asthma. CleanEarth has brought up a valid point and the example of Volkswagen is logical. The plans should be on the real world performance rather than the lab scale performance of an engine. 

[Martinez, Alfred S.]

This is a gross and negligent act on part of the government. While they are aware of the illegal limits of NO2 and with 40 million people being exposed to this everyday is irresponsible and cannot be tolerated. The government should stop dragging their feet with a proposal to resolve the issues of their very own constituents. The government should really get the ball rolling on this as this type of problem will not be solved overnight; it will take years for any potential fix to roll out. While fact, the author did make good use mentioning the harmful effects to children and their undeveloped lungs to spark awareness and hopefully generate more of a frenzy. Someone should be held accountable for risking the health of the people and of the environment.

[Wojciech Trawinski]

Smog from diesel emissions is a concern that many automobile manufactures have recently began taking seriously. Manufactures have began implementing more and more systems within diesel motors to limit the harmful effects the exhaust gasses may have. The United States particularly has strict regulations on exhaust system requirements, but this really only applied to newly manufactured cars. The issue that the UK faces is that the majority of their automobiles are older diesels and have lesser restrictions. We can take China or India as examples of extreme air pollution to show what air quality can be as a result of NOx and CO2 emissions. Hopefully Theresa May can hold the health and the safety of her people in a higher regard and enact some kind of legislature to help clean up the UK.

[Chun S]

It looks like the there might have some under table agreement between the government and the local manufacturers that usually own the most diesel powered vehicles. Most of time, the govt might give some grace period for the companies to make changes before fully implementing the new rule, it could be understandable if the grace period doesn’t last too long, but if it’s too long, and it could cause more people sick because of the pollution, and who will be the one responsible for that?

[Arslan Ijaz]

Politics all over the world is of the same nature where these politicians are sacrificing the lives of so many people for their own benefits. Look at the excuse she gave to postpone the deadline, just because of elections she can't reveal their new plans on the clean air rules. Looks like the government does not even care about those children who are continuously being exposed to the deadly polluted air. They are the future of their country and yet this is a minor thing for the politicians. 

[Dobhal, Shivani]

Interesting article and I agree as to how this is grossly negligent on the government's part to not realize that it's pollution control laws are deficient. Also, you just cannot simulate diesel emissions in a laboratory setting and use that information to estimate how the numbers in a real life setting would look like. Using elections as an excuse to push compliance deadlines just goes to show how ineffective the current government's clean air plans actually are. It is rather sad that the general public has to suffer through the repercussions of this miscalculated act by the British government. As the article suggests, children are more vulnerable to high levels of nitrogen oxide and having them breathe in the air that exceeds legal limits for diesel pollutants is shocking, especially since it is happening in a developed country like England.