The invisible enemy and the approaching revolution

A new scientific study, “The impact of exposure to air pollution on cognitive performance”, shows that exposure to polluted air in cities damages people’s far beyond what we knew about the premature death of more than seven million people a year or the effects of global warming. The authors studied a sample of 20,000 people between 2010 and 2014, subjecting the participants to verbal and mathematical ability tests, then compared the results with nitrogen oxide and sulfur measurements and concluded that pollution generates brain damage that significantly reduces our intelligence as exposure increases.

City lovers and irresponsible politicians may continue to deny it, but pollution is the invisible enemy of our health, and the damage it causes goes far beyond our lungs. All the medical evidence points to the internal combustion engine as the culprit. NASA studies show that, from 2010, the automobile has been the biggest contributor to the rising levels of atmospheric pollution and climate change.

Germany’s ambitious plans to reduce emissions by 40% by 2020, agreed in 2007, will fail for this reason: the country has achieved an impressive reduction of 27.7%, mainly by cleaning up industry and energy production, but the automotive industry has done nothing. If we’re going to tackle air pollution we have to kill off the internal combustion engine, and much sooner than thought.

There can be no more delay based on myths or deliberate misinformation about electric cars. This is not about the market, convenience or preferences: anybody who buys a diesel or gasoline vehicle, aware of the evidence, is part of the problem and becomes the enemy. This is not about prices or profits: this is about morality and public health. To win this war, we need to ELIMINATE all vehicle emissions as soon as possible, using every means available.

A growing number of people understand the importance of this, and are willing to support measures such as banning diesel vehicles from cities. But we must go further: we have to pressure carmakers to stop producing and selling gasoline and diesel vehicles, regardless of the short-term impact. We cannot put the profits of an industry, no matter how large, before public health and on the ecosystem that its by-product generates. For this, we need a revolution, a huge change in our collective mindset, capable of applying pressure on the motor industry far beyond what governments and regulators are doing. The battle against the oil lobby has to set a clear goal: to bring about a social change, to reach that mythical 25% of the society supposedly necessary to generate change. This is possible, and all the more important given the danger to our health. Talking in terms of a decade or two no longer make any sense: we have to act much faster.

(En espa?ol, aquí)