i remember walking through leuven – my birth town – in the 1980-ies
there were loads of cars – most of them ugly – but they had one thing in common : they puked thick black clouds that we inhaled while coughing our way through the streets
and we did nothing – we found it absolutely normal just like we found it normal that every one was smoking – we just coughed when they drove away
a lot has changed since – cars seem clean now – no big black clouds anymore
but there are around 5 times more vehicles today than at that time
on the horizon near brussels a yellowish-to-grey glow is always visible – a ‘corona’ of dust and small particles is dressing the world
filthy fuel
fact
in belgium – a tiny country in the heart of europe with around 11,5 million inhabitants and around 4.000.000 cars (gloops) – the daily consumption of car fuel is around 27 million liters
source
national ministery of economics belgium
story
27.000.000 liters of fuel every day – twenty seven millions of liters are burned every day into the atmosphere while killing and annoying people and bringing them to desperation
and 1 liter of gas or diesel ‘produces’ on average 2.5kg of co2… how are your maths ?? 😳😱
on a world scale this means that every day around 8 billion liters of fuel are burned by cars – producing 20.000.000 tons of co2 per day !!!
we can reduce the co2 production with 20% annually and save the planet today by simply forbidding cars…
filthy exhaust
facts
the burning of fuel is bad for the climate – because it s producing loads of co2 – according to a report of the european parliament 28% of total co2 emissions comes from transportation (and 60% of that comes from private cars)
source
while other sectors like the industry agriculture energy are working hard on reducing that emission (and they succeed !) – cars continue to spit co2 as if there was no problem and with the number of cars growing there is not a bright future ahead 🙁
we need to reduce our co2 production ? one simple solution : stop driving cars !
save the planet and forbid cars now !
bad for the environment
the burning of fuel is also bad for the environment – because cars spit nox and sox (irritating gases that causes respiratory diseases and are contributing to impoverishing biodiversity), small particles, etc…
filthy tyres
fact
tyre and brake ware are 1000 worse than exhaust pollution (!)
source
emission analytics – tyre wear worst exhaust emission
european commission report on microplastics
story
in belgium every year around 75.000.000 kgs of tyres are imported ! that s around 10.000.000 (10 million !!) tyres @ 7,5kg each
after a while – when you change the tyres – they have lost around 1/3 of their weight – that means they leave every year around 25 million kilograms of dust along the roads, the air and the surface waters
the ‘tyre dust’ never goes away – is not absorbed by the earth – it becomes uncontrolled nano-particles that penetrate your lungs and your veins and the food chain
according to a report from the european parliament – no less than 28% of all the microplastics in nature come from tyres
if you would fill the simplest 1kg wheat bags (0,07 x 0,10 x 0,15m) with that 25 million kgs of dust, you ll have a cube of 30 x 30 x 30m – to make it more visual : you could fill the complete ‘spionkop’ of an average football stadium with the dust… every year ! and that only for belgium !
the resting material of the tyres is recycled for about 95% – into athletics grounds, play grounds and artificial soccer fields
but what happens when those come to age ?
filthy waste
making cars is really a filthy business – they are complete chemical waste : made of steel, plastics, paints, polluting liquids – although one will say that cars ‘can be entirely recycled’ – it s the biggest lie ever
when cars come to the end of their ‘life’ they are mostly sold to underdeveloped countries where they continue to pollute and will end up in a big polluting scrapyard
forbid cars and gone is the waste