— DARK CLOUDS —
Smog as a canary in the mine for Poland's political climate
POLAND, 2017
When worried Polish residents lament that “winter is coming...” it is not the arrival of zombies that they fear, or even simply the cold weather itself. Instead, they prepare for some six months of smog caused by the mass burning of coal for domestic heating across the country. Some areas have been measured to be more polluted than Beijing and it is estimated 45,000 people in Poland die each year as a result. According to a report by the World Health Organization, 33 out of the most polluted 50 cities in the European Union are located in Poland. This has granted the country the title of ‘Europe’s Beijing’.
In an article about Poland's relationship with coal, its consequences on air quality and on the sources of the problem of air pollution, Zachary Davies Boren explains that "cars and home furnaces produce the bulk of the country’s very visible PM10 pollution, but industry and energy are also significant contributors and even more so of the toxic particulate PM2.5". As for air pollution from coal fired power plants in Poland, it was estimated in a 2013 report that it causes about "3,500 deaths per year, (...) 1,600 cases of chronic bronchitis, 1,000 hospital admissions and 800,000 lost working days attributed air pollution from coal burning for electricity". It was also recently found in two studies in China that babies “had shorter telomeres—sections of DNA that act as caps on the ends of chromosomes—than babies born after the plant shut down”. The conclusion “adds to a massive body of evidence that closing down plants gives babies a greater chance at a healthy life. Shorter telomeres are linked with a host of health problems, including cancer, heart disease, brain decline, aging and premature death”.
Adding to coal being considered to be intrinsically a non clean form of energy, to make matters worse for air quality in Poland, coal is often used in domestic heating furnaces across the country in ways that produce more smog and are also less efficient. While thirteen percent of the total of air pollution is estimated to come from vehicles,"50 percent of pollutants come from residential heating” caused by domestic burning of low quality coal, wood and even trash for heating by those who cannot afford adequate forms of fuel for the home stoves that at least a third of households still use, producing smoke filled with carcinogens like dioxins and benzo(a)pybinrene. It is considered that translucent or milkish smoke is the result of the correct use of domestic furnaces. Darker or colored plumes of smoke mean that either trash or other chemical filled fuel is being burnt. Many concerned residents have started reporting other residents to authorities whenever they see abnormal colors of smoke coming out of domestic chimneys. As the online platform My Guide Warsaw writes in an editorial, "some people argue the question is not just the burning of coal but how it is used. They argue that with modern filters, coal can be used as an effective fuel, which doesn’t harm people’s health. Energy power stations can be fitted with carbon capture and storage (CSS) to reduce carbon emissions. With the European Union putting great pressure on Poland to reduce its carbon emissions and its citizens also becoming more aware of the great problem of air pollution, it is a great issue that will continue to literally blacken the country’s image until cleaner forms of energy production are implemented". These concerns over Poland's international image became all too real at the end of 2016 with an article by the Financial Times where the Polish city of Skala made it to the news after it surpassed pollution record setter Beijing in the air pollution levels registered and describing Poland as "the continent’s capital of smog".
But even though all of this would seem to be an obvious environmental and public health emergency for the common Polish citizen, politics and conservatism have brewed a toxic mixture standing in the way of cleaner air for Poles:
Powerful coal industry lobbies influencing decision making and the mammoth number of jobs dependant on the coal industry have blurred the real scope of the problem for many in Poland, causing what activists and analysts describe as denial: sunny days shrouded in thick layers of smog are dismissed as simply foggy days by incredulous Poles who harbor ideological resistance to the idea that coal may be a health and environmental problem and believe there is much more politically at stake than their health or the environment. The reasons for this are rooted as deep as the mines that supply the fossil fuel. Coal is often referred to in Poland as it's "black gold" and the coal industry is a great source of national Polish pride and identity, spanning generations. In a country oftentimes occupied by its neighbours throughout its troubled history, coal has represented energetic self sufficiency and political sovereignty to the point that part of Polish national identity is rooted on coal mining. Many feel that if Poland would give coal up and would rely on gas imports from Russia’s pipeline taps, then the country would be economically and politically at Moscow’s mercy. Meanwhile to the West, old grievances persist and what many describe in Poland as “historical caution” advises Germany, and the EU along with it, not to be given too much leeway.
