Thursday, June 3, 2021

How Big is Germany's 'Clean Air' Problem?

 Well.....it all depends.

If you use the AQI index....Germany comes out against all countries at a rating of '42', which translate to it being 1.5 times ABOVE the WHO recommendation....meaning it's kind of a negative score.  

For the Berlin leadership, this is a harsh thing to accept.

But when you gaze at individual areas of Germany....there's a different story.  

Example:  Merzalben (town in the Pfalz) has a rating of '19' which is outstanding.

Example: Oberhausen (town in NRW) has a rating of '56' which is pretty crappy.

Example: Using the live rating (at this minute), there's a town in the Saarland.....Dillingen (population of 21k), which as a rating at this minute (noon) of '1'....which kinda indicates absolute clean and pure air (but this is a holiday, in early summer).  

So when the EU dumps on Germany for unclean air....it's not really a measurable thing to say one single country and one single score.  

The key question to ask?  Well....if you were a resident of a town (perhaps using Oberhausen) and walked in the air a great deal.....you probably would develop over forty years....some kind of lung or breathing issue.  If on the other hand, you lived way out in the middle of nowhere...Dillingen, you probably had pretty clean lungs at age fifty.

So is this clean air chat really worth discussing?  It'd all depend on where you lived.  


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