Airpocalypse – Le monde au bord de l’asphyxie ? – Documentaire monde – AT

Les récents débats sur le réchauffement climatique ont quelque peu éclipsé une tragédie aux conséquences immédiates : la pollution atmosphérique.
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Cette tueuse de masse est responsable de 7 millions de morts prématurées par an dans le monde, et d’un nombre incalculable de maladies. Chauffage urbain, transports routiers et rejets industriels contribuent à saturer l’air des métropoles de gaz et de particules fines si toxiques que les scientifiques parlent d'”airpocalypse” en devenir.

La Chine et l’Inde, par exemple, sont en alerte sanitaire permanente. Certaines de leurs villes sont de vrais tombeaux à ciel ouvert, laissant leur population dans un dénuement criminel. L’Europe n’est pas en reste : les grandes villes ont des alertes régulières.

Une crise d’autant plus complexe que la pollution se déplace et ignore les frontières… Le smog chinois, par exemple, traverse le Pacifique et contamine les côtes américaines.

Vignette générée par l’IA

Irrespirable – Des villes au bord de l’asphyxie ?
Un film de Delphine Prunault
Producteurs : ARTE France, Scientifilms
©ARTE

Air is our common good, and we are all responsible for it. Air quality is non-negotiable. We need clean air. Even if we are growing. It is a health emergency like other disasters. The fact that there are seven million dead is enormous! This is more than many other diseases and other risk factors.

Each year of inaction and waiting results in an absolutely colossal burden of death and disease on a global scale. The problem of air pollution is not an irreversible problem, we can solve it, if we have the will to solve it. If we don’t solve this problem now,

Imagine what will happen to future generations Air pollution, a mass killer whose deaths are invisible. 7 million premature deaths per year according to the World Health Organization, … a figure supported by very real scientific evidence. Its deadly agents are gases and fine particles… released into the atmosphere by the increasing activity of factories,

District heating, and road transport. Toxic emissions often confused with greenhouse gases responsible for global warming, such as C02, a non-polluting gas. They come from the same sources but cause other consequences. The effects of climate change will occur very intensely in the

Decades to come. We have been so informed about climate problems that we have somewhat forgotten the problem of air quality. This is a much shorter time scale problem. This is a problem that arises today, because it affects our health, because it finally affects people now. Air pollution affects all the

World’s megacities. At different scales. A symptom of their frantic development, emerging capitals are being hit hard. Indian and Chinese metropolises regularly exceed alert thresholds…Exposing their populations to a major health risk. The richest cities are not spared… on the American continent as in Europe. They suffer from chronic pollution with long-term harmful effects.

From Paris to Mexico, from Los Angeles to Beijing, … the scientific community is sounding the alarm, cities are waging battle against this threat: the first environmental risk to public health. Welcome to New Delhi, the most polluted city on the planet according to the WHO. With its

8 million vehicles, twice as many in 10 years, the Indian capital is experiencing an uncontrolled growth in traffic which is plunging its 25 million souls into an atmospheric hell. On certain days, concentrations of fine particles in the air exceed WHO health recommendations by 100 times. Micro-particles,

But also nitrogen dioxide, ozone. A toxic mix for residents who spend hours in their cars, work in the streets and live on sidewalks. The crisis is due to multiple pollutants, it is a deadly cocktail of pollution that we breathe every day. For a very long time, we thought that

Only the biggest cities were affected. But we are increasingly seeing that smaller cities are now reaching critical levels of pollution. The first health studies give the measure of the scourge: three years of life expectancy lost in the capital, an estimated million and a half deaths in the country each year.

Because the threat spreads well beyond cities. In poorer regions. The Singrauli basin is the energy lung of India. It provides 20% of the country’s electrical energy by drawing on an abundant natural reserve: coal. With its power stations

And mines developed at a rapid pace over the past 40 years, Singrauli has become a cursed region. Unbreathable for its inhabitants who live prisoners of dust and toxic gas emissions. In this isolated region, there is no official study on the extent of the health damage.

At the nearby Waidhan hospital, doctors helplessly watch this slow agony. For 22 years, Dr. Singh has noticed an explosion in lung infections and severe allergies. Breathe, breathe! I’m worried, how can I not be? We are poor, we don’t know how to deal with this, we are very, very afraid!

