Air Pollution and what we can do

[ksh]

London's air is not in a good way:

https://www.london.gov.uk/sites/default/files/shorthand/clean_air/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=MoL_boostedpost2&utm_campaign=GLA_Tcharge&utm_content=Babybottle

Here's what we are doing to do to help our kids' school:

https://www.justgiving.com/campaigns/charity/goosegreen-primary/green-screen-project

We have letters of support from some of the most influential people in the area and are being supported by some local businesses but we have not yet hit our target. This project is for all of East Dulwich and we think we'll encourage a wave of such green infrastructure projects as well as, crucially, encourage conversation around what can be done about the root cause.

Please get involved if you can. Even a fiver in the pot means a lot to us.

If you are a local business interested in sponsorship (advertising opportunity on Grove Vale), please get in touch by PM.

Many thanks

[Nigello]

Would it not be cheaper and at least as effective to plant trees/bushes/plants in the normal way, rather than this screen? (I speak as someone with no car who walks and takes public transport everywhere so not as an anti-green crank: I just don't see how the expense can be justified in this case.)

[malumbu]

I love this notion that London has suddenly become polluted. It was far worse both in times before the industrial revolution (smelly cottage industries) and post industrial revolution until relatively recent years - coal burning, dirty cars, heavy industry (pre cat converters) etc.

Now that doesn't deflect that we are not meeting international standards, people are dying, so it needs to be tackled. I've done plenty on selfish drivers in other threads.

By coincidence, doing my monthly bus ride into town, just written to Sadiq about bunching of buses and the impact on congestion and pollution. Trust me I know shed loads on the environment. But I abhor the knee jerk stuff. Back on the bike Monday - an hour or so the cardio vascular benefits far outweigh my exposure to pollution.

Green walls are pretty but wont solve the problem. http://www.livinggreencity.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/ec_house001-e1467033207279-1-e1467989180499.jpg

[uncleglen]

On a short walk to the post box there were 2 vehicles sitting with their engines running - both near a local school. Also, in the last 5 years there has been an increase in the smell of burning wood in the ED area in the evenings when it gets cooler. I have also noticed people advertising logs on the ED forum...and I very much doubt that most people burning logs will have a DEFRA approved filter.

And, on a recent overnight stay in Brighton our hotel room was above a bus stand near the station and given they have a Green MP I was surprised to notice that the buses kept their engines running...

[Nigello]

Engine idling is very common - in both senses! Once again, it's the individual that is making a negative impact, the same individual who could make a positive contribution by switching his/her engine off. What can be done? A call to the bus firm to report it, a letter to Khan etc., or a friendly request to the idler to switch it off.

[ksh]

... And teaching children why it is bad so that they have a different attitude going forward.

[malumbu]

There was a big campaign by TfL in 2012 - didn't make the slightest different. Some Boroughs are quite proactive - Southwark isn't bad, but again probably little difference to behaviour change.

You need a national campaign saying, you selfish bastards, leaving your engines on, driving unnecessarily, with one occupant, with dirty and or oversized cars, killing our children (and others).

https://tfl.gov.uk/info-for/media/press-releases/2012/september/londoners-encouraged-to-make-a-small-switch-to-curb-engine-emissions

https://tfl.gov.uk/info-for/media/press-releases/2012/september/londoners-encouraged-to-make-a-small-switch-to-curb-engine-emissions

Here's Nigel Havers' one man show (he gets told to buga off as many times as me)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04qrnh6

[Nigello]

?40 fine - why not get the traffic vultures to apply the law?

[ksh]

Hi there

Thanks for your responses.The expense lies in the fact that these are already 2.2m high mature ivy plants, which have been pre-grown in a nursery and will simply be fitted in place.

The 87m long fence we need to screen is directly where the children play so we struggle to grow any new saplings (believe me, we've tried) because of flying footballs etc from the playing children. Also, hedgerow saplings etc take years to grow and are very delicate initially. Parents are more than happy to support a project they know the children will benefit from immediately. A pre-grown ivy screen can make as much as a 40% reduction in nitrogen dioxide and 60% in particulate matter as soon as it is installed (e.g the day after fitting, rather than waiting for years for a sapling hedge to mature) and the benefits increase as it thickens.

Goose Green has been amazing at green initiatives over the years and these are all making a difference.

We wholeheartedly agree that the root cause needs to be addressed and not just the issue. Interestingly, this initiative in itself seems to be enough to get the conversation flowing between families of the school (green routes to school, less driving, neighbourhood greening, joining class actions and lobbying groups for diesel drivers, for example). We are also working with the school and, via the school council, the children/families to discuss why such an initiative is necessary in the first place and what can be done about the root cause. We feel that this conversation/action is all important and we are calling it "Putting the 'Green' into Goose Green".

However, in the shorter term, considering the benefit to the current and future children of the school, their families and other local families, we feel that this screen would be a very worthwhile achievement.