Towards a Circular Economy Towards a Circular Economy
Nature

Towards a Circular Economy

Paulina Grabowska
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time 3 minutes

Currently, our needs exceed the regenerative potential of the Earth by over 70%. Waste is produced on such a scale that it changes the chemical composition of the Earth’s coating and the atmosphere. Soon, we will have depleted natural resources, and by 2080 there will be no fertile soil left. Therefore, we should focus on solutions that will allow us to utilize pollution and transform waste into ecological products.

For the past 10 years, I have been researching and designing such solutions. I am doing this because pollution is currently the least used resource on Earth. One such project is a city farm that transforms smog particles into fertilizer, produces solar energy and can act as a small power plant. A system of such

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2020: A Smog Odyssey 2020: A Smog Odyssey
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Photo: Courtesy of Jonathan L. Ramsey
Opinions

2020: A Smog Odyssey

A Foreigner’s Perspective on Polish Smog
Jonathan L. Ramsey

Before I start, let me say that I am not an expert in air pollution so if you, dear reader, decide that this disqualifies what I’m about to say, then I will understand. I speak Polish, I have a permanent residency, I am a taxpayer, and I feel that I have a right to speak about this issue. But on the other hand, you could say I am just a strange 32-year-old guy from America, which is by far the largest per-capita emitter of C02 in the world, the most wasteful society in Earth’s history, and as it happens, the country that Poland is trying to imitate more and more with each passing year.

I moved to Poland in 2010 at age 23, and during my first six years here I never heard a word about the smog and never considered the effect that it would have on my health or anyone around me. It simply was not an issue that anyone I knew discussed. But I became interested in the issue, like many people, during January 2017, when a huge wave of smog hit Warsaw and shrouded the city in pollution for 10 days.

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