Wow. I knew cities are polluted but this is extreme. In 50 years we might look at pollution as we look at smoking now, a terrible self-inflicted wound on civilization that took way too long to acknowledge and fix.
EV drivers have told me after a bit of ownership, they see ICE cars as thoroughly filthy, loud, dirty, inefficient, and almost rude.
Our addiction to being able to drive places with but a mere tap of a gas pedal has blinded us to the devil's bargain of the ICE. I honestly think that a great deal of the instinctive hatred of cyclists is tied to how deeply the power and convenience and freedom of driving has ensconced itself into our subconscious.
We shall see, I guess.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S13522...
Don’t get me wrong, they are much better than ICEs in terms of total emissions, but not for this particular issue.
EVs won’t necessarily improve this, by the way: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S13522...
> The outcome is critically dependent upon the extent of regenerative braking relative to use of friction brakes on the BEV, but overall there will be only modest changes to the total local emissions of particles from a passenger car built to current emissions standards.
We were all getting excess NO2 pumped out of diesel engines. Effectively shortening all our lifespans.
The diesels of that era that were having to trick the test, were also orders of magnitude cleaner than previous diesels, and modern diesel tech nowadays does meet those standards that they couldn't meet at the time. Moreover, the diesel trucks and buses are held to a different standard and pollute massively more than the dieselgate vehicles.
Ultimately diesel engines are much more efficient than gasoline engines, and massively reduce CO2 emissions... arguably the biggest health and existential threat humans face today. I think modern diesel/electric hybrids running clean burning renewable diesels probably have less environmental impact than any other type of vehicle on the road today. It's a shame that dieselgate ruined this for us, because it would probably be widespread if not.
For example, the VW XL1 was sold to the public getting 260mpg with ~2013 diesel tech- about twice the 'MPGe' of the most efficient production electric cars, and it can burn carbon neutral renewable diesels. Supposedly these produced 21 g/km of CO2, or about 1/6th of the effective CO2 emissions of EVs in the USA.
I'm not trying to diminish the severity of VW lying to the public, but we shouldn't hold Dieselgate up as a unique (or even particularly egregious) act of pollution.
The calculus may be different for Europe, but they still have 6 million trucks and busses on the roads.
That in the UK most diesel drivers remove their particulate filters to increase fuel efficiency (meaning that essentially every white van on the road is rolling coal like a Texan), makes it all the worse.
It's not even the lung damage, the brain damage that's been caused (there's ongoing research that may yet associate the spike in autism and neurodegenerative diseases in Europe with diesel exposure since it was incentivised) could be even more prevalent.
Margaret Heffernan did a willful blindness Ted Talk about this just about ten years ago that really rings true on this topic.
https://www.ted.com/talks/margaret_heffernan_the_dangers_of_...
Unlike toxic stuff in food, regulations do not try to limit the exposure of an individual but to take action based and prioritize measures based on the statistical severity to the whole population. I do not really think that Dieselgate (while being deeply unethical many ppl kind of knew that the regulation had holes like a cheese) really made that much of a difference if you look at the situation globally. Access to clean air and water is a privilege and all rich nations and their citizens have a responsibility. It is far to easy to always just point at some rigged exhaust cleaning systems in cars. The problem is far more complex (also electric cars will produce emissions)
https://www.csmtruck.com/the-pros-and-cons-of-glider-kit-tru...
> Albania is amongst the countries in Europe with the lowest number of new cars on the road, with just 0.6% under two years old
https://exit.al/en/2022/08/26/old-cars-dominate-albanian-roa...
This right there is why in my mind every single afflicted unit should have been recalled, replaced by VW and the others, and resale banned. We're letting others suffer and die for our unwillingness to hold our own elites responsible.
I'm convinced in 500 years we'll look as today's civilization as barbarian.
Like drug addicts, we know we are poisoning ourselves and destroying the natural resources we depend on and we cannot stop.
The course of history is full of misteps. Of course, an important distinction is that now we are all individually at varying ideological stages of incredulous reflection about these.
My understanding is that sure, inflammation is a heavy weapon of the immune system that causes quite a bit collateral damage because it's more like a weapon of mass destruction instead of carefully targeted strikes. I would think it exists for a reason though, although frequently repeated use, again as I understand it, is not how it's supposed to work. Still, suppressing it entirely and long-term, what would that do?
But ya, long-term effects are going to have to be studied. Luckily, it looks like IL-8b inhibitors are used to treat other chronic diseases, so we can pull some data out of there (though a lot of them are auto-immune, so the validity of extrapolating to a more healthy population is maybe questionable).
It's also possible that we can develop a more precise approach that moderates the signalling response of IL-8beta without fully suppressing it.
Fasting is healthy and normal. Many humans historically regularly "fasted" by today's standards just by going 12+ hours between modest meals.
We know that it slows signs of aging, but it can also depress the immune system (which might be why it slows aging), so it can still cause you to die young.
The effects of fasting on all-cause mortality are generally positive, but it's unclear right now whether that means people need to do uncomfortable levels of fasting or if most of us are just killing ourselves with eating too much and too often.
But as to the mechanism... not a scooby.
The ProNukes have gone too far this time.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15548627.2018.1...
If you want to know how to increase it ask me how.
Really interesting and, obviously major news in the battle against cancer.
In terms of research funding; wonder if it will lead to industries linked with cancer, e.g. tobacco, alcohol, motor vehicles ... , quietly starting to fund prophylactic R&D as well?
Hard to argue that that is not where we are though ...
I do hope this means that we don’t give up trying to reduce pollution though, that it won’t sap the resolve for clean air.
Maybe try to stop the pollution?
