“Coming Discoveries” – (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)

Kryon.com, August 25, 2021 

Live Kryon Channelling. Healing Wednesday livestream 

Lee Carroll

Greetings, dear ones, I am Kryon of Magnetic Service 

This is the fourth channel of the month regarding change. The past three weeks, we’ve discussed several attributes of change that are beginning to happen on this planet. The changes are mostly consciousness, and we have given you some examples which show that many of these were expected, and they coordinate with the messages of the indigenous. They revolve around the cycle of our time, the precession of the equinox, and the 2012 shift. 

So, here you sit in a time of expected change, and the first thing that happens is COVID. You have to ask, “Is it related?” And we’ve given the answer now many times. Indeed (it is related)! More than related, it is the catalyst to what follows next. This virus has almost stopped the normal operational attributes of this planet, and I told you that this is like stopping a large factory so that it can retool. 

We have discussed the metaphor of a factory that cannot stop. After some time, it starts to be dysfunctional, and those operating it start a process of greed and lack of integrity. It becomes so bad that it becomes badly inefficient, yet, nobody can stop it. It’s too big. However, COVID stopped it! This gives a space, does it not? It’s a space that no one expected, given in order to see the inefficiencies of the factory (the systems of Earth). It’s a time to retool and clearly see the dark things that have grown in the dark corners where you never were able to look before. It’s a chance to see more light than ever and identify those who are keeping you from seeing it. 

Dear ones, that’s just the beginning of what we discussed. We’ve given you some messages of change in the past and said, “watch for this,” or “look for that.” These things are coming. There are some things coming that would surprise you, that are truly sensational and filled with great things, and when I tell you about some of these things, you may ask, “How soon, Kryon, how soon?” Every single one of these things that I’m going to give you now actually already exists. They already exist in some form or are being developed. Let me be clear: Some of these things lay on humanity, waiting for the aha experience. “Kryon, what are you talking about?” 

Inventions are Given when They are Needed 

Let me go back and revisit some messages you may have heard before: Major inventions that have changed the culture of this planet often seem to happen all at once, all over the globe, almost like they were delivered to consciousness all at once from somewhere else. 

Seldom do you have just one individual with an idea that then changes the planet. That may be the story they tell you in history, but these profound inventions and discoveries usually happen simultaneously, and the first individual to manifest it is the one who gets the credit. 

Electricity: Some of the inventions that manifest themselves on the planet seem odd in their timing. You might look back and ask, “Why did it take so long? How is this possible?” If you start looking at the facts, the discovery of electricity is one. How long has this energy been obvious to mankind in so many ways? Whether it’s static (electricity), like the sparks you make when you move your feet on certain substances, or whether it’s lightning in the sky … why did it take until only a couple of hundred years ago for it really to be looked at, or the question asked: “I wonder if this is energy we could use?” As to who actually invented it, you knew it was Michael Faraday, right (or did you get another story)? And – that it wasn’t actually electricity – but rather, electromagnetic induction (magnetics)? 

Flight is another one. The Chinese have been flying kites and have known about wind currents for 3,000 years. Why weren’t there men in the sky, using kites and updrafts with the profound understanding that humanity already had of these things? What took so long? Even today, you see those who leap off mountain tops without powered flight – with a kite strapped to them. Where was that? It should have been intuitive and should have occurred a thousand years ago. You had watched the birds, you flew kites, yet, for thousands of years, nobody did it. Does this make sense? It took until the Wright brothers gave it to you using powered engines. That wasn’t that long ago, dear ones, and they only beat the French with their famous first flight by two weeks! Do you see what I’m saying? This invention was “delivered to the Field” when it was ready – and all over the Earth at the same time. 

Inventions that change the Earth profoundly in this way happen when it’s time. You may disagree. You may say, “Oh, we can think of these things any time we want.” This is not true or many inventions that were completely “there and ready and intuitive” would have happened even sooner than they did. 

There are some things coming that are already here, dear ones, in certain ways. They are already in the Field, waiting to be plucked out. I want to tell you about them. Some have heard this before. 

