Air Pollution: Anathema To COVID 19 Sufferers?

Given that they already have compromised respiratory systems, does COVID 19 sufferers in cities with high levels of air pollution more likely to die that their counterparts in clean air locales?

By: Ringo Bones

Public health policymakers have been warning us for decades that polluted air is a serious threat to people with compromised respiratory systems – like ones suffering from asthma and related preexisting chronic lung conditions. Since the year 2000, about a million people die annually in Mainland China’s urban centers where the air quality falls far below the acceptable guidelines set by the World Health Organization. But since the advent of the COVID 19 pandemic, does polluted air spell the death knell to COVID 19 sufferers?

A recently published research from the Harvard University School of Public Health shows that COVID 19 sufferers living in cities with severe levels of air pollution are more likely to die than ones living in regions with much cleaner air. Even though pollution levels in cities have declined since lockdown measures were enforced. Polluted cities COVID 19 death rates are up to a third higher compared to cities with cleaner air and stricter enforced clean air policies.

Given that the Trump administration had rolled back the EPA’s Clean Air Act back in 2017, the increased levels of COVID 19 deaths in the United States could be attributable to increased pollution levels in major metropolitan areas. The Harvard study now highlights the importance of effectively enforced clean air laws when it comes to formulating public health policy.

COVID 19 Lockdown: Good For The Environment?

Given that the COVID 19 pandemic has disrupted life around the world, does the resulting carbon dioxide emission drops spell good news for the environment?

By: Ringo Bones

The resulting lockdown of the COVID 19 pandemic was seen to have resulted in the largest drop in emissions in recent years and also probably the most fitting way to celebrate the 50^th Anniversary of the very first Earth Day. But sadly the disruption only results in a tiny drop of the overall concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere because of how long the gas effectively lingers. The current carbon dioxide concentration in our atmosphere now stands at 418 parts per million and according to climate experts, this needs to stay at 350 parts per million to avoid a runaway global warming.

It was estimated that for the entire 2020, the carbon dioxide emissions could be down by 6-percent compared to previous years but according to experts, we need an annual reduction of 7.5-percent to reach the 350 parts per million targeted by 2050 in order for catastrophic climate change to be avoided. Still, according to energy and climate expert Constantine Samaras, the message is clear: Just because this devastating pandemic has only a small impact on today’s atmospheric carbon dioxide levels doesn’t mean the climate crisis is lost.

Can Old Mattresses Be Used To Grow Food?

It may sound so unbelievable at first, but are old mattresses the secret to growing food-crops in the most challenging of environments?

By: Ringo Bones

Until recently, the first thing that comes to mind when one thinks about old mattresses is our looming solid waste landfill problem, but a team of scientists from the University of Sheffield are turning old discarded mattresses into “foam soils” that allows any prospective farmer to grow food-crops in the most challenging of environmental conditions. The team of scientists managed to successfully grow tomatoes and other vegetables in a Syrian refugee camp located in the Jordanian desert – an environment that’s so challenging when it comes to growing food-crops – using disused mattresses formerly owned by the refugees themselves. The idea first came to one of the scientists witnessing a few tomato plants managing to grow in the Syrian refugee camps’ discarded mattress dump despite only receiving scant desert level rainfall during the past few years.

The chopped-up mattress material is put into waste containers along with a nutrient mix. Seedlings are planted straight into the foam, which supports the plant’s roots as it grows. This method of growing crops uses up to 80-percent less water than planting into soil, the scientists claimed, and does not require the use of pesticides. It looks like a version of low-cost hydroponics was discovered by accident in a Syrian refugee camp in the middle of the Jordanian desert.

If it works in other challenging environmental conditions, “foam-soils” based hydroponics could not only alleviate the problem of disposal of old and disused mattresses, but also could minimize the food logistics of humanitarian relief organizations. Imagine if most of the food requirements of a refugee camp are grown in situ via foam soils hydroponic – as opposed to being either flown in or shipped in. Not only proving helpful in alleviating a pressing humanitarian crisis, but also a pressing environmental problem as well.