At the same time, Poland has been under increasing pressure by the EU to cut greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global climate change and thus also under pressured to diversify its energy mix to include cleaner sources of energy in its portfolio and to scale down its reliance on coal. This, along with plunging world coal prices and increased coal production costs, has threatened the highly subsidized Polish industry along with scores of highly politicized and socially sensitive jobs: With its 100,000 coal dependent jobs, the powerful coal industry lobby has made sure the ruling national conservative Law and Justice party won the 2015 parliamentary elections on the promise of maintaining the coal industry as the main energy source for the country.
As a consequence of all this, the issue of air pollution and its solution through shifting away from coal to cleaner sources of energy, is often deemed as 'un-nationalist' by many and a 'non-issue' mostly brought up by 'leftists' and 'unpatriotic' elements of the society. The mining industry is considered with such respect and admiration that family tours to its mines and museums are popular and encouraged activities for older and younger generations and holidays are celebrated with parading uniformed miners. Mining work, a very dangerous and backbreaking activity, thus became a deeply prestigious profession due to its historic, cultural and political importance and until recently would guarantee a well paid and revered job for life. Wearing a filter mask has thus become an image that irks many: people who have turned up for work wearing masks used during their commute describe being mocked and very few, even amongst concerned citizens, have felt comfortable discussing the subject on the record for fear of social retribution and ridicule or to be deemed 'un-national' for questioning both the official and the political establishment’s position on the matter, let alone wear a filter mask. At the same time, wearing a filter mask has somewhat also evolved to a symbol of nonconformity and defiance to social pressure, to the government and the political establishment. Taking pictures of examples of air pollution on the public space has thus become an activity to be carried out with caution. This is not only because of the above, but also because of the authorities’ crackdown on low income households that illegally burn cheaper noxious materials for heating, such as trash, to save on the relatively more expensive coal. But many say this crackdown is not enough and only distracts from the root of the problem by scapegoating individual action rather than addressing its systemic root cause: coal as Poland’s main source of energy and the overwhelming use of obsolete coal fueled equipments for energy.
For its part, when it comes to the Polish government, Health Minister Konstanty Radziwiłł attempted last year to shift the discussion surrounding air pollution to blaming health problems on people smoking. His declarations backfired as it lead the public to “calculate the effects of smog in terms of cigarettes”. For example and according to anti-smog activist group 'Krakowski Alarm Smogowy', breathing Krakow's air in a daily basis is akin to smoking 2500 cigarettes a year, or roughly 7 cigarettes a day. Children are included in the estimate as air pollution does not discriminate according to age. Adding to this, critics point out that smoking is a personal choice while breathing polluted air is not.
As for Europe as a whole,where other countries also still use coal, filthy air killed prematurely close to half a million people in Europe in 2014 and the tendency is to increasingly invest in other sources of energy. But a time when Poland is heading in the opposite direction and in a collision course with the EU on issues such as refugee quotas, its clampdown on the independence of its judiciary, its environmental and climate policies, and as it veers towards growing nationalism as well as a sharp drift to conservatism, Poland’s relationship with the fossil fuel has become a canary in the mine for the wider political climate in Poland.
The photo essay ‘Dark Clouds’ examines the consequences of all of this on the lives and health of common Poles and an increasing number of concerned citizens as the country prepares to host the 2018 UN Climate Conference in Katowice, the Polish coal heartland, amidst what the conservative camp describes in Poland as a struggle for its sovereignty. This has made the air Poles breathe a symbolic political battleground. Furthermore, the essay approaches issues of environment, a topic not often covered in international media when it comes to extreme levels of pollution in Europe, being this type of issues more reported on in other areas of the globe. This is yet another reason why the more nationalist among the Polish constituency do not wish to address the issue or even consider that there is one to be addressed.