The Best Coming Inventions Will Not Be High Technology 

Don’t be surprised if the most advanced discoveries that you’re going to make, which are going to change this planet profoundly, have nothing to do with artificial intelligence or massive amounts of computing. You might say, it’s “back to basics” because some of the best inventions will be using patterns and basic physics that were always there, but which you just haven’t thought of yet. 

“Kryon, what are you talking about?” 

THE END OF BATTERIES – AND THE GRID 

Let me talk about the magnetic energy wheel. It might be two, or even three wheels, but there is a simple pattern, an array of magnets that, when placed correctly, can keep a wheel spinning – forever. 

Using the simple push/pull energy of small or large magnets together in a specific array, you can keep this wheel going forever. You’re aware, are you not, that natural magnets are very powerful, and they push and they pull with a great deal of force, with no rest or refresh time, and no side effects, and no fuel. This is a huge secret! Why have you not seen this before? Put them together in an array where they will push and pull against each other and spin whatever size wheel you wish – until the end of time! All you have to do is oil the bearings occasionally. Have you thought of that? Dear ones, listen: If you can make something spin, you can connect it to an electric generator. Electricity, in any quantity, forever! 

I want you to think of what this means. Imagine: No batteries. “Kryon, what are you talking about. You’ve got to have batteries.” Dear ones, that statement is soooo yesterday! Imagine your favorite device. A phone, perhaps? What if, instead of a battery, it had a tiny, miniature, spinning magnetic motor that powered the device in real-time – forever! Not only are there no batteries in the future, but no charging anything. Every electronic thing you have has its own tiny, spinning generator built-in. 

“Kryon, how big can this wheel be?” Well, let’s think: Everything I have said can be enlarged. So, instead of a battery in an electric car, there is a larger spinning electric engine underneath, always supplying electricity to what we will now call super capacitance (something we have only briefly discussed). You will always have enough electricity to go for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of miles without ever stopping. And even while you sleep, electricity is still being generated to the “super cap.” It never stops. 

“Kryon, I still don’t understand how all this is going to change the entire planet.” 

Dear ones, I’m talking about individual power for every single building that exists on the planet – without being connected to any grid. NO WIRES AND NO OUTSIDE SOURCE. No weather pattern will ever shut down a city again or cause those to die because they can’t get electricity – because it’s right outside in a little spinning motor that never stops and always is running, to power whatever is needed. Magnetics is the answer. It’s free, instant, and mobile electricity for all. 

Every continent on this planet could have as much electricity as they wanted or needed to instantly power villages, hospitals, communications, teaching through the internet, and more. The internet would work, no matter what. Can you imagine when everybody could talk to everybody? Cultures and continents would start healing themselves and would finally start to be educated. 

All of this can happen from one undiscovered pattern – a magnetic array. Putting those magnets together so they will push and pull in a way that they will spin forever, can be customizable to any size – miniaturized or massive. They can power ships and cars – and they go forever. There is no resource that is easier and safer to use to power this planet than magnetics. No natural resources are burned, no pollution, and entirely safe. 

Kryon – This Can’t Work 

“Kryon: If I had this invention, there are forces out there who would never let it be developed. I would be afraid to have it! The power companies of the planet will buy it and pocket it because they want to sell what they’ve got. They will never let this happen.” 

Let’s stop for a moment. Dear ones, this is not your father’s world. What have I told you about change for the past 30 years? DO NOT POSTULATE THE FUTURE ON WHAT HAS HAPPENED IN THE PAST. The shift is changing the consciousness of the planet. 

Right now, the power companies all over your land are in trouble. Fossil fuel is in trouble, if you haven’t noticed. Nuclear power, the former Holy Grail of power, has shown itself clearly to be exceptionally dangerous! Every one of the accepted mass power generation systems is failing. 

I will tell you that the power companies of this land (USA), even if they are using steam or wind or sunlight, are all anxious for this invention! It’s simple, efficient, no huge investment needed, and (ready?) THEY will then be the ones to manufacture and sell the units, improving them and finding more and more uses to free all of you from any kind of power grid. So I’m telling you, it’s a new world, and those in the “power business” will be the first to want to use this. 