The doctor is not upset about the condition of his patients’ lungs. If the lungs of people in Delhi can be contaminated by vehicle fumes, then I wonder are the lungs of people in Singrauli made of steel? In all autopsies done in the region, whether people have diseases or not,

The surface of the pleura is always covered by anthrax particles. Our lungs are infected. When I walk in the morning, the particles fall with the dew and when we run we inhale all these particles, they will be deposited in our lungs.

In the entire region, we don’t even have a place to walk in the morning or run . Despite the health risks, the Indian government plans to double its coal production in the next five years. The goal: to distribute electricity to the

300 million Indians who still do not have access to it. The Minister of the Environment calls for this obligatory step and does not intend to receive lessons from Western powers. In Delhi, we have closed three polluting units, and for two units, we are bringing them up to standard.

Now we are planning installations in isolated areas, not in cities. This is how we must balance our emissions. And look how America exports coal too. If they were really bothered by coal emissions they would stop exporting, they don’t, and they are lecturing, they shouldn’t. Europe consumes 10 times more coal than India.

They pollute ten times more. My pollution will double, but this will give the poor access to electricity. Every person on earth has the right to carbon energy, and that is denied to India! This pollution which is suffocating the Indians is that of Europe

During the Thirty Glorious Years, the strongest economic growth after the war. Today, the danger has receded on the old continent. But the nature of the pollution has changed and like other capitals, Paris has not overcome the threat. Air Parif still forecasts very high

Particle pollution today. There you have it, particle pollution which will affect a large northern half of the country. Is the State letting us suffocate with this pollution? This will be the annoying question… The intense pollution peaks that the City of Lights has suffered since 2013 remind us of this.

However, these warning episodes are only the tip of the iceberg. Parisians breathe poorly all year round. Stale air that causes them to lose six months of life expectancy. It is the density of road traffic and the renewal of the diesel vehicle fleet which have amplified the phenomenon in recent years.

Chronic pollution that Air Parif engineers monitor. In this busy neighborhood, Karine Léger measures the concentrations of particles that pedestrians inhale every day. We are more impacted here given the density of traffic which we can first see very well and the number of vehicles and the fact that we are

In traffic which is not fluid but with vehicles stopping which restart which accelerate. There’s no wind and we’re really next to the traffic so we can clearly see the impact. And we even see the impact of pedestrians who, when they pass, resuspend the particles. There, it’s still quite a climb, eh!

The counter is racing… up to 10 times the threshold limit set by Europe. Near traffic, two pollutants are particularly monitored. Nitrogen dioxide, a gas, and fine particles: microscopic dust, 100 times smaller than a hair. Here you have a filter that has been exposed for a week and so inside

There are these small particles which are not stopped by the nose but which are so small that they can penetrate into the pulmonary alveoli. Fine particles are classified according to their size. PM 10 of 10 microns and the

Smallest, even more harmful, PM 2.5 of 2 and a half microns. For each of them, the WHO sets health recommendations and Europe imposes threshold limits. In addition to road transport, other pollutants come from much further afield. 50% of the pollution we breathe here is local, 50% is pollution which comes

Either from the entire Paris metropolitan area or from the transfer of pollution across Europe. We must not forget that in Ile de France there is an agricultural area which is relatively important and in fact during the episodes of pollution that we had in March of

Last year, we had a conjunction pollution linked to traffic and gases emitted by agriculture during spreading which contributed to the creation of particles. So how are these clouds of pollution created that put our cities on alert in winter and summer? The full complexity of atmospheric chemistry is

What LISA researchers are studying in the laboratory, using this machine. In this simulation chamber, we will inject the same type of pollutants that are directly injected into the atmosphere, for example in a street in Paris or in the urban area of ​​a large city. Today, Jean-François Doussin’s team artificially reconstructs

A summer pollution peak. Into this chamber, chemists inject pure air, humidity, then two so-called primary pollutants – released every day into our atmosphere. I’ll leave it to you like this Edouard, we’ll synchronize. Xylene, a component of gasoline emitted by automobiles, and a gas, nitrogen dioxide, also produced by cars, especially Diesels.

