air pollution

Industrialization has given the world some of its greatest inventions and unequivocally improved our lives, but it's also played a part in one of today's most pressing issues: man-made climate change. The Union of Concerned Scientists cites a paper by Richard Heede, Tracing anthropogenic carbon...

The U.S. will provide technical assistance for China's next round of emissions standards.

Beijing will attempt to fight pollution by restricting new car sales.

It stands to reason: Take all vehicles off the roads, and the air will get cleaner. But now we can answer the question, "How much?" And it turns out that the answer is, "A lot." In a new paper, A national day with near zero emissions and its effect on primary and secondary pollutants, published in...

We cover China's air pollution problems with depressing frequency on Green Car Reports, but the country's pollution problems have until now been far more than token schemes are able to deal with. That could change over the next few years, as the Chinese government pledges to invest $283 billion to...

With relatively few electric vehicles on the market, drawing direct comparisons with regular gasoline and diesel vehicles is surprisingly difficult--not many vehicles are sold with all three drivetrains. The Ford Focus is one, and Renault's Fluence sedan is another. Now, reports Autoblog Green, the...

Last year, we reported on a scheme aimed at helping Colorado car owners get their dirtiest vehicles off the road. The Clear the Air Foundation and ReForest Colorado aimed to plant a tree for every polluting old vehicle donated--cleaning up the air in more ways than one. The scheme is now doing...

China is fast becoming an air quality disaster zone. On several occasions over the past six months, smog levels in major cities have reached hazardous levels, requiring fast action and dramatic changes from policymakers. The latest can be found in Shijiazhuang, the capital city of the...

Smog-choked Chinese capital Beijing will be the first city in the country to introduce a new pollution tax. Following months of pollution far above safe levels, major Chinese cities have scrabbled to find a solution for improving air quality. Gasgoo reports Beijing will introduce a new tax this...

Does the supposedly clean, green Tesla Model S really pollute more than a gas-guzzling Jeep Grand Cherokee sport-utility vehicle? That's what one analyst has claimed. In an exhaustive 6,500-word article on the financial website Seeking Alpha, analyst Nathan Weiss lays out a case that the Model S...

You learn something new every day: Cholesterol, a little like bacteria, comes in body "good" and "bad" forms. All those low-cholesterol spread adverts have been lying to us! What's more worrying is that good cholesterol can change into bad cholesterol, and it could be car exhaust fumes that make it...

For those readers living in one of America's big cities, concrete jungles strewn across the North American landscape, it's easy to forget that hundreds of thousands of acres are set aside in some states as National Parks. Isolated from the bustle of busy cities they're idyllic spots, precious for...

"Cleaner cars need cleaner fuels"--that's the message from a group of automakers in support of new EPA rules to clean up gasoline. The Environmental Protection Agency will today move ahead with rules requiring cleaner gasoline nationwide, with huge potential environmental benefits. According to a...

It's long been suspected, but a new European survey confirms it: Children living near areas of heavy traffic are more at risk of asthma. Previously, it was thought that pollution from traffic might only be a trigger for the condition, but the Los Angeles Times reports on a European study that it...

China's ongoing and recent air pollution issues are leading to swift rethinking of the country's transport policy. After several months of choking smog engulfing its major cities, the country has finally imposed strict fuel economy standards in a bid to cut fuel use--and pollution. Reuters reports...

Recent pollution figures in Chinese capital Beijing have made 1970s Los Angeles look like a crisp day in the Rocky Mountains. The city, like Hong Kong last month, has finally decided to take action, and the city's acting mayor is set to scrap 180,000 old vehicles from the roads. Additionally...

Choked by smog, the city of Hong Kong has finally cried "enough!" Despite setting clean air targets, the city's smog problems have been increasing every year, and authorities have finally brought in measures to ban the highest-polluting vehicles. According to Bloomberg (via Treehugger), that...

For some, the image of a classic Citroën DS passing along the Champs-Élysées couldn't be much more French if a man in a stripy top and beret walked past swinging a chain of onions. But soon, that image could be shattered as Paris mayor Bertrand Delanoe is set to introduce plans...

Pittsburgh-based aluminum giant Alcoa has developed a new coating for its aluminum building panels that passively sucks in airborne pollutants and transforms them into harmless substances. Appropriately enough, the new panels are getting one of their first commercial tryouts at a new regional...

While it's not quite the 2009 Cash for Clunkers program, it's a nice gesture with a clear mission: get the most polluting cars off Colorado roads. If you're a Coloradan who owns a pre-1990 car, donate it to the Clear the Air Foundation and the ReForest Colorado program will plant a tree in an area...