Good effort, and some is better than none, but missing the point. Where are the stats about the perchlorate and particulate matter generated? Or about increases in both the days after such an event? 

Happy New Year, everyone! Thank you for reading Envirostats. May your year be full of good health, green joy and prosperity. [Envirostats author] 

The City of Sydney New Year’s Eve fireworks display is regarded as the largest and most technologically advanced annual fireworks display on the planet.

* The display draws larger crowds than in New York, London, Paris or Berlin, with more than a million people watching from the Sydney Harbour foreshore.

* Fifteen months of design, planning and preparation for the Bridge Effect.

* Approximately 11,000 shells, 10,000 shooting comets, and a total of 100,000 individual pyrotechnic effects will be incorporated into the display.

* 112 firing points on the Sydney Harbour Bridge itself

* More than 60,000 metres of wires and cables are required to interface with the computers to launch the display

* Fourteen 20 foot shipping containers full of pyrotechnic equating to 112,000kg of equipment.

* A pyrotechnic crew of 40.

* The fireworks on the Bridge and barges are fully digitally launched, requiring 12 computers that will shoot a total of 9,200 cues.

* The 9pm show will use four fireworks barges.

* There are seven barges for the midnight show, including the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

* Fireworks will be seen off eight city rooftops.

* The 2007 Bridge Effect, designed by Brian Thomson and bridge lighting display by Martin Kinnane, is approximately 36m x 36m and weighs more than 40 tonne. It is installed on the bridge in approximately 22 nights over a three month period.

* 9,000m of rope light will be used to construct the effect. It is attached to a panel and truss system which uses over 50,000 cable ties.

* Programming the effect takes a year of planning and five days on-site using over 300 individual circuits.

* More than 4km of power cable is required to power the effect which will use up to 25,000kw of green power from set up to dismantle.

* The fireworks display is designed by Sydney’s Foti International Fireworks. This is the sixth year in a row that the company has been involved in the event. The Fireworks Director for the midnight fireworks is Fortunato Foti and Tino Pangallo for the 9pm Family Fireworks.

The City is doing it’s best to ensure a greener Sydney New Year’s Eve as part of the City’s continuing commitment to a sustainable future by:

• Using GreenPower, which will save approximately 60 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions each year;
• Recovering and recycling 80 per cent of rubbish collected from the event;
• Using recycled water collected from the City’s rainwater tanks, recycling plants and pits for street cleaning after the event;
• Distributing personal ashtrays on the night to help reduce littering of cigarette butts;
• Nominating WWF-Australia as the official Charity of 2007 Sydney New Year’s Eve. Their vision is to save life on Earth and create a future in which humans live in harmony with nature.

New Year’s Eve is a time for everyone to think about our future and take action to fight global warming.

On the night, please consider the environment by placing your rubbish in the bins provided or taking it with you and disposing of your cigarette butts in the bin.

Please also leave the car at home and catch public transport, walk or cycle.

- City of Sydney, official PDF, Dec 23 2007

This is why air pollution in China is a big concern to the rest of the world, even though the study was for the United States.

This is also why air pollution in the United States is a big concern to the rest of the world, and why everybody’s air pollution should be a concern to everybody else.

A lot of the pollution discussed is particulate matter at 2.5 microns to 10 microns, PM2.5 and PM10, respectively, that can cause visibility problems to asthma and other health impacts.

More from the article excerpt below.

Minh Tan
Envirostats author

It has been a decade since University of Washington scientists first pinpointed specific instances of air pollution, including Gobi Desert dust, traversing the Pacific Ocean and adding to the mix of atmospheric pollution already present along the West Coast of North America.

Now a UW researcher is finding that dust from the Gobi and Taklimakan deserts in China and Mongolia is routinely present in the air over the western United States during spring months…

- Science Daily, Dec 14 2007

Don’t ask me why gasoline allows for higher concentrations than diesel in America but the more important factor here is look at what China allows in relative proportions.