Go ahead Edward! You just have to wait for the effect of the sun reproduced by these lamps for the chemistry to work. For several hours. The experience is completely invisible but to understand it better, we have reconstructed it. Under the effect of the wind, the pollutants disperse but above all they mix and

Under the effect of the sun, they are transformed. The injected pollutants thus create new ones – secondary pollutants: fine particles and a gas, ozone. There are new gases which are most of the time much more toxic and much more irritating and new particles which are carcinogenic, and therefore

Species which pose a lot of problems. The atmosphere, an immense chemical reactor! Every day we inhale gases and primary particles. But when they transform… we experience peaks in secondary particle pollution in winter. From road traffic, heating and agricultural spreading. In summer, these are ozone episodes linked to heat.

The more the sources and their pollutants mix, the more difficult the phenomenon is to combat. Pollution peaks form a photochemical cloud over our cities. Like the lid of a box in the lower part of the troposphere, the layer of the atmosphere where we live.

The height of this cover can vary from 2,000 to 250 meters above sea level, depending on ambient temperatures. The lower it is, the more toxic the cloud is. We realize that the effects of pollution are radically different and in particular when the boundary layer is very low,

Then we have phenomena of accumulation of pollutants which are quite significant. This photochemical cloud reacts differently depending on weather conditions. Rain deposits pollutants on the ground. The wind disperses them. But an anticyclonic situation causes the cloud to stagnate. From Mexico City to Los Angeles, a neologism has gone global: “smog”. Mixture of

Smoke – smoke – and fog – fog. How do these pollutants contaminate our body? For around ten years, researchers have been accumulating evidence. From epidemiological studies to animal experiments to cutting-edge research. The Adolphe Merkel Institute specializes in cell biology. For four years, Pfr Barbara Rothen has been studying the toxicity of nanoparticles

Emitted by our car engines in the laboratory. Ultra fine particles of less than 1 micron. We see an individual particle here, here or here again. And all of this is an agglomeration of several hundred nano-particles. Inside these bunches of grapes, a cocktail of highly toxic components.

These microscopic dusts wage a merciless battle to reach the heart of our body. The largest, PM10, measuring 10 microns, are blocked in our nasal passages by hair and mucus. But the smallest, PM 2.5, are more formidable. Their chemical content is metabolized more easily and reaches the lungs

Then the pulmonary alveoli, the area of ​​exchange with the blood circulation. Nanoparticles – even finer, less than 1 micron – are suspected of crossing the membranes of our blood vessels, reaching the heart and even the brain. By what mechanism do these nanoparticles propagate their toxic potential? To

Understand this, Barbara Rothen created an “in vitro” model of artificial lungs using human cells in culture. Epithelial cells that line our pulmonary alveoli and immune cells with defensive functions. In a nearby laboratory, this “in vitro” model of lungs is exposed to

Exhaust gases from gasoline and diesel engines. It is diesel which emits the most particles and the filters of recent engines still allow the finest particles to escape. After just six hours of exposure, the cells suffered damage. They are compared to unexposed samples and appear fluorescent green.

When cells are exposed to diesel particles, and if these particles attach to the outside of the cell or even enter it, they can cause different cellular reactions. This may be the creation of free radicals which would have an oxidizing effect, inflammatory reactions, or a

Reaction within the nucleus of the cell itself which could modify the DNA, the genetic material. It is not cell death, but rather uncontrolled cell division and inflammatory reactions. In the long term, this can cause cancer. These laboratory experiments highlight the acute, short-term effects of diesel particles.

After 20 to 30 years of study, the WHO now considers that diesel particles are carcinogenic. This conclusion is based on many different studies: on humans, on animals and on cell cultures. Each type of work has its limits. This is why we need to do

Different long- and short-term studies to know the effects of nano-particles. All the studies agree: air pollution shortens our lives. Research is accelerating, scientists are even managing to make the effects of pollution on our bodies more visible. In Sao Paulo, a unique experiment in the world has been

Carried out for more than a year. Pfr Saldiva investigates corpses. The pathologist hopes to determine how pollution can accelerate illness and cause death. Above all, the autopsy allows access to all the organs. It is a way of complementing existing studies (epidemiological studies, clinical studies),

By taking tissue fragments which will show how the structures of the lungs, vessels, brains have been modified, but which will also allow to understand the factors that led to their inflammation. After autopsy, the lungs are removed and subjected to in-depth examinations. Here are those of a

63-year-old non-smoker. Paulo Saldiva is particularly interested in “black carbon”, the particles resulting from combustion, particularly that of automobile engines. We know what this man died of. He suffered from kidney disease and an infection that were not necessarily caused by pollution, although pollution does reduce our immune systems.

