Fresh air - please!

Norway has a reputation for being a country of unpolluted, beautiful scenery. The air is fresh, you can drink the water from the streams on the mountains, and generally not worry about your surrounding environment. With only five and a half million people living in a country with a land area of 125,000 square mikes (compared to the UK's 60 million people in 94,000 square miles) it is obviously less affected by whatever we humans do to it.

However, we are getting to that time of year when weather conditions create such huge problems with regard to air quality here in Bergen that the city council is considering introducing a system to get cars off the roads. The idea is that on even days only cars with a number plate ending in an even number can drive, and obviously on the other days only those with an odd number can drive.

Of course, the well planned family with 2 cars may have the system licked as they will have one car with an odd  plate and one with an even plate, otherwise it may be difficult for mum, dad and two or more kids to get to school and work on time! For those who don't however, the council will be laying on extra busses to get people to their respective destinations.  And that is where the problem really gets worse.

The cold air causes all exhaust gases to remain at ground level, trapped between the mountains which surround the city increasing the amount of nitrogen dioxide in the air.  Nitrogen dioxide is toxic, and can cause breathing problems particularly for the old, young children and asthma sufferers. All the extra buses which the council has at its disposal are ordinary diesel buses (some of them quite old) so you can guess what will happen if these buses start running - the exhaust and particulate pollution they produce is considerably more than that produced by the few cars which will be unable to drive that day - a diesel bus produces as much NO₂ as 300 petrol cars! 

Bergen has 81 buses that run on LPG and  343 running on diesel, plus a tramline which is completely green but doesn't serve too many areas, and access to a fair number of coaches which all run on diesal, so it will be interesting to see what happens if the system is introduced!

.