Remember back when the VW-diesel business started up and folks started chatting about suing cities to enforce 'air protection of their residents'? At the time, no one thought it'd reach a ban on diesel. Well.....today, I noticed via the N-TV commentary, that environmentalists are hyped up and angry about fireworks 'pollution' in urbanized regions of Germany, and they want a ban.
The German group....German Environmental Aid (DUH)....says that a prohibition of fireworks in German cities, which have a high particulate matter count should be necessary, and they are preparing to present this in court. They hint, if cities would take 'measures' on their own, then the court action wouldn't be necessary.
The cities? None listed. In fact, at this point in time, I doubt if anyone has collected air pollution data from the evening of 31 December, and that it could be considered reliable in a German court.
What's likely to occur? For this year.....more or less just chatter. But I suspect at least twenty cities will have some type of monitoring for 31 December 2019, and attempt to collect data.
If you've been to Germany on New Year's Eve.....you know the 'script'. Folks gather, they consume alcohol with their friends, and then around midnight....they launch sky-rockets, and fire off fireworks for roughly an hour. Yes, some folks go to an extreme....spending a hundred Euro on fireworks. Yes, in some major cities like Frankfurt, it's a fair amount of particulate matter that makes it into the air. Course, rain, mist, and fog affects this particulate matter count, as does wind.
Is the count higher at ground level, than 20 meters in the air where the rockets go off? Unknown. I doubt if anyone has ever done that type of PhD study.
By spring of 2020, I would expect some pressure to start up and at least fifty urban regions of Germany create fireworks-free zones, where it'll be forbidden to launch fireworks (some mile by mile section of midtown Frankfurt for example). The reaction by state governments and the Bundestag? Nothing. Most will agree by January of 2021, that the fireworks-free zones marginally worked, and then an attempt by local communities to forbid sales entirely will occur, and by January of 2022....they will report that forbidden sales also failed. At that point, some national agenda will start up and find that more than seventy-percent of the public really doesn't agree with this negative fireworks-chatter.
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