Money from thin air: British breezes sells for £80 a pop in China

There was a time when basic necessities of life were free for all, Then, healthy food became something to be purchased. Then, rather recently, clean drinking water became the next necessity of life to be sold & purchased, & now, bottled Air from UK & Canada going to cities that are suffering from pollution & smog.

Result of this: cheap food lacks proper nutrients & hence, increases the likelihood of illnesses like obesity, diabetes, heart problems, etc.; polluted & dirty water is available for free, but full of pollutants & harmful carcinogens in some cases, & now, poor people who lack enough money to buy bottled air, will be inhaling polluted air full of carcinogenic materials.

Next thing up for sale: life. If you want more life, buy more life.

Essentially, poor people will keep fighting for the mere scraps -- the necessary scraps to live -- while, the wealthy people will be able to buy everything to live; food, water, air, life ...

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https://www.rt.com/uk/331438-bottled-british-air-china/

A UK businessman is making a fortune selling British air to wealthy Chinese buyers for £80 ($115) a bottle.

Leo De Watts, 27, harvests fresh air from rural locations across the UK, including Dorset, Somerset, Wales, Wiltshire and Yorkshire.

His team use specially adapted fishing nets and run through fields to collect the breeze. The nets are left for 10 minutes to absorb the local aroma, before being bottled in 580 ml containers.

De Watts, who is from Dorset but now lives in Hong Kong, described his product as the “Louis Vuitton or Gucci” of fresh air.

Commenting on the difference between the areas where English air is harvested, he said: “I would say on the whole that Dorset air seems to pick up a few more scents of the ocean, as the breeze flows up the Jurassic Coast and over the lush pastures.

“Whereas air from the Yorkshire dales tends to filter its way through much more flora, so the scent captures the subtle tones of the surrounding fields, giving different qualities to the collection. We go up to a hilltop, for example, and collect all the products there which are all packaged and bottled up, sent to Dorset and then directly to China.”

De Watts said the Chinese demand for Great British gusts stems from the country’s terrible pollution problem, especially in urban areas.

“Our customers all have high disposal incomes and want to buy gifts for someone or someone wants to use it,” he said.

“There is a serious point to this though as Beijing, Zhuhai, and Shanghai are the major places where pollution is quite bad, whether it is the fault of the rest of the world or its China’s responsibility, we have a case of people living in smog.”

De Watts’ company Aethaer – the Greek word for pure fresh air – is one of at least two companies selling bottled air to China. A company from Canada is already selling bottled Rocky Mountain air to smog sufferers in Beijing and elsewhere.

De Watts admits he originally dismissed the idea as ridiculous.

“I saw a few reports of people importing bottles of air and thought it was a bit ridiculous myself, and then I thought about it,” he said.

“When someone bottled water everyone thought it was ridiculous, now you have Evian and Volvic – why not bottle air?”

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Air Pollution costs Europe $1.6 Trillion a year in early deaths & disease, say WHO

Unfortunately, that day is not far when people will be buying portable personal oxygen tanks & breathers for themselves & their families. Going outside of their homes would require a little breather just like shoes & shirts are worn before getting outside of homes.

With the European countries pledging to end their dependence on fossil fuels in the next 85 years (by 2100), these oxygen tanks & breathers will be required in the next 25-40 years, especially with the way, the air pollution is spreading in large, metropolitan cities, from Shanghai to Delhi to London to Los Angeles.

We will be seeing "Lorax" being played in real-life around the world.

However, who will lose most adversely with these air pollution & climate change problems? The poor. The rich will buy their way out of these problems, but the poor, which are the general masses, won't be able to escape these problems all around the world. They can't relocate themselves or won't be able to buy loads & loads of oxygen tanks or breathers for themselves.

So, although, ONLY about half-a-million people prematurely died in Europe (only continent which is supposed to be leading the fight against climate change & pollution) due to air pollution, we will be seeing these tragedies played out in much larger numbers all over the world.
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http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/apr/28/air-pollution-costs-europe-16tn-a-year-in-early-deaths-and-disease-say-who

The financial cost of air pollution in Europe stands at more than $1.6tn (£1.5tn) a year, a study by the World Health Organisation (WHO) has found, equating to about a tenth of the GDP of the continent.
 
The costs come in the form of 600,000 premature deaths each year, & the sickness caused to hundreds of thousands of other people from preventable causes, such as pollution from small particles that come from the exhausts of diesel vehicles, & nitrogen dioxide, a gas that can inhibit breathing in vulnerable people.
 
The figures are from 2010, the latest year for which full data is available, & cover the whole of the European region, including non-EU states such as Norway & Switzerland, & are compiled by the WHO Regional Office for Europe & the Organisation for Economic Co-operation & Development (OECD).
 