All the bodies of people autopsied in São Paulo have this type of deposit to different degrees. In each individual we find the original color of the lung, which is here. There is a border between the healthy part and that which can be attributed to the inhalation of pollutants.

For an individual who does not smoke and who lives in São Paulo, it is most likely that this “black carbon” comes from vehicles. How do we find out? Each particle has a signature, a fingerprint. In São Paulo the main markers are zinc, manganese, aluminum and iron. Markers that they will try to find

Using chemical analyzes carried out on lung tissue. The pathologist will explore 2,000 bodies and investigate the lifestyle and medical history of these deceased people. He hopes to trace the impact of pollution on an entire life and raise awareness.

There is no consensus yet on the fight against pollution. If I invent a vaccine against dengue or Ebola who will oppose it? Now, if I address the question of limiting fuels, diesel and limiting individual transport in favor of

Public transport, there will be no consensus. I think it is time for this situation to be recognized as a health emergency as it has been for other disasters. For years, the WHO has been relaying scientific studies and establishing health standards for

Air pollution. But in 2013, the institution went further and sounded the alarm. The World Health Organization, which depends on the UN, has decided to classify atmospheric pollution, the pollution of the air that we breathe every day, among the direct causes of cancer.

Air is our common good, and we are all responsible for it. We need real public health policies to solve the problem. Air pollution, a certain carcinogen, like tobacco and asbestos. Cancers, respiratory diseases but also cardiovascular pathologies. In total, seven million victims each year… The WHO alerts public opinion.

We have a responsibility to say that this is a major risk. If we do not take measures to protect populations, to alert governments, civil society and economic circles, … then we will not be able to help them and provide them with better prevention. But we cannot make decisions for countries

And tell them you have to do this or that. » We do not have legislative power over countries, we have power of persuasion. The fact that we are so vigilant about our studies, our figures, our recommendations is a form of power that we exercise.

How do states, which have until now sacrificed the environment on the altar of growth, combat this scourge? All the spotlights today are on one country… China. Beijing is considered the world capital of “Smog”… With its repeated episodes of environmental alerts, this atmosphere is called the “airpocalypse”. In Beijing, the rate of

Lung cancer has exploded. More than 50% in 10 years. An international study relayed by the WHO estimates the number of premature deaths in the country at 1,200,000 . Not to mention the economic cost… abysmal… 1400 billion dollars according to the OECD. Beijing no longer has a choice and declares

War on pollution in 2014. A priority forcefully reaffirmed by the Prime Minister in 2015. We are determined to reduce pollution. Huge efforts have already been made. But the progress we have made is still far from the expectations of our people. We have declared war on Smog.

We are determined to continue our efforts until we achieve our goal. The Chinese regime is deploying major means to defeat this “airpocalypse”. The vehicle fleet is controlled, an alternating traffic system is put in place. Around the capital, 200 factories have been closed. The state wants to financially punish the country’s 15,000 factories

If they exceed standards. Two years later, the results are still insufficient. Corruption and the reluctance of the Chinese provinces are slowing down the process. Professor Rhao Tsiming, one of the country’s most esteemed scientists, recognizes this. In some places corruption is quite great.

We are not yet doing enough to monitor the application of the law. The government is determined to fight corruption but raising awareness is a long process. Between determination and admission of helplessness, … when can China overcome pollution? Improving air quality in China takes time. We will reach WHO standards, perhaps… around 2050.

France is not yet at the level. Neither does the United States. 2050 to meet standards is in 35 years, that means more than one generation, that means that there is more than one generation of Chinese who have to live in air that is not pure, are they ready for this?

