The Most Poluted Places

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Adler

dont visit Milan of a still day then, I could still smell exhaust fumes in the hotel bar it was like being in a garage when I was there. I think all major cities are pretty much the same

I have been to Milan as well. It was pretty bad I will admit. I think the worst I have ever been exposed to was probably Kirkuk. Absolute terrible inhaling oil fires all damn day.

TEC, perhaps we need to add a term here: ON AVERAGE. how many "bad" vs "good" days. however i could not agree more. in spite of all the wonderful things cities can have they are all pretty much the same dirty, smelly, and rude places. i spent two days in paris and could not wait to leave, but now the south of france..... anytime

I will have to agree as well. For the most part I do not like large cities. They are just overpopulated and just too damn big!

Exceptions to me are the smaller size cities (approx. 250,000 pop) such as Anchorage, Nurnberg, etc...

I will always visit the larger cities though with my favorites being Prague, Berlin, Paris and Rome.

 

[mikewint]

been to all except rome, again way back in '69 Prague was still communist and in berlin we passed through the brandenburg gate. seeing those e greman guards with loaded AKs and knowing they could cut you in half and never even get yelled at was a creepy feeling to say the least. so i have certainly not seen these places at their best

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

been to all except rome, again way back in '69 Prague was still communist and in berlin we passed through the brandenburg gate. seeing those e greman guards with loaded AKs and knowing they could cut you in half and never even get yelled at was a creepy feeling to say the least. so i have certainly not seen these places at their best

I too went through East Germany on the US Military Duty Train back before the reunification. I even have the Check Point Charlie stamp in my passport when I crossed into East Berlin through West Berlin. Later we went through the Brandenburg Gate when crossing from East Berlin back into West Berlin.

I took a lot of trips into the Warsaw Pact countries back in the 80s including Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and even East Germany. It was certainly a eye opening experience for someone from the "West".

That is all for a different thread though...

 

[mikewint]

sorry, did not mean to get too far off the thread.
eagle, i had asked earlier about Prypiat, Ukraine is anywhere on you list? maybe at #10
i've read/heard that the concrete sarcophagus is full of holes and ready to collapse

 

[tail end charlie]

i was alive in '52 and well remember the news reports that followed. we spent several days in london in '69 and i remember a fine coating of soot on everything. i also recall a number of londoners saying that it got much worse in the winter when all the coal heaters fired up. you can look at any of the cities on the chart and the same can be said for all of them. a good wind and it becomes the problem of the guy downwind. when i said that chicago was the windy city and we blew our cr*p to phoenix i was being half facetious. its probably the only factor that has kept us off that list.
given the right weather conditions Phoenix and LA are also off the list

A while ago there was a big protest from Norway about acid rain being caused by pollution from UK. When they investigated they found the worst polluter was a company called Norske Hydro which had relocated from Norway to UK to escape their pollution laws. Problem is the plant was near hull on the north sea coast all the crap just blew straight back to Norway

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

sorry, did not mean to get too far off the thread.
eagle, i had asked earlier about Prypiat, Ukraine is anywhere on you list? maybe at #10
i've read/heard that the concrete sarcophagus is full of holes and ready to collapse

No it only listed 1-9.

 

[tail end charlie]

sorry, did not mean to get too far off the thread.
eagle, i had asked earlier about Prypiat, Ukraine is anywhere on you list? maybe at #10
i've read/heard that the concrete sarcophagus is full of holes and ready to collapse

I dont know about holes due to corrosion but it was never made airtight. There was a documentary on it showing the scientists going in and out. Strangely the most common cause of death was heart attacks due to stress.