The Highest and Most Powerful Force of Humanity 

Let me give you my favorite one: There are things that this body of yours does, which has only to do with consciousness, nothing else. In the last twenty years, there has been a revelation of proof. Consciousness is energy. It can alter physics. 

This realization was not always thought to be the case. In the past, consciousness was something esoteric, not well definable, and it didn’t belong in physics. Now it does. There is now a slow awareness that consciousness absolutely must be considered energy. 

Think: If consciousness is energy, then, like all other physical energies, there must be rules or axioms. It becomes predictive science. When you start to figure that out and you understand what those are, you will have some profound answers to some of the greatest mysteries of health: The energy of consciousness is the reason for the placebo effect! Someone takes a sugar-coated pill, and they are told that the pill is going to create a cure – and then it does! What is the process? How is that possible? 

Someone takes a homeopathic tincture, a chemistry that is too small to create a chemical reaction. Yet, it cures! What is happening? How does that work? The answer is the energy and the physics of consciousness combined with something called mirror neurons: What the body sees and expects, it often creates by itself. Perhaps, you see someone else eating a meal and you salivate. That’s consciousness over chemistry, dear ones. 

Have you ever wondered if mirror neurons could play a powerful and larger part in a coming system of healing? What if you could convince your body that it was healing? Mirror neurons can’t tell the difference between what you believe or what is happening chemically. Therefore, consciousness instructs the body to heal itself, and it does! Now you understand how spontaneous remission may work. When you convince the body that a healing is occurring, it believes it so completely that it heals itself. This will be a new healing process. It will be the best of any that ever existed – using the energy of consciousness in new, measurable, scientific ways. 

No artificial intelligence – no super hi-tech advancements 

Instead, this becomes the revelation of what you as Humans have always had. Powerful! 

I want you to ponder these changes because they are in the Field. Do you think when science discovered that consciousness is energy, they just left that alone? No. They wanted to find out more about what it is. The first thing they realized is that they are dealing with a multidimensional energy. Indeed, science may not think immediately about the self-healing potentials that exist, but eventually, they will 

How long will it take? That’s up to you. How many of you believe these things? For the belief itself, you might say, is a transmitter of reality, because when you believe something, you can make it happen. 

Changes are coming to this planet, dear ones, and I have told you this. We continue to tell you about the ones that will enhance humanity, and there will come a time when the last thing you will ever want to do to each other is to kill one another. There is precedent for this in other places that I have talked about, so I have seen it. I have seen it. 

I am Kryon, in love with humanity. 

And so it is 

KRYON

Coronavirus could put export of Dutch cycle expertise into gear

DutchNews, May 14, 2020 

Photo: Depositphotos.com

The coronavirus crisis could boost the export of Dutch cycling infrastructure expertise and products as countries are turning to the bicycle for a safer means of transport, RTL Nieuws reports. 

‘Coronavirus is accelerating the cycling infrastructure projects of many cities,’ says Lucas Harms, who heads the Dutch Cycling Embassy, a network of Dutch companies specialising in products like bike parks and other bike-related infrastructure. 

As coronavirus is turning people away from using public transport, the local authorities in Brussels have been turning car lanes into bike lanes over the last few days, as has Paris, RTL said. And in Milan, plans have been presented to limit space for cars in favour of bikes. 

‘We don’t yet know if this is a temporary thing. People may be just panicking and improvising but the good thing is that a seed is planted,’ said Harms, whose Cycling Embassy has advised hundreds of local authorities around the world on emulating Dutch cycling infrastructure. 

To build an infrastructure for cycling involves expertise in many areas, Harms said. ‘You need traffic experts, marketing people to create awareness,  and policy advisors. We have a lot of companies with specialised knowledge, just think of the multi-storey bike parks, like the one at Amsterdam’s main railway station. We are used to them but in other countries they are far from usual.’ 

It is not known how much the export of cycle expertise and products is currently worth but, Harms said, the 60 partners of his network are all involved in projects abroad.

