ABSTRACT
It is an irony of air pollution that the cure for one problem may well exacerbate another. Much publicity, for example, has been given to the use of three-way catalytic converters in the exhaust systems of cars to ‘reduce noxious emissions by 95%’ in the words of a recent advertisement (Audi 1989) from a major vehicle manufacturer. It goes on to explain that as the ‘engine exhaust gases pass through at around 300°C these convert nitrogen oxides, unburnt hydrocarbons and deadly carbon monoxide into nitrogen, water and carbon dioxide…the stuff that makes fizzy drinks fizzy’. What it does not say is that ‘the stuff that makes fizzy drinks fizzy’ is also the stuff which absorbs the heat being radiated back into space from the Earth, thus warming the atmosphere and so becoming the leading culprit in the phenomenon commonly known as the greenhouse effect. Unfortunately carbon dioxide (CO2) is produced every time something is burnt, the combustion of fossil fuels included.