But you French, you have not reached the levels even after two generations, you still seem happy! Chinese society is tired of being suffocated and is waking up to the environmental fight. In March 2015, the broadcast of a documentary marked a turning point. It is signed by Chai Jing, a former

Star journalist who has become the icon of this fight. Excerpts from his film are broadcast in broad daylight in the streets of Beijing. She criticizes the laxity of local governments and denounces factories that pollute with impunity. This sulfur dioxide smell comes from the smoke.

This pollution is not controlled, it is not possible. It contaminates the atmosphere. Why don’t you use filters? Yes, yes there is! But why is there so much smoke then? The success is enormous. More than 200 million views on social networks in just a few days. But

Very quickly, the comments on the web panicked the authorities who censored the broadcast. I think that the broadcast of her documentary surely received support from the regime, otherwise she would never have had the opportunity to broadcast it on so many platforms. But we also understand why when broadcasting is gaining momentum,

The government needs to censor it. If the government loses control and allows discontent to rise, then citizens might begin to ask a question: who is responsible? If the government fails to protect its people and solve their environmental problems, it may lose credibility.

They have neither the right to strike nor the right to demonstrate. And yet, Chinese citizens are organizing clandestinely on the internet, taking to the streets to demand factory closures. These spontaneous but repeated actions sometimes force the authorities to bend. Beijing is no

Longer unaware that its war against pollution has become an issue of social stability. How did the megacities that faced the same environmental crisis 25 years ago cope? On the American continent, the most emblematic example is Mexico… which was able to find solutions… until recent years.

As you know, Mexico City is the most polluted city in the world. The situation is so catastrophic at the moment that the government has had to give up opening schools. In 1990, Mexico City was an unbreathable basin. Surrounded by 40,000 factories. Crossed by three and a half million vehicles burning leaded gasoline.

Cornered, the Mexican capital chooses the hard way. It relocates its industries and imposes a ban on driving one day a week. It also orders a technical inspection of vehicles each year to exclude the most polluting ones. The government swears that before the end of the year, all cars will have

Passed through inspection centers like this and have their engines tuned. Today, Mexico City has gained 200 days of healthy air per year, … according to Mexican standards, still far from those of the WHO. But vigilance is permanent. Air quality is monitored like milk on fire . And the

Principle of a punitive ecology is assumed by the Mexico city hall. The public policy that we have put in place over the last 20 years has allowed a downward trend and the big challenge is to continue this movement. We must take responsibility for the many unpopular decisions,

That’s why we are here, to make responsible decisions that benefit everyone. But after 25 years of effort, Mexicans are tired of the sacrifices asked of them. Opponents of the Hoy No Circula program protest against the new federal government measure. In summer 2014, they demonstrated against the ban

On vehicles over 15 years old from driving on Saturdays under penalty of fines of 200 euros. But above all, Mexico’s ambitious plan is hampered by another disease that is plaguing the country…corruption. A taxi driver for 10 years, Constancio Rodriguez knows all the Mexicans’ arrangements with the rules.

If you are stopped by a police officer while you are driving in violation, the officer will ask you for a bribe and let you pass. It even gives you a password that allows you to travel anywhere all day long without any problem.

How can Mexico take a new step? Between bad practices and sprawling urbanization, Mexico City’s pollution is rising to alarming levels. The city must take a new step. Hope undoubtedly comes from the new environmental leaders. Martha Delgado is leading a campaign to launch Ecobici

On the model of Parisian velib’s. She is campaigning to convince Mexicans to travel differently. But it also demands sustainable mobility solutions from public authorities. We have imposed very strict rules which are unique in the agglomeration and it would be very good to imagine that all these rules were extended to the entire territory.

In Mexico City, I think the residents have tried hard enough. We must think about other solutions that make public transport more attractive for the population. We must put in place satisfactory options for people, without expecting people to become aware of all the problems of society: problems

Of health, economy, civility, town planning, cleanliness, ecology… It’s a cultural campaign… a cultural revolution that we need. Mexico has its back against the wall. In 10 years, 80% of Mexicans will live in cities. A perspective that amplifies its ecological challenge. In Europe, cities have been waging this environmental battle for years.

