A Realist Approach to Air Pollution

Breathe in. Breathe out. You might want to stop for a moment before taking the next breath. Why? Well, because that air you have just instinctively taken in might be the root cause of whatever disease you may die of. OK that’s a little too alarmist even for a realist like me. That one time of breathing in won’t kill you just yet. It will take continuous respiration over a long period of time. To be honest, this doesn't apply to everyone so I apologize for this gross generalization. It only applies to 9 out of every 10 persons in the world. So who knows? You just might be among the lucky 10 percent that isn't exposed to polluted air.

You see, air pollution is all around us. It is in our homes, offices, streets and wherever air is — which is basically everywhere. It is also not limited by land and water borders. This means that pollution in one region doesn't only affect that region because air has no respect for border control. Whether we realize it or not, air pollution affects us all. Without air, there can be no life but breathing polluted air condemns us to a life of disease and early death.

In Nigeria, we are well acquainted with polluted air which stems from too many sources like the foul smell given off by open gutters that have become our waste dumping sites to the thick smoke that follows a large percentage of vehicles’ in the country. Although no visible health problem plagues Segun, as a roadside vulcanizer, he is among the many others of like vocation exposed too often to the pollutant elements from vehicle passing by.

Lest we forget, the emissions released by our dear friend — generators — a staple in many homes and businesses in country. Big or small, generators emit polluted air that mix with what is already in the atmosphere. We have them in our homes, just outside the doors along the corridor or in some cases, tucked away in a shelter where the noise and smoke doesn't bother us too much. What about your neighbour who is a beneficiary of your generator’s emission since it faces their compound or window?

Our cities are also littered with trucks and tankers that release thick black smoke from their exhaust pipe into the atmosphere. Another culprit is the flaring of gas from oil operations which are extremely harmful to our atmosphere and sadly, policies haven’t been properly put in place to reduce these operations.

You certainly must smell it but can’t you feel it too? It is the cause of that wooziness you feel after been assaulted by the smoke emitting from that vehicle that just passed you; from the firewood or stove that has just been put out. It is behind the nauseous feeling you get in your stomach whenever you pass that gutter or heap of waste. Yes, we are not immune to the effects of air pollution and no, it is more serious than you think.

Regardless of your social class, you are directly affected by the effects of air pollution. Air that is unsafe for breathing affects us equally. This begs the question, how do we beat it?

Well, we can plant more trees. We should plant more trees, in parks, along the streets, in our homes and everywhere really especially in urban areas. Nothing beats the lovely smell of fresh air from trees and flowers. The only thing is that making them compete with vehicular pollution in our urban areas will put them at a great disadvantage but we can’t stop driving cars. We certainly can’t all afford to buy new vehicles that now have better emission capabilities so we are stuck buying old models or second hand vehicles with lower levels of fuel efficiency which equals higher level of emission. That puts a damper to calls for clean transportation.

Before you start mentioning electric cars, are you in Nigeria? Do you have light? Not because of generator but from the power grid. Even if you do, do your street lights work? Oh and have you checked the cost of these cars? I will leave it here for now. For now, until we sort out other issues like our corrupt leaders and depressed economy, we can invest in more efficient public transport systems like trains, well maintained luxurious buses that won’t require us to become Usain Bolt when trying to get on and would be ample enough to cater for the population; and safe water shuttles, if the available boats that transport people from Lagos Island to Ikorodu and back didn't look like an accident waiting to happen, maybe I will do use them more often.

I wouldn't say much about clean energy. Solar is great and more companies should adopt it as an alternative source of power. Generators however are still cheaper for the majority. The best solution right now is to fix our power supply.

I wish I had better solutions that would provide immediate changes but the truth is, environmental problems cannot be solved in isolation. It is tied to a whole range of other factors. As the world focuses on air pollution for this period thanks to it being the theme for this year’s World Environment Day, we need to more than ever demand for better governance. It’s a climate emergency.