Hi everyone! To start off the week, let’s take a look at the air quality in Mongolia. I was shocked to see the screenshot below
I have never been to Mongolia, and I have never searched the country up before. Based on my own geographical imagination of the country, I would think that it is a largely underdeveloped country filled with lots of desert spaces and agricultural land. But as you see in the screenshot, the AQI index is as high as 213! According to IQAir, Mongolia is the 4th most air polluted country in 2020! Why is this so?
The country’s capital, Ulaanbaatar is one of the most polluted cities in the world. According to UNICEF, the daily average PM2.5 pollution levels in the capital can reach 27 times higher than the safe level assigned by the World Health Organization. Other sources claim that PM2.5 concentration levels are almost 40 times higher than the safe level. Most of the air pollution is caused by the coal-burning stoves operated in informal settlements during the cold season. In these settlements, basic social infrastructures such as heating and water are not provided. In 2019, a ban was set against the use of raw coal, which is mainly used by these informal settlers in their homes. Settlers were interviewed and some even stated that even though they struggled during the winter months, they hoped that the sacrifice they had to go through would improve the overall air quality in the city. As mentioned by Jun, if Mongolia wishes to sustainably reduce air pollution, it has to provide other socio-economic policies to life people out of poverty. If not, there will be more preventable deaths. You can look at the article posted by her using the hyperlink. It provides a comprehensive summary of the situation in Mongolia.
To sum up, Mongolia’s pollution is worrying because of the consequences it brings to the marginalized. This video on TIME explains the current lives of Mongols
As you can see, Mongolia is heavily reliant on coal. During the winter months, temperatures can fall down to almost -24 degrees celsius. Pollution is an inevitable part of life for Mongols. Unlike the other countries in the Global South studied covered on this blog, the climate plays a crucial role in pollution. It gets too cold. So Mongols have to use coal to keep warm. Coal pollutes the air. The air makes children fall ill. It is a never ending cycle because these people cannot influence the climate. They also cannot change their coal use because they are the most affected by climate, and the most poor. This image below emphasizes how Mongols face the highest pollution levels during the winter months.
In the next post this week, I will summarize what scholars have studied about the effects of air pollution.
See you in the next one! ✿
References
Hincks, J. (2018) Life in the Most Polluted Capital in the World. 23 March. TIME. Available from: https://time.com/longform/ulan-bator-mongolia-most-polluted-capital/ [Accessed: 7 March 2022].
IQAir (2022) Air Quality in Mongolia. 7 March. Available from: https://www.iqair.com/mongolia [Accessed: 7 March 2022].
Jun, S. (n. d.) Is the Raw Coal Ban a Silver Bullet to Solving Air Pollution in Mongolia?: A Study of the Mongolian Government’s Air Pollution Reduction Policies and Recommendations in the Context of COVID-19. Journal of Public & International Affairs. Available from: https://jpia.princeton.edu/news/raw-coal-ban-silver-bullet-solving-air-pollution-mongolia-study-mongolian-governments-air [Accessed: 7 March 2022].
Kwong, E. (2019) Mongolia’s Capital Banned Coal to Fix its Pollution Problem. Will it Work? 30 July. NPR. Available from: https://www.npr.org/2019/07/30/727688757/mongolias-capital-banned-coal-to-fix-its-pollution-problem-will-it-work [Accessed: 7 March 2022].
UNICEF (n. d.) Environment & Air Pollution Climate Change and Environmental Degradation Undermine the Rights of Every Child. Available from: https://www.unicef.org/mongolia/environment-air-pollution#:~:text=The%20challenges,level%20WHO%20recommends%20as%20safe. [Accessed: 7 March 2022].