How Scandinavians access clean air in the industrial age.
A breath of fresh air is invigorating, rejuvenating, and healthy. Throughout the seminar, we discussed how marginalized groups and people of lower economic status are often the most exposed to the worst effects of climate change, particularly air pollution. The distribution of fresh air can be difficult: cars, factories, and power plants are necessary pieces of modern cities that leave air polluted and unhealthy.
The most effective measure in ensuring clean air for all people would be to stop the burning of oil and natural gas and instead use renewable, low-emission sources. For example, in Copenhagen we saw how Orsted, an energy company, is transforming one of its last coal plants into a site to process wind energy, eliminating many harmful emissions. This is one of the last coal plants in the city, and its transition to sustainable energy will be a big step forward for environmental justice in the city, expanding access to clean air in the surrounding neighborhoods.
Additionally, Copenhagen has numerous large parks filled with trees that convert carbon dioxide into oxygen, further improving air quality. On a biking tour highlighting the sustainable features of the city, we rode through one of these parks, called Fælledparken. Here, our guide explained how a study completed in France found that walking through a park instead of walking along a busy street can expose people to better air quality by about five to seven percent. Since Copenhagen has several of these large parks, this means that access to clean air is distributed more equally among neighborhoods.
Similarly, Stockholm is known for having impeccable air quality. This is easy to believe, as the flight into Stockholm showed us the heavily-forested lands surrounding the city. The quality of the air seems to only be increasing, as in 2017 the city measured its best air quality in fifty years. This is attributed to "less polluting modern cars, a congestion charge, and unusually windy weather (1)." Zennid, who guided our walking tour in Stockholm, claimed that the superior air quality would add a year to our lives.
Our visit to Inari, Finland, exposed us to a different perspective in terms of the distribution of air quality. This area above the Arctic Circle seems nearly untouched compared to the cities we visited, with trees covering much of the land. It is easy to see that there is not much pollution from large power plants or industry, but there is one threat to the people of the northernmost part of Finland, often called Lapland. This is the threat of oil drilling, with which comes oil and natural gas refining and transportation. These practices lead to the release of many chemicals into the air, significantly worsening air quality. While the people of this region fight against new drilling projects, their voice is not always heard by oil companies and the Finnish government. I explore this concept more in another post.
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