Clearing the Air: SHORTLISTED FOR THE ROYAL SOCIETY SCIENCE BOOK PRIZE

About the Book

**SHORTLISTED FOR THE ROYAL SOCIETY INSIGHT INVESTMENT SCIENCE BOOK PRIZE 2019**

'Read this book and join the effort to terminate air pollution.' - Arnold Schwarzenegger

Air pollution has become the world’s greatest environmental health risk, and science is only beginning to reveal its wide-ranging effects. Globally, 19,000 people die each day from air pollution, killing more than HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and car accidents combined.

What happened to the air we breathe?

Sustainability journalist Tim Smedley has travelled the world to try and find the answer, visiting cities at the forefront of the fight against air pollution, including Delhi, Beijing, London and Paris. With insights from the scientists and politicians leading the battle against it, and people whose lives have been affected by it, Clearing the Air tells the full story of air pollution for the first time: what it is, which pollutants are harmful, where they come from and – most importantly – what we can do about them.

Air pollution is a problem that can be solved. The stories uncovered on this journey show us how.

'Compulsory reading' - Chris Boardman

Table of Contents:

Prologue

PART I: ORIGINS
Chapter 1: The Greatest Smog?
Chapter 2: Life’s a Gas
Chapter 3: Particulate Matters
Chapter 4: No Smoke Without Fire
Chapter 5: The Dash for Diesel
Chapter 6: Struggling to Breathe

PART II: FIGHTBACK
Chapter 7: The Greatest Smog Solution?
Chapter 8: Electric Dreams
Chapter 9: Road Rage
Chapter 10: What Price Fresh Air?

Epilogue
The Clean Air Blueprint: For Cities
The Clean Air Blueprint: For You
References
Acknowledgements

About the Author :

Tim Smedley is an award-winning sustainability journalist. After ten years in London – first as a business journalist, latterly as a freelance writer covering the environment – he left in 2014, fleeing the polluted streets for Oxfordshire where he is now based. At first, air pollution was just another environmental story to file. But air pollution seemed to get under his skin and into his veins – literally, as it turned out – and the more he researched, the more concerned he became. Never before had an environmental story come as close to home as this.

Tim has written for the Financial Times, the Guardian, The Sunday Times, New Scientist, and most recently the BBC. Clearing the Air is his first book.

www.timsmedleywriter.com / @TimSmedley

Review :
Air pollution is a serious problem that we all have the power to solve. Tim Smedley's book, Clearing the Air, shows how the fightback against air pollution works. Tim's book is action-packed and his global journey of discovery uncovers the real heroes who are taking a stand and fighting for their right to breathe clean air. Read this book and join the effort to terminate air pollution. Whether describing Paris's Journee sans Voiture or electric buses in Beijing and Milton Keynes, Clearing the Air not only suggests that tackling pollution is possible, but also shows how, in many places, the work is already being done. In a news cycle that increasingly informs us that all hope is lost, it is uplifting to read that Smedley, an award-winning sustainability journalist, does not think so. Clearing the Air is incredibly well researched with plenty of numbers and facts to back up Smedley’s arguments. This is an important book and one that I whole-heartedly recommend. Even if politicians are slow to take measures about the air quality where you live, Clearing the Air will help you to play your part in creating a cleaner and healthier future. Clearing the Air sets out in simple terms the monumental damage that dirty air is causing to us and our environment. It also gives us the remarkably simple, logical solutions that need embracing across the world. Compulsory reading. Tim Smedley's indignation about the years of cover-ups and lies by governments and corporations is well founded. There are scientific details packed between the covers of this personal account – atmospheric chemistry, automative engineering, health effects and much more. The technical details are woven seamlessly into the story. It left me with a growing feeling of hope: people around the world are demanding breathable air! A wonderfully written book that takes you through the fascinating and terrifying story of air pollution, and explains how billions of people unwittingly ended up breathing toxic air. What Tim does so well is to articulate a simple truth that ultimately leaves you with hope: it doesn’t have to be this way. Air pollution is a man-made problem and Clearing the Air sets out the simple steps that governments and individuals must take to ensure that everyone can breathe clean air. Read it and take action! A thoughtful, worthwhile book that fulfils the important role of observing air pollution across widespread regions of the world. China is not the first country to experience the environmental impacts of industrialization, and it will not be the last.