But while an ideological battle is being fought on the political and public camp about smog and the coal industry, the consequences of air pollution are far from being theoretical for many Poles who believe their heath has been the first casualty of that battle. Eva Ciesielska, a 39 years old resident from Krakow has been battling with what she believes are air pollution related illnesses that have affected her family since they moved from Canada to Krakow which, according to air-pollution activist group Krakowski Alarm Smogowy (Krakow Smog Alarm), is one of the cities some of the poorest air quality in the world. Her husband and her two daughters have continuously suffered from severe respiratory difficulties and their routines are overwhelmingly conditioned by treatments and preventive measures to cope with air pollution. As studies suggest, including one on the impact of air pollution on children’s health in Krakow, continuous exposure to "air pollution can contribute to cardiovascular diseases and problems of the nervous system". It has also been linked to asthma, lung cancer, respiratory diseases, birth defects and premature death as well as the worsening of preexisting conditions such as allergies and immune system diseases.Air pollution has also been linked to delays in cognitive development in children. Health professionals have also likened a child playing outdoors in polluted areas in Poland to smoking cigarettes. In Krakow, for example, “benzo(a)pyrene can hit eight times the recommended maximum", according to the activist group Kraków Smog Alarm, which likens "each resident’s exposure to the toxin to what they would get from smoking 2,500 cigarettes a year”. Children are included in the estimate as air pollution does not discriminate according to age.
As a result of skyrocketing levels of air pollution, some cities have shut down schools and kindergartens in days of higher levels of air pollution. However, some point out that those measures are too little too late: according to Piotr Siergiej, of anti-smog NGO Alarm Smogowy (Smog Alarm), authorities "only alert the public when air pollution exceeds the EU-wide norm by a whopping 600 percent". Meanwhile in the capital Warsaw and according to data quoted by online publication Quartz, in one day in peak winter, January 2017, "the levels of air pollutants registered in the city reached a whopping 437 micrograms per cubic meter. The 24-hour average norm established by the EU being 50 micrograms per cubic meter and in Paris officials declare a “smog alarm” at 80 micrograms per cubic meter".
Wearing filter masks thus became one of the measures concerned residents deem necessary to deal with widespread dangerous levels of atmospheric pollution in Krakow and Ewa is no exception. Her two daughters always wear masks when outdoors. Other measures included buying air purifiers for domestic use and isolating gaps in doors and windows of older houses with thick fabrics to prevent polluted air from coming in. Because of all of this, it has become common for worried residents to describe a feeling of house arrest, made all too harder in rare sunny windless days in Winter, when smog is less dissipated and blown away from cities than in windier days. Anxious parents thus face a dilemma: to go out with their kids and enjoy rare sunny winter days or stay home and avoid breathing polluted air.
Exhausted by the problem and worried about her daughter’s generation, Eva has taken upon herself to raise awareness to the problem through facebook campaigns and raised funds for the purchase of filter masks for orphaned children in Krakow who she worries about as they do not have parents like herself to do for them what she deems essential for her daughters. After numerous such campaigns, protests and pressure by concerned residents and groups, the municipality of Krakow started implementing measures to reduce the scope of the problem: subsidies have been approved for the replacement of old home furnaces for newer, more efficient and ecological ones. Residents who submitted applications by the end of 2017, will receive back up to 80 percent of the cost. In 2018, the subsidies will fall to 60 percent. The city authorities will also implement, from 2019, a total ban on coal burning.