Zsuzsanna Jakab, regional director for Europe at the WHO, said: “Curbing the health effects of air pollution pays dividends. The evidence we have provides decision-makers across the whole of government with a compelling reason to act.”

In many east European countries, the WHO data shows, the economic costs of dirty air are more than 10% of their GDP. On absolute economic costs, the top 10 list is dominated by major economies including the UK, Germany & Italy.
 
In the UK, air pollution has become so bad in London that the European Union is to levy fines on local government, reflecting years in which the extent of pollution has been in excess of EU standards. The Supreme Court is expected to issue judgment ... on a case brought against the UK government for its breach of EU pollution limits.
 
The WHO report found that air pollution was the single biggest environmental health risk in Europe, with the damage from outdoor risks such as diesel exhaust pollution accounting for 482,000 deaths in 2012 from heart & respiratory diseases alone. The deaths or sickness of at least 1 in 4 Europeans can be traced to environmental pollution, according to the organisation.
 
In March, the European Environment Agency warned that hundreds of thousands of people would die prematurely over the next 2 decades from air pollution because of governments’ failure to act.

Breathing poison in the world's most polluted city

Whenever I come across these kinds of stories, about air pollution in major European or Asian cities, only one movie comes to my mind: Lorax.

As water is becoming a very precious commodity around the world, & companies like Nestle, are making billions from selling bottled water, there soon will be a time when clean oxygen tanks will be selling like bottled water.

First, food became unaffordable for millions around the world. Meat & meat-derived products are a luxury for millions of people who live below the poverty line (which in itself is very low). Even fruits, vegetables, & grains are becoming unaffordable now.

Next up was water. Well, be it US or Pakistan, Nigeria or Uganda, Sao Paulo (Brazil) or Peru, water is becoming the next gold or oil ... except, water is needed to live, unlike oil or gold. Bottled water is a billion-, or perhaps, trillion-$$$ business around the world.

After that, clean air is the next up to be bought & sold. Oxygen is even more precious than water or food. A human can live for days without food & a couple of days without water. Muslims fast in Ramadan around the world, during which, they don't eat or drink at all, during the day. But nobody can survive for a few minutes without oxygen.

Rich people will always find a way to survive, either by buying clean air or apparatus to clean the air in their homes & offices or moving to places with cleaner air. But what about the billions of poor around the world? They let go of their desires to have meat on their dinner tables. They are letting go of their desires to have clean water & hence, suffering terribly from drinking dirty & polluted water. But how will they let go of breathing clean air?

I am foreseeing a very bad future for the billions of poor, dying on the streets by the scores, because the rich have polluted the air. Poor didn't do anything to deserve such a painful life & death, but they will be the ones who will suffer the most.
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http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-32352722

Saharan dust, traffic fumes & smog from Europe may be clogging up London's air at present ... but in the world's most polluted city London's air would be considered unusually refreshing. That city is Delhi, the Indian capital, where air quality reports now make essential reading for anxious residents.
 
In London last week, the most dangerous particles - PM 2.5 - hit a high of 57 - that's nearly 6 times recommended limits.
 
Here in Delhi, we can only dream of such clean air.
 
Our reading for these minute, carcinogenic particles, which penetrate the lungs, entering straight into the blood stream - is a staggering 215 - 21 times recommended limits. And that's better than it's been all winter.
 
Until a few weeks ago, PM 2.5 levels rarely dipped below 300, which some here have described as an "air-pocalypse".
 
Like the rest of the world, those of us in Delhi believed for years that Beijing was the world's most polluted city.
 
But last May, the World Health Organization announced that our own air is nearly twice as toxic.
 
The result, we're told, is permanent lung damage, & 1.3 million deaths annually. That makes air pollution, after heart disease, India's second biggest killer.
 
And yet, it's only in the past 2 months as India's newspapers & television stations have begun to report the situation in detail that we've been gripped, like many others, with a sense of acute panic.
 
At first, we simply shut all our doors & windows & sealed up numerous gaps. No more seductively cool Delhi breezes could be allowed in.
 
We began checking the air quality index obsessively.
 
Then, we rushed out to buy pollution masks, riding around in our car looking like highway robbers. But our three-year-old wouldn't allow one anywhere near her face.
 
Despite our alarm, many Delhi-ites reacted with disdain. "It's just dust from the desert," some insisted. "Nothing a little homeopathy can't solve," others said.
 
But we weren't convinced.
 
When we heard that certain potted plants improve indoor air quality, we rushed to the nursery to snap up areca palms, & a rather ugly, spiky plant with the unappealing moniker, mother-in-law's tongue.
 
