Thank you air pollution!

You might be surprised to read the topic of my post. How come we thank our silent killer? But this time it needs one big thank. It actually made Supreme Court of UK to take serious view of rising level of air pollution in most of the big cities of Britain where vehicular emissions have polluted the air so much and made it quite hazardous for inhaling. Earlier it has been pointed out several times that nearly 50 thousands deaths are occurred in UK owing to various types of air pollution.

Main cause 

The apex court observed that UK is violating various European Union air quality standards which it must maintain to remain its environmentally responsible member. The reason of rising level of air

pollution in UK is said to be excessive use of obsolete cars that no doubt have fitness certificates because of proper maintenance but after all these are old ones and obviously emit more smoke than the new ones.

UK government to take action

Now EU has to give its viewpoint about violation of its air quality standards by UK. Meanwhile UK government has been asked to control air pollution by retiring the obsolete or too-old vehicles plying on its roads. However, the process is not so simple and will obviously take time. 

An opportunity exists in every problem

No doubt replacement of old cars with the new one is a solution of rising level of air pollution but there is another drastic solution that simply needs will to adopt it. UK government should expand its public transport network to offer excellent commuting facilities to divert the switch over from old cars to new ones and motivate public to use public transport for their daily out-back to workplace and educational institutions. However, a massive awareness campaign is needed to achieve this objective. 

Need of a smart move 

It is a longstanding observation that to change a system you need lot of efforts and arrangements to make the change happen. However, if circumstances call for a change from one mode to another mode here may be an opportunity to bring some improvement as well. In this sense it ups to UK government to launch a public awareness drive to convince people to use public transport after discarding their old vehicles. People may be convinced to do this for some time to see the result of their collective action for the abatement of air pollution. This may be a flight of fancy but an effort can be made to make this happen and UK Environment Agency can play a leading role in this regard. 

Set an example

Advanced nations have more responsibility for the protection of world environment to set an example for backward nations to follow. The news of Supreme Court's displeasure on rising level of air pollution in UK sent ripples in backward countries where top environmental managers got an excuse to shield their lethargy for environmental care. Let's see what happens in near future and how UK government tackles this issue.