Last updated: March 12, 2010
Source: South China Morning Post
In a letter to the SCMP, Christine Loh Kung-wai, chief executive of the think-tank Civic Exchange, had this to say:
If Hong Kong doesn’t get the “carrots and sticks” formula right, it will continue to be hard to replace the old and highly polluting commercial diesel bus and truck fleet. There is no doubt about the harm these vehicles cause. Government data shows they are the principal emitters of roadside pollution, accounting for 88 per cent of the highly health-damaging particulates and 76 per cent of nitrogen dioxide, another pollutant.
Overseas research shows that those living within 500 metres of busy and congested roads are the worst affected. Negative health impacts include asthma, allergies, impaired lung functions in children and cardiovascular problems for the elderly.
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Posted in: Air Pollution, Diesel, Health, Idling Engines, Pollution, Roadside, Vehicle.
By the end 2009, the breakdown on the number of franchised buses by engine type is as follows:
|
Engine Type
|
KMB
|
CTB
|
NWFB
|
LW
|
NLB
|
|
Pre-Euro
|
300
|
40
|
30
|
less than 5
|
0
|
|
Euro I
|
940
|
310
|
80
|
0
|
0
|
|
Euro II
|
1490
|
530
|
480
|
130
|
35
|
|
Euro III
|
1100
|
10
|
70
|
20
|
50
|
|
Euro IV
|
50
|
30
|
40
|
10
|
15
|
|
Total
|
3880
|
920
|
700
|
160
|
100
|
Totals:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Engine Type
|
KMB
|
CTB
|
NWFB
|
LW
|
NLB
|
Total
|
|
Pre-Euro
|
300
|
40
|
30
|
less than 5
|
0
|
373
|
|
Euro I
|
940
|
310
|
80
|
0
|
0
|
1330
|
|
Euro II
|
1490
|
530
|
480
|
130
|
35
|
2665
|
|
Euro III
|
1100
|
10
|
70
|
20
|
50
|
1250
|
|
Euro IV
|
50
|
30
|
40
|
10
|
15
|
145
|
|
Total
|
3880
|
920
|
700
|
160
|
100
|
5760
|
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Posted in: Air Pollution, Diesel, Roadside, Vehicle.
Last updated: March 11 ,2010
Source: South China Morning Post
They dangled a carrot, but too few bit.
Now environment officials are considering wielding a stick to get heavily polluting old trucks off the city’s streets.
They have decided to resurrect as soon as possible a proposal to increase licence fees for trucks and vans 15 or more years old, to discourage people from keeping the vehicles.
Under the proposal, higher fees would apply to dirtier vehicles such as those made before the Euro 1 standard, which placed limits on emitted pollutants, took effect in 1995.
Those older vehicles could be as much as 20 times more polluting than those covered by the latest version of the standard, Euro 4, introduced in 2006.
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Posted in: Air Pollution, Diesel, Pollution, Roadside, Vehicle.
Last updated: March 11, 2010
Source: South China Morning Post
We appear to have been battered to a submissive intellectual pulp by the climate change lobby, although it was only 35 years ago, when I interviewed the world’s principal climate experts for The Washington Post, that the consensus was the earth was cooling. Within a few decades, they have fundamentally changed their minds. How could this happen so quickly?
Has everyone already forgotten how the computer boffins told us that the world’s computers would crash at midnight at the start of the year 2000? Businesses, hospitals, universities, airlines and so forth spent a fortune to retool with new computers. On the dot of midnight of the new millennium … the old computers still worked perfectly well.
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Posted in: Climate, Global Warming.
Last updated: March 11, 2010
Source: South China Morning Post
In a letter to the editor of SCMP, James Watkins of Sai Kung writes:
I become quite despondent when I read letters on global warming such as those by Beatrice Yeung and by Jessie Kwok (”Poor nations will need help” and “Habitats are under threat”, March 9).
It is disappointing that your correspondents and many others like them accept the received wisdom without regard to the available evidence.
The view that polar bears and other species are under threat from the consequences of man-made climate change flies in the face of all recent evidence, which demonstrates that the polar bear population is increasing and that the species is flourishing.
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Posted in: Climate, Global Warming.
Clear The Air presented its views to Legco on March 10, 2010. Below are some figures.
By end of 2009, there were a total of 3,880, 920, 700, 160 and 100 licensed buses for Kowloon Motor Bus Company (1933) Limited(“KMB”), Citybus Limited(“CTB”),, New World First Bus Services Limited(“NWFB”),, Long Win Bus Company Limited(“LW”),and New Lantao Bus Company (1973) Limited(“NLB”),. The relevant breakdown by engine types is as follows :
|
Engine Type
|
KMB
|
CTB
|
NWFB
|
LW
|
NLB
|
|
Pre-Euro
|
300
|
40
|
30
|
less than 5
|
0
|
|
Euro I
|
940
|
310
|
80
|
0
|
0
|
|
Euro I above
|
2640
|
570
|
590
|
160
|
100
|
Download the CTA submission here.
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Posted in: Air Pollution, Diesel, Local, Pollution, Roadside, Vehicle.
