Environment

Climate Change, 15 of March 2019

Environment, Mobility and Climate, Newsletter #33 - Mar 2019, z Newsletter article Print This Post
Greta Thunberg during a visit to Brussels

When Greta Thunberg, a 15-year-old Swedish girl first appeared in front of delegates to the 2018 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Katowice, not many people knew her. She spoke on behalf of Climate Justice Now. In her three and a half minute speech, she spoke about climate change and absolutely nailed it. She attended the conference in the capacity of being the child who started the movement of school strikes over climate change. Since then she became a well-respected figure seen everywhere around Europe where those Friday strikes take place and was even invited to the World Economic Forum in Davos this year where she dared to tell political and business leaders: “I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day.” Continue reading Climate Change, 15 of March 2019 →

Greenpeace & Generation 2004 lunch-time conference on Air Quality

Environment, Events, Newsletter #30 - Oct 2018, z Newsletter article Print This Post

We all know (with a few exceptions) that we are living in a polluted world. We all know (with few exceptions) that we should do something about it. But what perhaps we don’t know (with few exceptions) is that we need to do it now. No time to postpone our contribution to a clean air and a clean environment. We are at the point of almost no return and we need to act accordingly in order to leave a living planet to our kids and generations to follow.

In March 2018  Greenpeace Belgium presented a report called Mijn lucht Mijn School (My air My school) based on a 4-week study on the air in 222 Belgian schools. And with no surprise, the study indicates that the air our kids are breathing is quite bad. In fact, only 7 schools in Belgium are inside the so called “green zone” (good air quality, see table below), the rest of the schools are in the yellow, orange and light red zone. 5 Belgian schools are in the no go zone – not so many, but still a few. The EU normative on the NO2 particles are set quite high, so one could claim that the majority of the schools have actually clean air, but this is not the case. Everything outside a green zone is already a risk for the health.

Continue reading Greenpeace & Generation 2004 lunch-time conference on Air Quality →

Sustainable mobility in Brussels

Environment, Features, Mobility and Climate, Newsletter #25 – Nov 2017, z Newsletter article Print This Post

OIB and DG HR released earlier this month the results of their latest staff survey on mobility. Some interesting results, albeit somewhat disappointing: the number of cyclists and people walking to work has increased but this seems to be at the expense of the number of people using public transport rather than at the expense of private cars. This suggests that the institutions could do more to encourage people to give up their private cars. The current incentive is limited to a 50% subsidy on season STIB and SNCB passes, basically a few ten euros per month. Cyclists also get access to free parking and showers (in most buildings) but no lockers (with a few exceptions) to store spare clothes and a towel. Pedestrians get nothing, despite having to pay presumably higher rents/mortgages in order to live close to their office. Continue reading Sustainable mobility in Brussels →

Air quality in Brussels

Environment, Features, Health, Mobility and Climate, Newsletter #24 - Sep 2017, z Newsletter article Print This Post

Many of us are concerned with the air quality of the cities where we live and work. The Brussels region is slowly waking up on this issue. They recently released data on black carbon pollution levels in Brussels. These measurements are the results of a citizen science program called ExpAir in which some of our colleagues took part. Each participant was given a little box to measure black carbon both outdoor and indoor. Black carbon is a subset of the micro-particles that are subject to the EU legislation on air quality (it makes about 10% of the total mass of PM10 micro-particles, but it is potentially the most harmful part of these particles as it is a direct product of combustion and moreover it can aggregate all sorts of volatile organic compounds that are harmful to our health, including a number of carcinogenic substances). Continue reading Air quality in Brussels →