Events and Pollutive Effects

In my previous post, I talked about Chinese New Year and its effects on the environment, particularly the atmosphere. While I was searching for articles regarding this festive holiday, I came across this opinion piece by CNN Style. The author, Christina Dean, is the founder of a Hong Kong-based NGO aiming to reduce fashion waste. The article provides important information regarding the waste generated during CNY and effectively conveys the pressing need for a switch to more sustainable fashion practices, albeit having a rather pessimistic tone throughout. The author criticises the Chinese consumers' practices during CNY of spring cleaning, throwing away old (sometimes unworn) clothes and splurging, and calls out textile industries for their environmental violations. She also discusses the wastefulness of luxury brands such as Gucci and Luis Vuitton basing the designs of their garments specifically off of the Chinese zodiac animals, as these very quickly go out of trend (the follow...

Gong Xi Fa Cai! This year, the start of February marks the first day of the Chinese New Year. Although the number of COVID-19 Omnicron cases have been steadily rising, it has not dampened Singaporeans' festive spirits, and many are going ahead with their plans for the celebrations. Understandably so, as the holiday during the mid-week allows for much rest and recuperation. However, what does Chinese New Year mean for the environment?  The 'Holiday Effect', a term coined by Tan et al., (2009), describes the difference in air pollutant concentrations between holiday and non-holiday periods. In their paper, the authors assess the hourly and daily measurements of six major forms of air pollution - Nitrogen Oxides (NOx), Carbon Monoxide (CO), Non-methane Hydrocarbon (NMHC), Ozone (O3), Sulfur Dioxide (SO2), and PM10 particles - from 1994 to 2006, during CNY periods and non-Chinese New Year (NCNY) periods, which are defined as 10 days before after the actual celebration dates. Th...

Source: aseanfootball.org. https://www.aseanfootball.org/v3/aff-suzuki-cup-ticketing-details-for-singapore-venue/ Last year, due to the pandemic, the Asean Football Federation (AFF) council settled on Singapore being the sole host country for the biennial AFF Suzuki Cup. Although the National Stadium's capacity was reduced, it still saw some 10,000 people attending the opening ceremony. While this may seem a relatively small number compared to the stadium's seating capacity of 55,000, environmentalists may disagree.  A study done by Veres and colleagues in 2013 revealed the detrimental impacts of football matches, particularly in relation to the human emissions of VOC in the atmosphere. Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) are any compounds of carbon that undergo atmospheric photochemical reactions. These can include a myriad of chemicals, which impact health in both short-term and long-term manners (EPA, n.d.). Concentrations of VOC are also found to be generally higher indoors ...

 3... 2... 1... HAPPY NEW YEAR!  As people all around the world gathered to witness the display of fireworks, I couldn't help but think about how many more New Years we can experience on Earth. This year, the fireworks in Singapore were held around neighbourhoods to manage crowd control, although not all went as planned. An incident of a firework projectile hitting a nearby house resulted in a halt in the fireworks display, and concerns were raised regarding the safety of fireworks. However, how harmful are fireworks really?  Source: Channel News Asia. (2022). https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/hdb-block-hit-fireworks-projectile-ubi-new-year-2410346 Air Pollution from Fireworks  While decorative, fireworks are a rather potent source of air pollution, releasing PM10 and PM2.5 particles into the atmosphere. These particles are largely detrimental to one's health even when one is exposed to them in a short period of time, and are commonly associated with ca...