 

[mikewint]

TEC, kinda poetic justice but it also means the UK needs to clamp down on pollution within its borders. I'm prejudiced, of course, but i think the US has done "not too bad" on nailing our own polluters. i know my cars have to be inspected every two years
Eagle, thanks, i personally would think that Prypiat should be on that list

 

[tail end charlie]

TEC, kinda poetic justice but it also means the UK needs to clamp down on pollution within its borders. I'm prejudiced, of course, but i think the US has done "not too bad" on nailing our own polluters. i know my cars have to be inspected every two years
Eagle, thanks, i personally would think that Prypiat should be on that list

That was in the late 80s and they were breaking UK laws too. As a child my local river was so polluted if you fell in you were automatically rushed to hospital now its full of fish. However more people die in it now, jumping in where it isnt as deep as they think or getting overcome by cold on a hot day.

 

[tail end charlie]

The president of India, which has a large percentage of vegetarians said that the west should become vegetarian because one of the biggest sources of greenhouse gases was cows farting

 

[mikewint]

TEC, he is correct, though most comes from belching 1.5 billion cows plus untold billions of other grazing animals produce 200 - 500 Liters of methane per day per animal and methane is 23 times more effective as a greenhouse gas as compared to carbon dioxide. however india has no room to talk: sacred cows all over the place.
in addition their decomposing dung produces more methane and ammonia gas. a cow is pretty equal to an auto in terms of pollution. cows just don't consume petrolleum

 

[BombTaxi]

Tail end, can't speak with first hand knowledge but in june 2010 the EU announced that london had just had its 36th "bad air" day. Mostly particulate matter and nitrogen oxides coming from auto traffic. The EU has a set a limit of 35 "bad air days" per year. london has exceeded this limit since its inception in 2005. According to the EU fines are going to be imposed

I worked in and around West London and the City until two months ago, and I noticed no real difference between London and any other large city like Manchester or Birmingham. You certainly can't smell anything unpleasant in the air or feel any difficulty in your breathing. I think London has a bad reputation because of the smogs it has had in the past, but much has been done to clean the city up. They are also moving to hybrid fuel buses to reduce one major source of pollution, and most of the area inside the M25 is now a low emissions zone where older vehicles (particularly HGVs which do not conform to the latest emissions standards) are not allowed to operate.

 

[tail end charlie]

TEC, he is correct, though most comes from belching 1.5 billion cows plus untold billions of other grazing animals produce 200 - 500 Liters of methane per day per animal and methane is 23 times more effective as a greenhouse gas as compared to carbon dioxide. however india has no room to talk: sacred cows all over the place.
in addition their decomposing dung produces more methane and ammonia gas. a cow is pretty equal to an auto in terms of pollution. cows just don't consume petrolleum

Hey mike, I am warming to the cow idea...when they get one to go over 100MPH I will get one

regarding the pollution cant one just teach cows that it is rude to burp?

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

The president of India, which has a large percentage of vegetarians said that the west should become vegetarian because one of the biggest sources of greenhouse gases was cows farting

That is another reason to eat more cows!

 

[tail end charlie]

That is another reason to eat more cows!

Our liberal party has proposed a holistic approach based on educating cows of their social responsibilty to save the planet by pretending they arn't married ie not farting or belching , prior to being eaten of course.

 

[mikewint]

let it be known, far and wide, that i just did my part in saving the planet: i just took down a 20oz angus porterhouse
by the way each human produces about a liter of methane per day, BURRRUP

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Hmmm nice rare porterhouse. I might grill me up one this weekend.

 

[mikewint]

eagle you list ansbach, deutchland. how are steaks there? english beef was terrible, grass-fed and boiled

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

eagle you list ansbach, deutchland. how are steaks there? english beef was terrible, grass-fed and boiled

I buy my steaks at the Commissary at the US Airfield that I work at.

German beef is very good, but for a good quality cut of meat, it is very very expensive, so I almost always buy my beef on post in the Commissary. The Commissary cuts of meat are comparable with the state side prices.

Pork or Poultry I almost always buy off post on the German economy. The quality is just so much better. In fact next week I pick up a whole pig that I will be grilling.

 

[mikewint]

i'm a big fan of german food, heavy but good, all the various wursts, sauerbratten, schnitzels, red cabbage, sauerkraut, potato salad, ect. now i'm hungry