There are also thousands of new cars per day that was not listed in the source, with over 1,000 just in the city of Beijing each day alone as per Stat 0511. They obviously contribute to the pollution. [Envirostats author]

Mainland Chinese atmospheric scientists concluded in an analysis this year in The Journal of Environmental Sciences that, here in Guangzhou, [soot] particles were the pollutant farthest out of line with air-quality norms 226 days a year. Sulfur dioxide, which comes mainly from burning coal, was the pollutant that exceeded norms by the widest margin 45 days a year, while nitrogen oxides were the most prominent pollutant 23 days a year.

The air was relatively clean on the remaining 71 days a year.

- The New York Times, Dec 8 2007

B20 is a mix of 20% biofuel and 80% petroleum diesel fuel.

Use of biodiesel will enable the City to achieve significant reductions in diesel exhaust, a toxic air contaminant linked to an array of serious health problems. Biodiesel usage also greatly reduces carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, toxic air pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions. The San Francisco Bay Area is second only to Los Angeles in the health impacts from diesel pollution.

In addition to the implementation of biodiesel for its municipal fleet, the City has worked for more than a year on other biodiesel projects through the City’s Biodiesel Access Task Force, including the opening of the first viable biodiesel fueling station in San Francisco at the Olympic station at 2690 Third Street.

Earlier this month, San Francisco launched SFGreasecycle, a citywide program to collect waste grease for conversion to biodiesel, the first program of its kind in the country. The aim is for this program to one day serve to fuel the entire City municipal vehicle fleet. Upon full implementation of the program, the City anticipates collecting approximately 6 million pounds (or 1 million gallons) of grease annually. This will translate to nearly 1 million gallons of biofuel.

I don’t usually post future forecasts except quite predictable ones because I don’t believe humans are very good at predicting the future. However, this is annual planning for just one year ahead and is heavily based on past records so I’m pretty confident in it to post it.

However, be aware that B20 biodiesel still has 80% diesel, and diesel comes with environmental and health problems. Of course, going to B20 is a big step towards reducing diesel impact, but it is hardly the entire solution. I know that diminishing returns will make 100% biofuel unfeasible for some time to come, and also at some percentage short of 100%, the diesel impact will start to become “acceptable”, but I do want to make it clear while B20 is applaudable, it isn’t the end of the story. 

There were an estimated 13 million diesel engines in the US, although it was not certain from what year this statistic was compiled. The source page at the Clean Air Task Force had a copyright 2005 in the frame but 2007 at the bottom, although the statistic would be for 2004 and 2006 as a result. That’s a minor detail, though. It’s a lot of diesel engines. [Envirostats author]

- San Francisco Office of the Mayor press release, Nov 29 2007

- Diesel soot health impacts FAQs at the Clean Air Task Force

- US state diesel soot health impacts at the Clean Air Task Force

A nice summary of the global warming situation in terms of atmospheric indicators in 2006, both, the headline statistics and the source article, some of which is included below. [Envirostats author]

Levels of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas emitted by burning fossil fuels, hit a record high in the atmosphere in 2006, accelerating global warming, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Friday.

But concentrations of methane, the number two heat-trapping gas, flattened out in a hint that Siberian permafrost is staying frozen despite some scientists’ fears that rising temperatures might trigger a runaway thaw.

“In 2006, globally averaged concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere reached their highest levels ever recorded,” the WMO said. Carbon dioxide is the main gas from human activities blamed by the U.N. climate panel for stoking warming.

Major sources of methane include rotting vegetation in landfills, termites, rice paddies and the digestive process of cows.

“Methane levels have been flattening out in recent years,” Geir Braathen, WHO’s senior scientific officer, told Reuters.

“A widespread melt of Siberian permafrost is a possibility but there is no sign of it in this data,” he said, referring to some scientists’ fears that frozen methane in the permafrost could be released by rising temperatures and accelerate warming.

“If it was happening it would turn up in these figures,” he said.

Emissions of some heat-trapping gases blamed for depleting the planet’s protective ozone layer also dipped in 2006.

- Reuters, Nov 23 2007