[danduma]

But... how?

[melting_snow]

There are many houses in Poland that are using coal heating, and unfortunately a lot of people burn there their thrash. Kraków is surrounded by smaller towns and villages, where single family houses are common. To make things even worse, Kraków is in a basin, which makes the air flow even more difficult. If you add there years of city mismanagement when it comes to air flow, you land in such a situation

[schiffern]

From this source: https://www.iqair.com/mx-en/newsroom/krakow-among-top-10-mos...

"Krakow’s pollution stems from a mix of local and regional sources. A primary culprit is domestic heating, the burning of coal and wood in older, inefficient household boilers and stoves remains widespread in the Małopolska region (1).

Car traffic also adds nitrogen oxides and fine particulates, exacerbated by an ageing vehicle fleet. Topography and meteorology worsen the problem, Krakow sits in a basin-like region prone to temperature inversions and limited ventilation, allowing pollutants to accumulate.

Additionally, emissions drift in from surrounding municipalities and industrial zones, making regional coordination crucial to air quality. Despite a solid-fuel ban in the city since 2019 and the replacement of many coal boilers, compliance is uneven and some residents still use banned fuel."

[melting_snow]

The issue with solid-fuel ban is that its banned only inside of the city itself, not in the surrounding towns

[kubb]

I think it’s topology (concave) + widespread poor heating methods in the agglomeration + a very bad day + inefficient combustion engines.

I’d maybe include accurate measurements. The government isn’t trying to hide that and doesn’t have the means to, and highly quality sensors are widespread.

[nephihaha]

Plus continental, so it picks up dirty air from around.

[gregorygoc]

It’s in the valley and because Polish state is kinda weak they cannot enforce nearby villages to stop burning garbage to heat their homes.

[PunchyHamster]

at least try to hide your racism

[egorfine]

Despite government incentives and regulations some people burn garbage in stows. It's a local cultural thing and the state seemingly is powerless to do anything about it despite being the 20th economy in the world.

[asdff]

Are people not aware that is absolutely terrible for their health?

[Saline9515]

Out of curiosity, why would you burn your trash, and especially plastics? It smells and is clearly unhealthy and the caloric content is worthless compared to wood.

[PunchyHamster]

I'd suspect just small amount of datapoints with maybe bias for people installing air sensors because that particular area's air quality is bad for whatever reason (near to road, neighbour have old coal boiler etc.)

[dwedge]

There isn't much wind there at all so the pollution can't escape. I'm not saying this isn't the residents' fault, but it isn't entirely the residents' fault.

[scotty79]

It's almost as if slowing down the transition away from coal for political and social reasons is not such a great idea.

[lostlogin]

Coal and cars?

Looks like it clears up quite quickly.

[melting_snow]

During covid, when car traffic went to almost 0, the air quality was also extremely bad. Its mostly coal in the houses plus some people are not even using coal in their heating systems

[fragebogen]

Assuming a large contributing factor is all the coal plants now running to sustain Germany's independence from nuclear? Berlin's air quality has also tanked a lot since the energy crisis started.

[timeon]

Why would you jump to this conclusion? I wonder why some people on internet are repeating narratives like drones.

Poland has largest use of coal in EU. Czechia and Germany are behind. Poland is including energy from sun and wind now a lot but there is still long way. Unlike surrounding countries they never had nuclear for some reason. https://app.electricitymaps.com/map/zone/PL/live/

[Mashimo]

But coal and lignite power production in TWh in Germany went down over the last decades? [0] Are you saying Germany is importing form Poland who is using goal power plants?

[0] https://www.cleanenergywire.org/factsheets/germanys-energy-c...

[gregorygoc]

Wrong assumption, it’s been that way long before the energy crisis started.

[scotty79]

Berlin's air quality is on par with what you find in the middle of the forest in Poland. I've done my measurements in both places.

[wewxjfq]

Germany's emissions fell by 13% since the energy crisis started. Driven by reductions in the energy sector.

https://www.umweltbundesamt.de/themen/finale-daten-fuer-2024...

[adrianN]

In January Germany exported more than 900GWh, in December Germany imported about 1400, but Poland also imported 290.

[Moldoteck]

Germany isn't importing that much. Keeping nuclear would have helped exporting more clean power, including to Poland but that's another topic