Pollutionwatch: June 2007

Despite June appearing to have been a dreadful month throughout, the first week or so had sufficient good weather for the UK to experience significant ozone episodes (where 10 or more monitoring stations reported 'moderate' concentrations of the pollutant) right up until the 12th. Thereafter, conditions became so dull, wet and blustery that only the very occasional pollution problem was recorded. Whilst the UK suffered from record rain levels (albeit with higher than average temperatures), much of southern Europe was suffering from a record heatwave. Pollution levels soared in the eastern Mediterranean under the hot sunny conditions due to the formation of secondary pollutants like ozone by chemical reactions in the atmosphere. Conditions were made worse as forest fires broke out in Italy, Greece and Turkey and a number of Saharan dust events where winds brought particles up from northern Africa. If, as most scientists now believe, these sorts of extreme conditions will be more frequent due to climate change, last months weather shows the extent to which we will have to change our lifestyles not just to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, but also to adapt to the new weather patterns. This adaptation needs to be undertaken carefully in order to ensure that we don't just protect ourselves from the new climate but also build in sustainable measures - for example cooling our urban areas by passive measures such as shading and natural ventilation, rather than simply increasing the availability of energy hungry air-conditioning. Some measures such as increasing the amount of green space will allow us to protect ourselves from both increased heat and rainfall.