Berlin, a pioneer of green policy, is the best example. The German capital is less exposed to pollution than other European cities but it was able to impose an environmental zone in 2008. A protected city center, free of cars with high polluting emissions. Without this sticker, motorists

Face a fine of 40 euros and the withdrawal of a license point. Martin Lutz is one of the leaders of this anti-pollution plan. That’s it, this is where the environmental zone begins… After eight years of application, Berlin does not know how to measure the

Health benefit for its inhabitants but certain figures do not lie. Diesel particles decreased by 50%. They are only part of the fine particles for which we have threshold limits. And the total particle concentration decreased by 10%. But this is a considerable figure, because there is almost no other measure that alone

Has had an effect of this magnitude. We have thus contributed significantly to protecting the health of the urban population. The German capital is aiming for the objective of zero exceedance of European standards before 2020. It is not there yet. Nitrogen oxide levels remain high.

The reason is that we are seeing a lot more diesel vehicles than before. And these diesels, especially the new generations unfortunately, emit much more nitrogen dioxide than European standards lead one to believe. Even Berlin, although a very green capital, has not gone so far as to ban recent Diesel cars.

If one country focuses all the criticism on this carcinogenic fuel according to the WHO, it is France. The most diesel country in the world. But in November 2014, a declaration sounded like a political turning point. This long favored diesel engine was a mistake. We must gradually return

Above with intelligence and pragmatism. Since this speech, what are the State’s real commitments? Heard by a parliamentary commission of inquiry in June 2015, the car manufacturers are in the crosshairs. Mr. Christian Chapelle, take an oath to tell the whole truth! …say, I swear! »

Their brand new diesel engines would be as clean as gasoline engines. A very questionable version. The pollution tests of all European vehicles, carried out in the laboratory, do not reflect real traffic conditions. The Valkswagen scandal and pollution fraud revealed in September 2015 caused even more trouble. NGOs demand transparency.

As long as there are no more robust tests, we cannot trust manufacturers to let them say that the diesel vehicle today is a clean vehicle. In terms of nitrogen oxides, I don’t think we can really say that diesel vehicles are still virtuous today. Several tests have been

Carried out by independent laboratories at international level by the commission services based in Italy to clearly show that a Euro 6 diesel vehicle, therefore the most recent vehicles, emit on average between 7 to 8 times more in real life than on the approved cycle.

Madame Ségolène Royal, take an oath to tell the whole truth, nothing but the truth, raise your right hand and say I swear! I swear ! Also interviewed, the Minister of Ecology Ségolène Royal publicly confirms that Diesels are still polluting. From there to banning them, that’s another story.

Thank you, Madam Minister. Madam Minister, you did not answer my question on diesel… On the ban on diesel? today there are two things: we cannot ban diesel overnight since we have encouraged for years years the purchase of diesel vehicles, so we must also know reason kept and be pragmatic and look at the

Reality of the situation. Second, you have to know what you want. Either we actually say that there are 40,000 premature deaths due to pollution but at that point, we take much more radical measures. How come there are Diesel buses

In Paris? diesel taxis in Paris? and we are told there are 20,000 to 40,000 premature deaths so we stop immediately and say well, the taxis will be electric, the buses will be electric, why is it so slow? So, we are all accountable for

What is done, you see. So, I want us to have an anti-diesel ideology and it’s true that there is pollution but at the same time we have to take action. The minister puts the responsibility back on the cities. However, it is the French State

Which is being sued by Brussels for non-compliance with air quality limit values. Paris is taking the lead and wants to set an example. The mayor of the capital is committed to freeing the city of all polluting vehicles by 2020.

Who is in favor? who is against it? who abstains? Very good, I put… We can still applaud. As of July 1, 2016, the center of Paris will be a restricted traffic zone modeled on Berlin. Vehicles older than 1997 will be prohibited. Conversely, advantages will be granted to Parisians who prefer car-sharing systems.

But as in Berlin, there is no question of excluding the new Diesels for the moment. I no longer want diesel in Paris, and even modern diesels are dangerous. It’s a technology of the past. These are fossil fuels, we have to move on. But I am pragmatic, I want it to work,

I want us to also find alternative solutions and to be able to accelerate the transformation of the vehicle fleet starting from the oldest vehicles, so that they can acquire clean vehicles or electric vehicles or no vehicle at all because you can get around town very well without having a dedicated personal car.

