Greenpeace Puts Face Mask On Popular UK Landmarks To Protest Worsening Air Pollution

The air pollution in London has gotten so bad that even its famous statues need face masks. To protest the city's worsening air pollution, members of a non-governmental environmental organization have scaled popular English landmarks to let their frustration be known to locals and tourists alike.

London's Atmosphere Exceeds Air Quality Limit

Greenpeace International put up the creative add-ons this week to raise public awareness of the hazards of air pollution. The group wants people to know that London's atmosphere has gone beyond the air pollution limit set by the World Health Organization, Mirror reported.

The toxic air levels in London has prompted Client Earth, an environmental law firm, to press charges against the U.K. government for failing to uphold clean air standards. To put the severity of the matter into perspective, experts say roughly 200,000 people in the U.K. will die in the next five years all because of air pollution.

Proposed Solution Is Way Too Long

In response to the growing protests, London mayor Boris Johnson recently announced that the U.K. government has approved of a "ultra-low emission zone" which would normalize the city's air quality in by 2025.

Alan Andrews, a lawyer for Client Earth, argued that ten years is way too long. He called the plan an insult to the thousands of people who get sick or die from inhaling polluted air.

"It (the UK government) didn't consider the strong measures needed to get the worst polluting diesel vehicles out of our town and city center," Andrews told The New Day. "As the government still can't be trusted to deal with air pollution, we are taking them back to court to get the urgent action that's needed."

Spare The Air pointed out that air pollution poses a grave detriment to the human body. Constant exposure to polluted air accelerates the aging of the lungs and might even cause asthma, bronchitis and cancer. The Royal College of Physicians said air pollution also has a negative effect on the development of the fetus.