Icelandair Cuts 2,000 Staff Over Coronavirus Impact

Barron’s – AFP, Alexander Klein, April 28, 2020

Icelandic airline Icelandair announced deep job cuts due to the effects of the
novel coronavirus crisis

Icelandic airline Icelandair said Tuesday it would lay off about 2,000 of its staff as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact air travel "for the unforeseeable future."

In response to the impact, Icelandair said the company was preparing for an "extended period of minimum operations."

The company said that "the employment of around two thousand employees will be terminated," adding that crew, maintenance and ground operations, would be most affected.

Icelandair added that the "majority of the remaining employees continue in part-time roles" and those in full-time positions would be affected by salary reductions.

"These measures are very painful yet necessary. We are facing considerable uncertainty for the unforeseeable future," Bogi Nils Bogason, CEO of Icelandair, said in a statement.

Bogason added that they hoped to be able to offer those affected employment again once markets started to recover.

In 2018, Icelandair had some 4,600 full-time employees and carried 4.4 million passengers, according to the company.

As of Tuesday, Iceland had confirmed 1,795 cases of the new coronavirus and 10 deaths.

Related Article:

British Airways Set To Cut Up To 12,000 Jobs

Germany finds truckers cheating to hide emissions

Yahoo – AFP, April 2, 2019

Emissions cheating in trucks is rampant and getting harder to detect (AFP Photo/
Christoph Schmidt)

Frankfurt am Main (AFP) - German authorities have identified hundreds of trucks "manipulated" to save their operators money by shutting off exhaust treatment systems, saying many more cheating vehicles could be at large on Europe's roads.

Of around 13,000 trucks whose "AdBlue" filter system was checked on German roads last year, 300 were "defective", a government answer to a parliamentary question from the Greens party seen Tuesday by AFP showed.

Of 132 such defects spotted since August last year, 84 could be traced back to deliberate manipulation rather than a technical fault, the government added -- a distinction not drawn in statistics collected before then.

Electronic devices available for around 100 euros ($112) allow users to deactivate the exhaust treatment system, allowing some trucking firms to make massive savings, daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) reported after revealing the scheme.

But with their catalytic converters switched off, the trucks spew far more harmful pollutants.

"The fact that we are finding more manipulated systems than faulty ones is an alarm signal," Greens MP Stephan Kuehn said.

With time, "the parts needed for the cheating are becoming smaller and smaller and more sophisticated, and therefore more difficult to find" during spot checks, the government added.

The SZ reported that operators can save up to one-third of the costs of running a truck supposedly meeting the Euro 5 or 6 emissions standard by installing one of the boxes or modifying software -- an even harder-to-detect option.

Devices or software changes can enable cheating in a number of ways.

Some fool the engine control software into thinking the catalytic converter is still working, preventing a warning to the driver or an automatic reduction in performance.

Others produce fake readings for the outside temperature, triggering a system that deactivates exhaust treatment at below -11 Celsius (12.2 Fahrenheit).

Clusters of similar rule-breaking have been identified elsewhere in Europe, especially in Spain.

Without exhaust treatment, trucks emit far more nitrogen oxides (NOx), which studies have shown is linked to various respiratory and cardiovascular diseases.

Since Volkswagen admitted in 2015 to cheating emissions tests on 11 million vehicles worldwide, alarm has spread in Germany about levels of the gas in city air.

Federal, state and local governments are battling to prevent drivers of older diesel vehicles being banned from city centres as courts order a growing number of exclusion zones.

Air pollution linked to higher risk of dementia: study

Yahoo – AFP, September 19, 2018

Chemicals cast off by tail-pipe pollution such as nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and soot are
known to boost the risk for heart disease, stroke and respiratory problems (AFP
Photo/Ina Fassbender)

Paris (AFP) - Urban air pollution, mostly from vehicles, is associated with an increased risk of dementia, according to research published Wednesday.

The link remained even after heavy drinking, smoking and other well established risk factors for dementia were ruled out, the researchers reported in medical journal BMJ Open.

Worldwide, about seven percent of people over 65 suffer from Alzheimer's or some form of dementia, a percentage that rises to 40 percent above the age of 85.

The number afflicted worldwide is expected to nearly triple by 2050, posing a huge challenge to healthcare systems.

