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SNOWBOUND CAR SURVIVOR

SNOW

Sweden’s ‘snow man’ to be documentary film

The 44-year-old man who was trapped in his snowed-in car in Umeå, northern Sweden, for over two months is set to become the basis of a documentary by the Discovery Channel.

Sweden's 'snow man' to be documentary film

“We want to explain who he is, how he ended up in this situation and how it was possible to survive under such extreme conditions,” said Discovery Channel producer Andy Dunn to daily Aftonbladet.

The channel has expressed keen interest in the story, and aims to delve into the man’s life before and during his experiences in the now world famous snow-covered Jeep.

”It’s an incredible story of survival,” he said.

The man, named in media reports as Peter Skyllberg, has captured the international media’s attention after allegedly surviving on only snow for 61 days. He was stranded in his car at the end of an unused path, behind a closed gate, and there were no traces of him having left the car.

Following Skyllberg’s rescue, more details have emerged about his precarious financial situation and how he hasn’t been on speaking terms with his family for decades.

A shopkeeper whose business isn’t far from where Skyllberg was found has also added to the mystery by recounted his interactions with the 44-year-old from last summer.

According to the shopkeeper, Skyllberg came into the store occasionally during the summer to stock up on fuel and food, suggesting the 44-year-old may have been living out of his car for longer than first thought.

When he was rescued from his snow-covered car, Skyllberg told police he had been living in his car since December 19th, surviving subzero temperatures by eating nothing other than snow.

Dunn told Aftonbladet that Skyllberg will probably not make an appearance in the documentary, which is planned to be an hour long television special.

Skyllberg has still not spoken to media since his discovery on February 17th.

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ENVIRONMENT

Swedish city Umeå has Europe’s cleanest air

Umeå in northeast Sweden, has been named as having the cleanest air in Europe, according to a new report by the European Environment Agency (EEA).

Swedish city Umeå has Europe's cleanest air
Umeå city centre, home to Europe's cleanest air. Photo: Henrik Montgomery/TT

The EEA published The European city air quality viewer, an interactive tool showing the air pollution levels in 323 cities in Europe. Air pollution is the biggest environmental health risk according to the EEA. 

“This city air quality viewer allows citizens to see for themselves in an easy-to-use way how their city is doing compared to others on air pollution. It provides concrete and local information which can empower citizens towards their local authorities to address the issues,” says Hans Bruyninckx, the executive director of the EEA.

The cleanest air out of all these cities can be found in northern Sweden, in the city of Umeå, which has a level of 3,7 micrograms of fine particulate matter, known as PM 2.5, per cubic metre of air.

The EEA’s classification of air quality defines four levels of air quality: “good”, “moderate”, “poor” and “very poor”, with “good air” defined as having under 10 micrograms of particulate matter per cubic meter.

Only 127 out of the 323 cities in Europe are found to pass the limit of “good air” set by both the EU and the WHO.

All of the Swedish cities included in the study – Uppsala, Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmo as well as Umeå, had “good air” according to the report. Uppsala ranked 6th out of the 323 countries tested, while Stockholm ranked 9th, Gothenburg 23rd and Malmö 93rd. 

Second and third in the EEA’s ranking are Tammerfors in Finland and Funchal in Portugal.

 “Very poor air” was defined as over 25 micrograms of particulate matter per cubic meter of air and five cities on the index are considered to meet  this standard. Worst of all were Nowy Sacz in Poland, where 27.3 micrograms of particles were found per cubic meter of air, Cremona in Italy and Slavonski Brod in Croatia. 

Despite a reduction in emissions during the Covid-19 pandemic, the remaining 196 countries were all found to have above acceptable levels of air pollution. While lower levels of commuting have led to a decrease in levels of nitrogen dioxide in the atmosphere, levels of particulate matter have remained stagnant.

The EEA’s experts said that emissions of particulate matter are the result of many different processes, including combustion of fuel for heating of homes, industry, and agriculture.

“White air quality has improved markedly over the past years, air pollution remains stubbornly high in many cities across Europe,” says Bruyninckx.

Last year, an EEA report found that Europe’s air has gotten cleaner in the last decade, but that the bad air caused 417 000 premature deaths across 41 countries in 2018 alone.

A similar study in The Lancet Planetary Health earlier this year found that air pollution causes around 200 000 premature deaths per year in Europe. They stated that if the pollution was lowered across Europe to below the limit of 10 micrograms per cubic meters, the levels recommended by the WHO, around 52 000 deaths could be avoided each year.

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