NEWS REPORT BY NHU TRAN
ASmoggy
Future for
West Africa
Unearthing
the Holocaust
Mystery
I n 1945, t he Nazis t rain cont aining valuable
ar t i fact s sud denly went miss ing. 70 years
lat er, in August 2015, sudden rumours about
the train?s current location arose, causing disarray
around t he L ower Silesia region of Poland as
people scram bled in t he race t o find t he lost
t rain. Radar images of t he under ground t rain
pro vided ev i dence t o backup t hese spec u lat ions.
A recent st udy has revealed a surging level of
air pollution in West Africa. There, a thropogenic
emissions are report ed t o have dou bled over
t he years and may even quadru ple by 2030.
M at t hew Evans, a professor special ized in at mos pheric chem ist ry at t he Uni ver sit y of
York (UK ), discusses, ?Not only is pol lu t ion
in t hese cit ies killing lo cal resi dent s...t hese
emissions may even be al t er ing t he cli mat e
along t he coast of West Africa, lead ing t o
changes in t he clouds, t hus pot ent ially t o rainfall wit h dev as t at ing ef fect s?. I n 2012, research by t he World Healt h Or ga ni za t ion
(W HO) showed t hat in Africa, 600,000 deaths
alone were from in door/household pol lu tion; indoor/household pollut ion is oft en caused by inef fi ciency in cook ing or heat ing, which produces car bon diox ide (CO2) and ot her harmful pollut ant s.
Prior to that, Peter Koper and Andreas Richter,
two mine ex ploration company co- owners from
Poland and Ger many re spec t ively, claimed
t hat t he t rain was not abandoned in a t unnel
but buried under ground. The infor mat ion provided was t hen t ransferred over t o regional aut hor i t ies, and t he Pol ish M inist ry of Defense
also deployed it s army in search of t his myst erious t rain.
For decades, t his st ory has al ways been a
source of worldwide fasci nat ion and capt ured
t he in t er est of ?t reasure hunt ers? all around
t he world. The World Jewish Congress has request ed t hat any proper t ies t hat belonged t o
Holo caust vic t ims, if found, be ret urned t o
t heir descendant s or dist ant family members.
I n China and I ndia, where pollut ion levels are
high, pol i cy mak ers and sci en t ist s have been
work ing t irelessly t o al levi at e t he damage of
air pol lu t ion. How ever, West African sci ent ist s receive lit t le t o no funding for research
on how t o moni t or pol lut ion and record emissions. Everyday, t hose in West Africa have t o
en dure smog and breat he in car and in dust rial plant s? ex haust . I f t his sit uat ion cont inues, it would not be sur prising if West Africa
became an un desir able liv ing environment .
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