And I do everything to ensure that my city is more than there, at the forefront of this mobility electric. And you will see, you will see that in 2020 the landscape will not be the same at all. Between cities and states passing the buck, actions that are still too punctual,

The air battle is showing its limits. According to researchers, one dimension of the phenomenon is completely underestimated by politicians. Air pollution has no borders. Scientific proof comes to us from satellites, a veritable scanner of the atmosphere. They measure the transport of plumes of gas and particles across

The globe several times a day. Pollutants are exported from country to country. In Europe, France can thus receive part of the German pollution which itself comes from Poland. And vice versa depending on the air currents and the intensity of the episodes. In Asia, Beijing’s smog hovers over Japan. But

On a larger scale, the Chinese brown cloud can move at breakneck speed. Driven by the winds, it can cross the Pacific Ocean and reach the American continent in three to five days. It is in Boulder, the Mecca of Climate and Atmospheric Chemistry, that researchers have been studying this phenomenon for several years.

David Edwards’ team is tracking the path of ozone. This gas is harmful to health and crops. We are seeing more and more the impact of this pollution which travels a very long distance. Studies indicate, for example, that 5 to 10% of the ozone level observed on the west coast

Of North America comes from China. Studies suggest that the relocation of American manufacturing industries, particularly in Asia, may have produced more polluting emissions in Asia and through this transport effect would return to the United States. It would still be quite ironic, if that’s what happens.

An irony for California which has worked so hard to become one of the cleanest American states. California strictly enforces the Clean Air Act, the most restrictive air quality law in the world. In Los Angeles, a symbol of environmental success in the 1990s,

Concentrations of ozone and fine particles are on the rise again. In the San Joaquin Valley, in central California, the Chinese cloud is creating controversy. The region exceeds regulatory thresholds and refuses to pay fines for pollution that it claims not to

Produce. A false pretext according to the head of the Government Air Quality Agency. I’m not saying that we should ignore this phenomenon, but I am worried at the idea of ​​hearing manufacturers and local authorities

Tell us “There is nothing we can do, this is not the case.” “It’s not our fault, it all comes from China” ignoring at the same time the pollution they generate here. It would not be legally right, nor would it be scientifically right. Everyone should do what they have to do,

There is no one big bad guy in this whole story. Everyone has their share of responsibility. Air pollution without borders and without an international policeman. There is no global treaty or even a common air quality index. Faced with the emergency, Guy Brasseur, a recognized climatologist, is campaigning for global governance of air pollution.

Europe and the United States, which have worked a lot on the problem of air pollution and air quality, consider that it is no longer their problem. It’s China’s problem, it’s India’s problem, it will perhaps be Africa’s problem tomorrow.

These governments should think a little further than the end of their noses, if I may say so, and understand that in reality pollution in China, pollution in India, even if it is not direct and visible, but in the long term Ultimately it is also a problem for us in Europe or a

Problem for the North American continent. And we have not yet succeeded in truly convincing the international political world of the need, ultimately, to have a major international agreement on pollution problems. It’s not just about saying, you can’t pollute anymore, it’s about helping countries develop their economies, their infrastructure,

Their industrial system, so that emissions are limited and there we must help them. So we can’t wait 10 years. It must be done immediately. An emergency whose resolution requires global policies on our ways of producing and living in our cities. Whistleblowers are calling for

Global mobilization as for the climate. For them, the air battle has only just begun. It’s a never-ending fight… because in 2050, 75% of the world’s population will live in cities. This represents dangers but also opportunities to improve the way of life of the majority of the world’s population.

We must think of cities in terms of benefits for the population. Public health and quality of life should link all urban public policies. The problems of air quality and climate change have this very clear and common thing, … is that by working together, we scientific experts, with

Political and economic leaders, … If we manage to find solutions, the benefits for all our economies will be major. We need engaged citizens, we need politicians with the will to act. But I am rather optimistic because from the moment citizens

Understand the extent of the problem, then they become involved, they take charge of this issue.