"Primary prevention of all dementia is a major global public health concern for the coming decades," the researchers wrote.

Chemicals cast off by tailpipe pollution such as nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and soot are known to boost the risk for heart disease, stroke and respiratory problems, especially asthma.

But whether they also make Alzheimer's and other kinds of dementia more likely has remained unclear.

To find out more, a team of researchers led by Iain Carey of the University of London's Population Health Research Institute combed through health records for 131,000 people living in Greater London who, in 2004, were aged 50 to 79.

None showed signs of dementia when the study began.

Based on residential addresses, the scientists estimated yearly exposure to both NO2 and fine particulates known as PM2.5, and then tracked the health of the participants over a seven-year period.

During that time, nearly 2,200 patients -- 1.7 percent of the total -- were diagnosed with dementia.

The fifth of these patients living in the most heavily polluted areas were 40 percent more likely to be afflicted than the fifth residing in areas with the least NO2 and PM2.5.

Public health gains

Because the study was based on after-the-fact analysis rather than a clinical trial in an experimental setting, no firm conclusions can be drawn as to cause-and-effect, the authors cautioned.

But the findings strongly suggest that the chemical byproducts of burning diesel and petrol can damage brain function.

"Traffic-related air pollution has been linked to poorer cognitive development in young children," the study noted.

And even if the impact of air pollution remains relatively modest, they added, "the public health gains would be significant if it emerged that curbing exposure might delay progression of dementia."

The study was welcomed by experts who reviewed it before publication.

"There is a growing body of evidence of the link between air pollution and brain health, including dementia and Alzheimer's," said Martie Van Tongeren, a professor of occupational and environmental health at the University of Manchester.

"This adds to it."

Kevin McConway of the Open University praised the study but noted that it only estimated exposure to pollutants at home, and did not account for NO2 and PM2.5 levels at or near places of work, or the amount of time spent away from home.

In September 2015, the US Environmental Protection Agency revealed that German car manufacturer VW has installed so-called "defeat devices" in its cars to cheat in emissions tests.

The European Environment Agency estimates that more than 400,000 people in Europe's urban areas die prematurely every year due to outdoor air pollution.

Related Articles:

"The Biggest Filter" - July 18-19, 2015 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

“..  The Biggest Filter that Hinders Truth is Your Biased Knowledge

The biggest filter of humanity, the one that keeps Humans from actual truth, believe it or not, is called knowledge. We speak of that which humanity perceives currently as knowledge. That which you do not know is, therefore, future knowledge. Now, every single scientist understands the difference - every single one - for they know what is coming is going to teach them what they don't know yet. This is part of the scientific process. Even so, they take what they know, or think they know, and completely let it temper the experiments for what they don't know. They base the future on what they know or believe, even though they know better!

A medical doctor will look in the past and he'll remember being taught about a time when humans would report to the barbershop for healing. That's when they would actually bleed people for healing. By the way, that's the reason for the barber pole having the red stripe on it - it's the tradition of barbers doing the bleeding. So back then, you went to get healed in the barbershop by being bled! This, of course, led to many deaths because there was no understanding of germs, sterilization or today's common sense. Doctors know this, and they laugh at how far you all have come from this. So doctors absolutely know that what is coming will someday be actually laughable, yet they are also absolutely and completely closed to what it might be. They just think it will be an advancement of what they currently know.  ….”

“..  Medicine - Where It's Going

I want to show you some other areas to consider. There are several categories that we'd like to talk about, but they're not in a specific order except for the last one. So let's talk about medicine. What is future medicine going to look like?

The most elegant predictions of medicine fall short of what's really coming. What you have today is a high-tech approach to designer chemistry. Now, since the body is made up of chemistry, it makes sense to look at this chemistry and work with it. It makes total sense to discover how it reacts to disease and then design cures with more chemistry. It's absolutely normal what you have done, but it's going to reach an end very soon. Because the future of medicine is physics, dear ones, not chemistry.

