One of the many

Category: Environment

Climate Change, Pollution

Only 5% of countries met WHO Air Pollution Guidelines in 2022

IQAir‘s 5th Annual World Air Quality Report reveals alarming details of the world’s most polluted countries, territories, and regions in 2022.

For this year’s report, data from more than 30,000 air quality monitoring stations across 7,323 locations in 131 countries, territories, and regions was analyzed by IQAir’s air quality scientists.

Key findings from the 2022 World Air Quality Report (Download the full report):

  • Six countries met the World Health Organization PM2.5 guideline (annual average of 5 µg/m3 or less): Australia, Estonia, Finland, Grenada, Iceland, and New Zealand.
  • The top five most polluted countries in 2022 were:
    • Chad (89.7 µg/m3) more than 17 times higher than the WHO PM2.5 annual guideline
    • Iraq (80.1 µg/m3) more than 16 times higher than the WHO PM2.5 annual guideline
    • Pakistan (70.9 µg/m3) more than 14 times higher than the WHO PM2.5 annual guideline
    • Bahrain (66.6 µg/m3) more than 13 times higher than the WHO PM2.5 annual guideline
    • Bangladesh (65.8 µg/m3) more than 13 times higher than the WHO PM2.5 annual guideline
  • A total of 118 (90%) out of 131 countries and regions exceeded the WHO annual PM2.5 guideline value of 5 µg/m3
  • While the African continent saw an increase from 13 countries represented in 2021 to 19 countries included in this year’s report, Africa remains the most underrepresented continent. Only 19 countries out of 54 countries have sufficient air quality data
  • The region of Central and South Asia was home to eight of the world’s ten cities with the worst air pollution
  • Lahore is the most polluted metropolitan area of 2022. It ranked #15 in 2021
  • Chile became home to eight of the region’s top 15 most polluted cities
  • The most polluted city in the U.S. was Coffeyville, Kansas. The most polluted major U.S. city was Columbus, Ohio
  • California was home to 10 of the 15 most polluted cities in the U.S.
  • Las Vegas, Nevada was deemed the cleanest major city in the U.S.
  • Canada’s cleanest city in 2022 was Schefferville, Quebec
  • Canada most polluted city in 2022 was Clearwater, British Columbia

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Living off-grid in Manhattan

Joshua Spodek, writing in Ars Technica »

I learned to time my activities around the sun. In direct sunlight, the panels fully charged the battery in about four hours. A cloudy day could mean the battery wouldn’t fully charge, but between planning and my NYU cheat, I missed zero meetings.

Some changes that made the experiment work included reading more books, writing by hand, choosing salads over cooked foods, going out instead of staying in, and shifting work to daytime hours. At first, I considered these changes sacrifices, but looking back, I view them more as a cultural shift, a bit like when I lived overseas and couldn’t find a good bagel. Finding the local equivalent—croissants in Paris or vegetable steamed buns in Shanghai—worked better than complaining, and it expanded my world.

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