The commercial vehicle industry has objected to government plans to increase licence fees for older commercial vehicles to reduce air pollution. The industry was hoping the government would extend or increase the current one-off subsidy to get these vehicles off the road. But the Undersecretary for the Environment, Kitty Poon, said that instead, the administration intended to raise the fee. She said the subsidy scheme had run its course.
Agree or disagree? Sound off your opinion after the jump.
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Posted in: Air Pollution, Diesel, Local, Pollution, Roadside, Vehicle.
First published: March 5, 2010
Source: 7th Space
Hong Kong (HKSAR) - Following is a question by the Dr Hon Lam Tai-fai and a written reply by the Secretary for Transport and Housing, Ms Eva Cheng, at the Legislative Council meeting today (March 3): Question: In its paper submitted to the Panel on Transport of this Council in November 2008, the Government has indicated that the traffic distribution among the three road harbour crossings (”RHCs”) is uneven, and there is room for improvement. One of the major causes of uneven distribution is the difference in toll levels of the three RHCs.Moreover, quite a number of members of the public have relayed to me that congestion occurs in north bound and south bound traffic at the Cross-Harbour Tunnel (”CHT”) every morning and evening, and it has not only resulted in longer journey time but has also aggravated air pollution as it has increased vehicle emissions. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council: (a)of the respective average daily vehicular flows, as well as the maximum and minimum traffic flows of CHT, WesternHarbour Crossing (”WHC”) and Eastern Harbour Crossing (”EHC”) in each of the past five years, together with a breakdown by vehicle type; (b)since the implementation of the Journey Time Indication System (”JTIS”) at the end of 2003, whether the authorities have reviewed the effectiveness of JTIS, including the accuracy in its estimation of journey time; if they have, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; (c)whether the Transport Department (”TD”) has received complaints about journey time being wrongly estimated by JTIS; if it has, of the total number of complaints received since the implementation of JTIS and, among such complaints, the maximum and minimum differences in the estimated and actual journey times involved; (d)whether TD has assessed if the traffic congestion problem at CHT is serious at present, and whether it has studied ways to solve the problem, including formulating time indicator for cross-harbour journeys or other vehicle divergent measures (for example, increasing the number of autotoll lanes); if it has, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; (e)whether it had, in the past three years, assessed the impact of the traffic congestion problem at the three RHCs on the journey time to work and to school of members of the public, as well as on air pollution, and whether it had assessed the resultant economic losses to Hong Kong (including the impact on the gross value of production of relevant industries and the development of the tourist industry in Hong Kong); if it had, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; (f)whether it has assessed the impact of the Central-Wanchai Bypass Project, West Kowloon Cultural District Project and the Hong Kong Section of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link Project on the traffic at CHT during their construction; whether it will aggravate the traffic congestion problem at CHT; if it has, of the details, and how such problems are to be solved; (g)whether it has assessed if the traffic congestion problem at the three RHCs can be alleviated after the commissioning of the Shatin to Central Link; if it has, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; (h)given that the Government indicated in November 2008 that it had commissioned a 12-month consultancy study on the improvement in traffic distribution among the three RHCs, when the consultancy study will be completed, and whether it will make public the outcome of the study; and (i)given that the franchises of EHC and WHC will expire in 2016 and 2023 respectively, what factors the Government will consider in deciding whether it will propose buying out or extending their franchises; how the outcome of the consultancy study will affect the Government’s decision? Reply: President, (a)A breakdown by vehicle type of the average daily vehicular flow, maximum vehicular flow and minimum vehicular flow of Cross-Harbour Tunnel (CHT), Western Harbour Crossing (WHC) and Eastern Harbour Crossing (EHC) for the past five years is set out in the Annex.
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Posted in: Air Pollution, Idling Engines, Pollution, Roadside, Town Planning.
First published: March 3, 2010
Source: South China Morning Post
A British researcher at the centre of a row over global warming science has admitted he wrote some “pretty awful” e-mails to sceptics when he was refusing their requests for data.
But Phil Jones, of the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit, defended his decision not to release the data about temperatures from around the world, telling a parliamentary hearing it was not “standard practice” to do so.
“I have obviously written some pretty awful e-mails,” Jones told lawmakers on Monday in response to a question about a message he sent to a sceptic in which he refused to release data for fear it would be misused. The admission by Jones, who has stood aside as director of the unit while investigations take place, came at a parliamentary hearing into the scandal.
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Posted in: Climate, Global Warming.
First published: Marcn 2, 2010
Source: The Register
‘Don’t panic, carry on’ isn’t working
Parliament isn’t the place where climate sceptics go to make friends. Just over a year ago, just three MPs (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/10/29/commons_climate_change_bill/) voted against the Climate Act, with 463 supporting it. But events took a surprising turn at Parliament’s first Climategate hearing yesterday.
MPs who began by roasting sceptics in a bath of warm sarcasm for half an hour were, a mere two hours later, asking why the University of East Anglia’s enquiry into the climate scandal wasn’t broader, and wasn’t questioning “the science” of climate change. That’s further than any sceptic witness had gone.
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Posted in: Global Warming.
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