You're going to start understanding and developing new medical physics. You will discover that medi-physics is going to literally speak to cellular structure and give it instructions, without one chemical involved. There's always a reaction to chemistry, isn't there? There's always a side effect. When you push one thing, something else reacts, doesn't it? How do you like it so far? Your most elegant chemical designs, the ones that are helping with the worst diseases on the planet, all have side effects - and some of those side effects are death! I say to you, how do you like it so far?

Does it really seem elegant to you? Or perhaps it's just a more sophisticated way of bleeding in the barbershop? Dear ones, that's how you're going to look at it someday! You're going to slap your heads and say, "Remember the day when we did everything with chemistry and drugs?"

Right now, these kinds of changes have already started in several areas. There are discoveries being made that are healing some of the most heart-breaking diseases you have. I reveal one, because it's not a secret. I will always give you information that is either being worked on or has been postulated through free choice on this planet. That is the guideline of channelling. We can't give it to you. You've got to develop it yourself. However, we can put you in an energy that has a faster discovery potential - that is to say, discoveries become more obvious.

Alzheimer's is heart breaking. There are millions on this planet who develop this condition, more all the time. You're living longer and a plaque-like material that literally obfuscates your memory within the brain is becoming more common. It clings to certain parts of your brain, encrusting and restricting it, imprisoning the Human's ability to remember and eventually process information at all. The result is death, slow death. It's caused by your environment, a fact which will be discovered eventually. Your long-lived Ancients didn't have it.

It's going to be cured with physics. Your science is starting to find out that the plaque-like substance has a resonance that allows it to be weakened with sound. High-frequency sound, tuned to a certain frequency and amplitude, will cause the sheaths to weaken, dissolve, and come off. There's a lot of research to do yet, but it's a Eureka! moment - realizing that physics alone, without chemistry, can change the structure of biology. This is with no side effects whatsoever. It's coming, it's coming.

There are those working with fresh umbilical cord stem cells right now who are using pure physics to guide the stem cells to a specific destination in the body in order to repair failing systems. Dear ones, the future of health and healing is not through better chemistry, yet medicine is still waiting for better pills! Did you connect the dots and realize that all biology is physics based? There is magnetics, leverage, the energy of consciousness, electricity and much more within cellular structure. With physics alone, you can "tune in" to disease and destroy it! You can fine-tune your system with cooperative resonances and extend life with benevolent, physical assistance. Sixteen years ago, I told you this when I spoke of the Temple of Rejuvenation. I described the super-cooling needed to do it and the temperatures needed to work with it (-55C). This is physics!

Now, the false expectation of greater chemistry for the future is totally caused from the filter of knowledge. What you have and know then gives you your expectation of what is going to take place. It literally blocks you from seeing some of the potentials that you may have.  ….”

Pregnant New Zealand minister cycles to delivery ward

Yahoo – AFP, 20 August 2018

New Zealand's Minister for Women Julie Anne Genter cycled to hospital for
the birth of her first child in Auckland

New Zealand's Minister for Women Julie Anne Genter has taken the cycle of life to a whole new level, biking her way to hospital for the birth of her first child.

Genter, a Green MP and keen cyclist, chose pedal power for Sunday's one kilometre (0.6 mile) journey from her home to Auckland City Hospital for the delivery.

"My partner and I cycled because there wasn't enough room in the car for the support crew... but it also put me in the best possible mood!" she posted on social media alongside a picture of her with her bike.

Genter is 42 weeks pregnant, and said in the post that she was going in to hospital for an induction.

She is not only Women's Minister but Associate Transport Minister in New Zealand's centre-left government, advocating for sustainable travel.

Her Green Party colleagues tweeted that the bicycle trip to the delivery ward was "the most #onbrand thing ever".

A party spokeswoman said the baby had still not arrived by late afternoon Monday.

The impending birth comes just weeks after New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern returned to work after having her first child, daughter Neve, in June.

Ardern, who was elected last year, became only the second world leader to give birth while in office after Pakistan's Benazir Bhutto in 1990.

