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  • In December 2015 China issued a “red alertwarning for their capital, Beijing. Smog and

  • air particle levels were ten times higher than the World Health Organization’s safety standards.

  • The alert shut down schools and stopped construction, reflecting China’s

  • ongoing issues with pollution. At that same time, the rest of the world was meeting in

  • Paris for the United Nations Climate Change convention, in an attempt to tackle growing

  • environmental concerns. So while Beijing is covered in smog, we want to know: what are

  • the cleanest cities in the world?

  • A 2012 Green City Index reported by the Economist Intelligence Unit examined each major world

  • region to determine which global factors contribute to cleanliness.

  • In Europe, many of the top spots were captured by Nordic countries, with Copenhagen in Denmark

  • as the cleanest city overall. Zurich, Switzerland also received high points for lowest CO2 emissions.

  • Both countries have strict limits on high polluting vehicles, but there is also a societal

  • push to use public transit, bicycling, and walking. Even the 2009 Copenhagen Accord saw

  • the world’s major economies come together for the first time to lower global emissions.

  • In Latin America, a clear and repeat winner for cleanest city has been Curitiba,in Brazil.

  • The city was the first to introduce bus rapid transit in 1974, and has continued

  • the trend of working with its citizens to provide environmental benefits. A recycling

  • program called, “Garbage? That’s not garbage!” has led to about ¾ of the city’s trash

  • recycled by residents. Other programs, like one which trades bus tokens for recycling,

  • shows how effective communal and government efforts can be.

  • Another top recycler, this time in Asia, is the city-state of Singapore. On average, they

  • generate less trash per person than the rest of the continent. But they also keep the city

  • clean through high density planning, and infrastructure investment. Recycling and water treatment

  • plants are state of the art, and designed around supplying the uniquely compact city.

  • With so many people living so close together, it is very important to produce as little

  • waste as possible.

  • Over in North America, it’s health conscious San Francisco that takes the lead. According

  • to the GCI, San Francisco recycles as much as 77% of their waste, which is more than

  • any European city besides Leipzig, Germany. Another reason is that SF requires that commercial

  • building owners submit regular energy usage reports, leading to considerably lower usage.

  • This, coupled with a sharing economy, high quality public transit, and and marginal environmental

  • tax benefits, makes SF incredibly clean.

  • Lastly, and unfortunately, no cities scorewell above averagein Africa. The highest

  • ranked, Accra in Ghana, is not necessarily the cleanest. But they get major points for

  • having a direct bureaucratic link with the national government concerning the environment.

  • This helps not only in monitoring, but also action, and is found lacking in most African

  • cities profiled.

  • Overall, the most consistent aspect of environmental friendliness seemed to be based on society’s

  • willingness to take part. Mass transit and recycling help bring down emissions, as does

  • efficient city planning and government policy. But it should come as no surprise that without

  • the support of the people, there is little that can be done to save the earth.

  • While it is nice to live in a city with no pollution, much of the world does not have

  • that luxury. To find out what pollution actually does to your body, check out this video by

  • DNews. Thanks for

  • watching Test Tube News! Please like and subscribe and well keep making videos for you everyday.

In December 2015 China issued a “red alertwarning for their capital, Beijing. Smog and

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