But really, they should be dealing with the source of the problem.
When Alex Johnson tipped me off about an Independent article, ‘Living walls’ should be installed to help most polluted schools, campaigners say I rolled my eyes. So much pollution from so many cars and HGVs (heavy goods vehicles, what they call big trucks) and Laurie Laybourn-Langton, director at UK Health Alliance on Climate Change tells Sky News:
For schools, measures like living walls can help to improve the quality of air children breathe and therefore improve their health and well-being, enhance the look and feel of their environment and also educate them about air pollution and climate change.
Yes, but the first thing we should be doing is eliminating the problem, not trying to mop it up. Laybourn-Langton knows this, also saying:
However the responsibility of cleaning up our air lies with government, which has the power, resources and duty to respond. Primarily, this requires the government to introduce new laws.
Laws like banning cars near schools, and getting the dirtiest cars and trucks off the road. Instead, some schools like St. Mary’s Primary School, Chiswick are crowd-funding to buy living walls and install air filters in classrooms. Even the Mayor is hopping on the bandwagon, pledging £32,000 if the community can raise the rest of the cost of the wall. According to the funding site, the project will cost about £75,223 and they have already raised £54,765.
© Chiswick Oasis on Spacehive
