"One Atmosphere": Cleaning up London's air

In this film of a presentation at a conference held in Australlia, Simon Birkett, Founder and Director of Clean Air in London, talks about the most important lessons learned by him from 10 years of campaigning on air pollution. The film urges immediate action to reduce local air pollution and greenhouse gases to protect public health and mitigate climate change.

Simon Birkett has made the following comments about the film:

“One Atmosphere urges David Cameron, Malcolm Turnbull and other world leaders to take a lead at the forthcoming COP21 climate negotiations in Paris by pledging to reduce local air pollution and greenhouse gases to protect public health and mitigate climate change.

“This film is also my record of the most important lessons I’ve learned from 10 years of campaigning on air pollution. Clean Air in London has focused every day on its mission to achieve urgently and sustainably full compliance with World Health Organisation guidelines for air quality. We’ve done it by focusing ruthlessly on air pollution in London and those who can reduce it i.e. addressing successive Mayors and UK governments, the European Parliament and European Commission, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations. At one stage, a previous government asked us to campaign on nuisance noise but we refused because it would distract us from our core mission.

“I hope people will enjoy watching One Atmosphere. Highlights include:

• getting started in 2006 and milestones and successes since then;

• finding every government since September 1990 or earlier has incentivised the use of diesel vehicles despite knowing it would kill people sooner when One Atmosphere thinking would have stopped it;

• accusing the previous Labour government of one of the biggest public health ‘cover-ups’ or failings in modern history for not disclosing the number of deaths attributable to long-term exposure to fine particles (PM2.5);

• hunting and filming the Mayor of London’s Pollution Suppressor which he used in early 2012 to reduce air pollution by up to 49% – just in front of the monitor on the Olympic Route Network most likely to report a legal breach (and CAL finding him guilty of public health fraud on an industrial scale);

• the deadly dangers posed by standby diesel generators that are used in cities to power the national grid (e.g. ‘Short-Term Operating Reserve’ (STOR) and ‘TRAD Avoidance’) and combined heat and power plants and biomass burning in cities;

• finding that indoor air quality in NHS hospitals may be no better than warehouses and most local authorities do not know whether their schools comply with the British and European standard BS:EN 13779 for air filters in building (which is different to air conditioning and ventilation);

• the need to ban diesel from the most polluted places by 2020, with an intermediate step by 2018, as the first Clean Air Act banned coal so successfully almost exactly 60 years ago (5 July 2016); and

• the need and wonderful opportunity to implement One Atmosphere thinking to reduce local air pollution and greenhouse gases to protect public health and mitigate climate change.

“CAL is grateful to Andy Davey for letting us include many of his amazing cartoons about air pollution in One Atmosphere, all of which feature Mayor Johnson.

“To encourage the widespread sharing of One Atmosphere, we have chosen a Creative Commons license which lets others remix, tweak, and build upon our work even for commercial purposes, as long as they credit us and license their new creations under the identical terms. The cartoons by Andy Davey included in the film are subject to separate copyright protection with all rights reserved.

“I am keen to record special thanks to the Clean Air Society of Australia and New Zealand and VicRoads for sponsoring my presentation in Australia, Jay Hunt Founder and Chief Executive of Violet Productions, cameraman Ryan Blair and Ace Post Production. Special thanks of course to Environmental Justice Australia hosting a landmark National Clean Air Summit.

“I am also grateful to Clean Air in London’s Honorary Founder Supporters and Clean Air in Cities Award winners and key sponsors and supporters including Camfil (world leader in air filters for buildings), the New West End Company and the Licensed Taxi Drivers Association (which campaigns, amongst many other things, for taxi drivers to be allowed by the Mayor to buy non-diesel vehicles).

“There is a wonderful opportunity for a new clean air revolution almost exactly 60 years after the first national Clean Air Act. We should start by: banning diesel, combined heat and power plants, incinerators and wood burning from the most polluted places; and agreeing ambitious greenhouse gas reduction commitments at COP21 in Paris.

“I hope One Atmosphere inspires others to campaign for clean air and enjoy the journey to getting it.”