• hypertown@lemmy.worldOP
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    3 months ago

    Discord could actually be replaced with any mainstream social media platform. Few weeks ago I’ve seen a lot of memes that took air pollution map of Europe and labeled it: “Femboys heat map” or something like that. Poland is usually almost entirely red since air pollution in that country is sometimes literally highest in the world. How are polish people still alive? Well it only happnes during coldest days in winter. As for why that happens? I don’t know. UK used to have similar problem and other countries as well but now only Poland is so bad. You could say because people are poor and they burn whatever they have to keep warm in winter but that can’t be the case. If you look at GDP map of Europe there are more counties that have lower GDP and don’t have that problem.

    • iknowitwheniseeit@lemmynsfw.com
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      3 months ago

      Poland uses coal to produce most of their electricity, unlike the rest of Europe. They don’t have a lot of coast for wind, they are northern and don’t get much sun for solar, they don’t have nuclear plants, and they were avoiding Russian gas for ages. Plus they have had right-wing governments for ages, who don’t care about pollution or global warming.

      • lorkano@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Also there is a lot of smaller mountains in poland that often surround big towns and trap polluted air there

      • hypertown@lemmy.worldOP
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        3 months ago

        Coal power plants have very little to do in overall pollution though. Electricity is something you need all year and from what I’ve seen in summer air is clean in entire Europe, there are no exceptions. As for gas I haven’t looked much into that but I remember reading a news story that said Poland was depending on Russian gas until war in Ukraine started. Now they import gas via sea.

        [Edit] - small clarification since people downvote this to oblivion. I’m not saying that coal power plants are ok or anything. I’m just saying that most of that pollution is coming from other places.

        As for proof: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_in_Europe

        According to this table Germany produces twice as much energy as Poland from fossil fuels. How is that Germany has relatively clean air?

        • Nudding@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          Coal power plants have very little to do in overall pollution though.

          Boy do I have bad news for you.

        • shneancy@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          the reason why air pollution gets worse during the winter is that cold air is denser and moves slower than warm air, which traps the pollution for longer in one spot. this problem is especially prominent in cities and valleys, and if your city is in a valley?- Well there’s a reason why shops here sell masks during the winter, nobody wears them, but hey it’s an option i guess

        • KeenFlame@feddit.nu
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          3 months ago

          The… I… What? Why would you just make shit up? Or have you been fooled to believe this?

      • hypertown@lemmy.worldOP
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        3 months ago

        If that was the case why in summer there is no such pollution? As far as I know electricity usage is increasing in summer due to air conditioning.

          • hypertown@lemmy.worldOP
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            3 months ago

            While I can’t find any relevant statistics I’m sure you’re right. But still, I’ve been in few different countries in Europe and AC isn’t as rare as some might think and I think everyone has a fridge that also has to work extra hard during summer. Compare that to winter, what takes most of the energy? Electric heaters? Doubt many people use that, electricity in Europe is just too expensive. Whatever the case it’s a fact that air is most polluted in winter during the highest cold.

            • LwL@lemmy.world
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              3 months ago

              To my knowledge AC in places north of italy is basically nonexistent in private homes. Mediterranean countries do often have it though. Poland certainly doesn’t commonly.

              Fridges don’t even remotely compare to AC in power consumption, and inside temperature doesn’t differ as much as outside temperature in summer vs. winter because in winter the inside gets heated, and in summer insulation still keeps it below outside temps usually.