But on arrival, the bemused proprietor informed us that the American embassy had already purchased every last one.
 
In any case, we calculated that to make a difference, we needed a minimum of 50 plants.
 
..., we borrowed an air pollution probe from a friend to work out what progress, if any, we'd made.
 
Switching it on, our PM 2.5 levels registered an off-the-charts 44,000.
 
My husband scratched his head, consulting the manual.
 
"This says 3,000 is hazardous."
 
"It must be broken," I said.
 
But it wasn't, so we had to call in the experts.
 
One afternoon, a young man turned up with a small, free-standing air filter, specially modified for Delhi's dust. He pressed a button, which activated something called a "plasma cluster".
 
After 20 minutes, the numbers on our air monitor began to drop... precipitously.
 
My husband & I watched, ... as the readings went down from 44,000, to 20,000, then 11,000. Eventually, the probe settled around the 1,000 mark.
 
That's still worryingly high by global standards... & that's only the air inside our home. There's nothing we can do about the air outside.
 
The government has announced that it will install more air quality monitors in Delhi & that it will ban diesel-belching vehicles more than a decade old.
 
But that's a drop in the ocean compared to India's pro-growth economic policies, which still rely heavily on subsidised, dirty diesel.
 
The trouble is on many days, you can't see the pollution.
 
Right now outside my window is an intensely blue sky filled with flocks of lime green parakeets and frangipani trees just beginning to unfurl their waxy, fragrant blossoms & I find myself wondering if it isn't perfectly OK to take my kids out to play football.
 
But in the past few months, at least a dozen families we know have moved away, either to cleaner towns & cities, or outside of India.
 
And although I'm still lulled by the reassurances of long-time residents - "Don't worry - it's nothing," they chide - I am beginning to wonder if it isn't time to think about moving too.
 
Compared to Delhi right now, London & even Beijing are looking like pretty good options.

New studies link pollution to a variety of health risks

Obviously, who suffers the most with air pollution & its related illnesses: the poor. And thanks to the government's cutting of the healthcare budgets, those poor can't even get proper healthcare. It's like a double whammy.
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http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2015/apr/01/pollution-health-risks-epa-supreme-court-free-radicals

Since the US Clean Air Act’s passage in the 1970s, there have been a steady stream of reports correlating exposure to air pollutants with a variety of health impacts. But in the early days, much of that information was too rudimentary to be of much use. Monitoring technology has improved in the decades since, & state air-quality boards have amassed volumes of actionable data about air pollution.
 
The increase in available data coupled with advances in chemistry & 3D modeling over the past few years has enabled scientists to identify new particle systems within air pollution. Researchers are now able to determine all the various chemicals & particles that air pollution includes, & to study precisely how these various elements interact with, & in some cases fundamentally change, the human body.
 
Those advances have led to a rapid increase in published studies about air pollution over the past year, as researchers have focused their work on the interaction between pollution particles & human health. Multiple long-term studies of human health are beginning to produce results, as are ongoing studies of air pollution. 3 studies published just last week illustrate the state of rapidly advancing science around air pollution today.
 
In one study, Louisiana State University researcher Stephania Cormier reported that a particular type of free radicals (called environmentally persistent free radicals, or EPFRs), formed within the particulate matter emitted by cooking stoves, cars, factories, waste incinerators, wood fires, & cigarettes, can damage human cells.
 
The findings could have broad implications for businesses, considering that the Supreme Court is currently wrestling with how to interpret the Clean Air Act.
 
Cormier & her team divided a population of mice into 2 groups, exposing one to EPFRs & the other to no pollution. They then infected both groups with a flu virus.
 
The pollution-exposed mice were rendered virtually defenseless to the virus: 20% more of them died from the flu. Instead of fighting off the disease, their bodies reacted by triggering an anti-inflammatory signal, Interleukin-10, & switching on both an immune-regulating protein called aryl hydrocarbon receptor & immune cells called regulatory T cells, both of which turn off the body’s defenses against infection.
 
The researchers also found that the EPFRs caused oxidative stress, an imbalance between the production of free radicals & the ability of the body to counteract or detoxify their harmful effects.
 
What that means for similarly exposed communities is that asthma & the flu will be more severe for vulnerable members, like infants & the elderly.
 
More & worse allergies
 
Another study, published on 22 March by researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Germany, found that common traffic-related air pollutants may make allergies more severe.
 
The study’s authors conducted lab tests & computer simulations to study the effect of ozone & nitrogen dioxide on a primary birch pollen, Bet v1, & found that both pollutants affected how proteins in the pollen bound together, potentially creating a more potent allergen.

