Only seven countries in the world breathe safe air. Three of them are in Europe

https://www.euronews.com/green/2024/03/20/only-seven-countries-in-the-world-breathe-safe-air-three-of-them-are-in-europe

by thelastgallon • 2 years ago

54 24 2 years ago

euronews.com

oneturkmen• 2 years ago

Canada is the worst in North America not because of man-made pollution, but rather forest fires. The devil is in the details: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/world-on-fire-canada-s-worst-...

applied_heat• 2 years ago

Canada is home to Canada’s 13 most polluted cities in terms of air quality!!

andsoitis• 2 years ago

According to CBS News, in a normal year, half of forest fires in Canada are started by lightening and the other half are human-caused.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-did-wildfires-in-canada-sta...

blackoil• 2 years ago

Indian subcontinent is most polluted with Bangladesh, Pakistan and India taking up top 3 positions. It seems triple whammy of population, geography and resources is hard to beat.

darth_avocado• 2 years ago

You’re forgetting the lack of will to acknowledge and fix issues.

chipdart• 2 years ago

It seems triple whammy of population, geography and resources is hard to beat.

Doing nothing about it is what's hard to beat.

Even simple things like river pollution, which is directly tied to securing access to safe drinking water and could easily be mitigated by investing in very basic public sanitation services, is not even addressed by their governments.

samarthr1• 2 years ago

To say that all the three have terrible public sanitation is not entirely inaccurate. However, atleast in india, our government has been trying very hard to improve access to toilets in rural india.

navigate8310• 2 years ago

It all corruption of the highest order combined in just these 3 countries alone.

justwaitabit• 2 years ago

Just wait till fire season starts in North America, then you will realize that even if you are in a first world country you can breathe third world air, material wealth can't save you from nature.

https://fire.airnow.gov/ Keep observing that map over the next few months.

cableshaft• 2 years ago

Don't even have to wait until fire season starts, there are several wildfires going on in the US right now. Texas seems to have the worst of it at the moment.

Source: https://www.fireweatheravalanche.org/fire/current-list-of-us...

leipert• 2 years ago

Does it even make sense to look at this on a country level perspective? Countries have different sizes and it heavily depends where you are and also where the air monitor stations are placed.

As an example if Finland had one air quality station in Helsinki and the 10 in the “remote wilderness” for scientific purposes, then the data likely would be skewed.

atoav• 2 years ago

Usually when considering safe air you'd take into account population density. The goal is to find a number that represents how many inhabitants are affected by pollution after all.

E.g. you weigh air measurement stations by the surrounding population density.

throwaway22032• 2 years ago

All huge countries with tiny populations.

The UK has tons of areas with good air quality too, just not on the Hammersmith flyover in the middle of the day...

mcv2• 2 years ago

But I'm sure Australia also has its huge cities with too much traffic.

rpigab2• 2 years ago

And coal. So much coal. Lots of the coal mined is for exporting I guess, but still, a lot goes into their power plants.

graemep• 2 years ago

This makes very little sense. Air pollution is too local to be meaningful at a country level. Is air quality in London the same as it would be in Cornwall a few hours drive away?

Air quality has increased greatly over time in developed countries so labelling present situation a "catastrophe" seems rather too late. London has been continuously improving in terms of just particulates for over a century, and hugely so:

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/air-pollution-london-vs-d...

The UK on other measures:

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/air-pollutant-emissions

and that still does not take into account lots of other improvements, including things that have been banned altogether (leaded petrol).

mayd3• 2 years ago

You saved me writing a comment (almost). The map show huge countries such as Canada, Russia, China, and most countries in South America as not having the highest air quality rating even though the air pollution is specific to certain relatively small regions that experience such pollution, while vast regions of those countries are basically undeveloped wilderness with very pure air. This map is so misleading that it is unhelpful.

enaaem• 2 years ago

From a health perspective you have to measure average air quality experienced by a person under typical circumstances. No point measuring air no one breaths.

mcv2• 2 years ago

How is this measured exactly? Does every part of the country have to meet the standard, or is it an average? Most of the countries seem to be small island nations or very sparsely populated, but I'd be surprised if the large Australian cities have air cleaner than that of any of the many tiny island nations that didn't make this very short list.

barrysteve2• 2 years ago

Not sure why Australia passed. With the bushfire smoke and unrefined sulfurous petrol (150ppm sulfur on the cheapest petrol) and grass pollens.

Outside the cities it is wonderful.

mayd3• 2 years ago

The cities are clean and free of pollution too.

barrysteve2• 2 years ago

Maybe other cities. Perth is not. I breathe much better when I get 75kms out of the city and become a normal human being again.

The smell of sulfur in 91 Petrol is very noticeable. Bushfires blow smoke across the whole metro area. One in three Australians are allergic to grass pollens.

Combined with the recent architectural changes (installing the world famous blender Default Cube everywhere) and increasing cliquey isolation, it has become quite difficult to enjoy the city life.

It's often a battle not to leave.

Though I'm not supposed to say the truth so much, it bothers people.

Only seven countries in the world breathe safe air. Three of them are in Europe

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