But with icy winters, coal fueled house heating is a life saving staple, especially for the elderly in Poland. Deemed cheaper, traditional furnaces are more common than other forms of heating like electric or gas amongst lower income households. However and even though coal may be a cheaper fuel for most, it is linked to the expenditure of billions of euros in healthcare in Poland caused by air pollution produced by the massive burning of coal for domestic heating in Winter. Apart from being linked asthma, lung cancer, cardiovascular problems, respiratory diseases and premature death, air pollution has also been linked to Alzheimer’s and dementia. The elderly, children, pregnant women and people with pre existing health problems are thus the most at risk groups when exposed to high levels of smog. In Krakow for example, hospitals have reported an increase of incoming patients in days when pollution levels are higher with symptoms and worsening illnesses such as violent coughs and nosebleeds, pneumonia, higher number of cases of heart attacks and strokes, and of those with respiratory problems such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma.
As quoted by The Guardian, Dr Krzysztof Czarnobilski, head of internal medicine and elder care at Kraków’s MSWiA Hospital: "The filthy air in Poland’s most picturesque city is making his elderly patients sick, shortening their lives and increasing their isolation. The pollution, he says, worsens cognitive and emotional problems such as dementia and depression, and exacerbates breathing and circulatory disorders". In days of higher smog readings, health workers advise the elderly to avoid exercise and to stay indoors, which can deteriorate both their health and disrupt essential social activities, worsening isolation and depression.
However, coal retailers say the push to eliminate smog through toughening rules on furnaces "to make the most polluting types illegal and pay subsidies to help people buy more modern stoves, could have an unintended effect: It could leave some of the country’s poorest people without heat. They accuse anti-smog campaigners and the authorities of pushing unrealistic and costly standards for heating fuels and equipment that will increase energy poverty in Poland. When fuel becomes a disproportionate item in household budgets, people will burn trash or simply freeze if they can’t afford fuel”, said Łukasz Horbacz, the head of Polski Węgiel (Polish Coal), a lobby group of coal retailers.
Many in the general public also oppose vehemently a change in the status quo. With an economic upsurge and historic low levels of unemployment, the mood in Poland has been generally very optimistic for what the future holds for the younger generations. However, the growing health concerns have also sparked fears that scaling down Poland's coal industry and diversifying its energy mix may spell economic disaster for the country. An example of that, the city of Bytom stands as a textbook illustration of the consequences of what the sudden and unplanned phasing out of the mining industry may bring and which many in Poland fear: some areas in Bytom, a traditionally coal town where mining has stopped, have delved into destitution and 13% unemployment that contrasts with other areas in the region such as, for example Katowice, the coal industry heartland, only 15 km away and with mere 2,5% unemployment.
All of this, along with coal’s almost mythical status in Poland, has ensured the highly polluting fossil fuel remains as the country’s main energetic source despite growing concerns over air pollution and health problems. Such was the effort to eliminate competition to coal’s monopoly as the main source of energy that former Prime Minister Beata Szydlo of the ruling Law and Justice party and the daughter of a coal miner, “set tough regulations on the installation of wind turbines, in effect blocking competition from the renewables sector, which in 2014 covered about 10 percent of national energy needs”.
Critics point out that “under the new legislation [...] wind farms would have to be built a minimum distance from residential areas of at least 10 times the size of the turbine – in effect a length of about 2 km. The constraint would exclude 99% of the Polish territory from wind energy development”. Meanwhile, residential areas sit mere meters away from industrial compounds and impatience is wearing thin as awareness to the dangers of pollution spread: Demonstrations against what protesters consider governmental inaction in face of high levels of smog in the country are an increasingly familiar scene in the Polish capital Warsaw and in other regions.
On the opposite end of spectrum stand the more than 100,000 jobs dependent on the extraction of coal, representing one of the country's most powerful lobbies and the possibility of what many believe would be a loss of identity, economic independence and ultimately of political sovereignty. All of this makes it unlikely for Poland’s energy mix to be changed to more sustainable and cleaner sources any time soon.
However, concerned residents, activists and critics warn that failure or refusal to address the growing grievances about the future for the younger generations both in terms of health, the environment but also of economy is neither neutral nor without consequences: in a country rapidly drifting into conservatism and away from the European Union consensus, this may mean yet another dilemma increasingly dividing the nation and steering it into isolation in the international stage.