“Our research is showing that chemical modifications of allergenic proteins may play an important role in the increasing prevalence of allergies worldwide,” Christopher Kampf, one of the study’s authors, said in a statement.
 
Impact on the brain
 
Yet another study released last week, this one a collaborative effort between researchers at the Institute for the Developing Mind at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles & at Columbia University’s Center for Children’s Environmental Health, found a connection between common pollutants found in a wide range of emissions & cognitive & behavioral impairment.
 
The study looked at the effects of airborne polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH), a molecule prevalent in emissions from motor vehicles, oil & coal burning, wildfires & agricultural burning, hazardous waste sites, & tobacco smoke as well as charred foods.
 
The research team selected 40 minority youth, born to Latina or African American women, that Columbia researchers have been following from birth, & used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to measure their brains.
 
The Columbia researchers had previously reported that PAH exposure during gestation in this group was associated with multiple neurodevelopmental disturbances, including development delay by age 3, reduced verbal IQ at age 5, & symptoms of anxiety & depression at age 7.
 
In the group of 40 studied in the MRI test, the researchers found a loss of the brain’s white matter surface, which correlates to slower processing of information & severe behavioral problems, including ADHD & aggression.
 
Postnatal PAH exposure – measured at age 5 – was found to contribute to additional disturbances in development of white matter in a separate area of the brain, one associated with concentration, reasoning, judgment, & problem-solving ability.

“This sample of 40 was quite ‘pure,’ in that their exposure to other known neurotoxicants was minimal, so we have more confidence in being able to attribute the brain abnormalities to the effects of prenatal & early childhood exposure to PAH,” Peterson said.
 
While the study group was small, Peterson said these results emphasize what we already know about the harmful effects of tobacco & add to the growing base of knowledge about the impacts of other sources of air pollution. Given the mounting evidence, he said, clinicians should educate prospective parents about these risks, especially in early pregnancy.
 
Peterson said that in less urban areas, exposure to pollutants from wildfires, agricultural burning & hazardous waste sites might be more relevant, & that women & children should remain indoors & use air conditioners as much as possible to avoid the airborne products of these fires.

“As the link between air-borne pollutants & adverse brain changes is linear & seems not to have any threshold that defines safe & unsafe exposure, any reduction in exposure during the most active periods of brain development – in fetal life & in early childhood – will be helpful.”

Translating research into action
 
According to the most recent American Lung Association State of the Air report, more than half of Americans live in areas with dangerously high levels of air pollution.
 
Children are the most severely impacted by air pollution, both in utero & in early childhood.
 
Air pollution also remains an issue of class & race. The dominant sources of pollution – traffic, industrial emissions, energy-related emissions (from oil refineries & coal plants), & hazardous waste – all disproportionately affect low-income & minority communities.
 
The quickest way to improve the air quality of all communities is increased state & federal regulation of the sources of air pollution. To that end, the US Supreme Court is due to address 2 major Environmental Protection Agency rules this summer, one that aims to regulate cross-state air pollution & one that would require better pollution controls on coal power plants.
 
Both have been criticized for being expensive & onerous to implement, but Supreme Court justices in favor of the rules have pointed to the EPA’s obligation to protect public health, not private profits.
 
Judge Judith W Rogers wrote as much in the majority opinion on the EPA’s mercury rule, which would require coal power plants to install scrubbers that would limit mercury emissions, costing them $9.6bn a year. Rogers said the EPA’s focus on “factors relating to public health hazards, & not industry’s objections that emission controls are costly” should motivate Congress to make appropriate & necessary regulatory rules.
 
Moreover, because the scrubbers required would also reduce other air pollutants, the EPA has estimated that the rule would save $26bn to $89bn per year in healthcare costs. The latest batch of air pollution research helps support that claim.

A Dark Truth, Quote 3

Lorax, the 2012 animated movie based on the 1971 book by Dr. Seuss, is essentially based on the same idea that with the air pollution & smog problems many major cities, e.g. London, Paris, Beijing, Shanghai, Delhi, Mumbai etc are facing & since governments are not doing enough to tackle climate change problem; eventually, air will become so polluted that selling air will become a business.

 

After all, who ever thought that water will be sold in bottles, all over the world, 20 years ago. I think no one. Now, if somebody can afford to buy water, they buy it in nice little bottles & large containers. Whereas, poor people around the world are left to survive on dirty water.

 

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The Lone Ranger (Quote 1)

Although, "The Lone Ranger" was an action / adventure movie, there were still a few interesting lines in it.
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Looking at the condition of our world today, nature is indeed out of balance today ... all done by "modern" humans !!!

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