German court paves way for diesel driving bans

Yahoo – AFP, Andrea HENTSCHEL with Michelle FITZPATRICK in Frankfurt, February 27, 2018

Environmental activists, seen here last week in front of Germany's Federal
Administrative Court, have won a major ruling that will allow cities to impose bans
on older, more polluting diesel vehicles in order to combat air pollution. (AFP
Photo/Sebastian Willnow)

Leipzig (Germany) (AFP) - A top German court on Tuesday ruled that cities can impose diesel driving bans to combat air pollution, a landmark decision that plunges millions of car owners into uncertainty.

The Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig found that local authorities can legally ban older, dirty diesels from certain zones as part of their efforts to improve air quality -- a drastic move that could reshape inner-city travel and upend the auto industry.

The court did not impose any bans itself, leaving that up to city and municipal authorities.

The judges did however urge them to "exercise proportionality" and said any curbs should be introduced gradually and allow for certain exemptions.

While the legal battle centred around the smog-clogged cities of Stuttgart and Duesseldorf, it could have far-reaching repercussions in Europe's biggest economy.

The ruling is a major blow to the government and the nation's mighty automakers who have long opposed driving bans, fearing outrage from diesel owners whose vehicles could plummet in value.

Eager to reassure them, the government was at pains to stress nothing would change right away and that bans were not inevitable.

"Driving bans can be avoided, and my goal is and will remain that they do not come into force," said Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks.

Chancelor Angela Merkel also weighed in, saying the ruling concerned only "individual cities".

"It's really not about the entire country and all car owners," she said.

But the outcome marks a huge victory for the environmentalist group Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH), which sued Stuttgart and Duesseldorf to force them to take action against the toxic nitrogen oxides and fine particles emitted by older diesel engines.

German Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks, left, said cities could reduce air

pollution without banning older diesel vehicles (AFP Photo/Bernd von Jutrczenka)

'Great day for clean air'

Lower-level judges had already backed their demand for driving bans, but the states of Baden-Wuerttemberg and North Rhine-Westphalia appealed, arguing such curbs should be decided at the federal level.

Judges at the nation's top administrative court again sided with the environmental campaigners.

"It's a great day for clean air in Germany," said DUH chief Juergen Resch.

Almost immediately after the verdict, the port city of Hamburg became the first to announce plans for a diesel driving ban on two busy roads from late April, with exceptions for residents, ambulances, city services and delivery vehicles.

The head of Germany's VDA auto industry federation warned however against "a patchwork" of local measures that would confuse drivers and urged the government to take the lead in drawing up uniform regulations.

Analysts at EY consultancy said only the latest diesel models that adhere to the strictest Euro 6 standards would escape the potential driving restrictions, leaving some 10 million older diesels eligible for bans.

Mounting pressure

Concerns over the harmful effects of diesel have soared since Volkswagen admitted in 2015 to installing cheating devices in millions of cars that allowed them to secretly spew far more nitrogen oxide (NOx) than legally allowed, and other carmakers soon came under suspicion too.

The poisonous gases have been linked to respiratory illnesses and heart problems, leading to thousands of premature deaths each year.

The sales of new diesel cars in Europe (AFP Photo/Sophie RAMIS)

Some 70 German cities including Munich, Stuttgart and Cologne recorded average nitrogen dioxide levels above EU thresholds in 2017, according to the Federal Environment Agency.

Industry giants such as Volkswagen, BMW and Daimler have responded to "dieselgate" by offering software upgrades and trade-ins for newer and cleaner models, but have resisted costly hardware fixes.

DUH chief Resch however said Tuesday's ruling could finally put real pressure on automakers to retrofit older engines with properly functioning emissions controls.

"I now expect the auto industry to deliver," he said.

Markus Lewe, president of the Association of German Cities, urged Berlin to do more to push the auto industry to clean up its act.

"Cities don't want driving bans," he said.

The government, long accused of going too easy on an industry that employs some 800,000 people, last year offered to create a billion-euro fund, partly paid for by industry, to improve public transport and upgrade fleets to electric buses.

Such measures are intended at least as much to placate local officials as well as those in Brussels -- where Germany and a slew of other EU member states risk legal action after sailing past a deadline to reduce air pollution.

Delhi restricts vehicles as smog envelopes India and Pakistan

Yahoo – AFP, November 9, 2017

Low winds and the annual post-harvest burning of crop stubble have caused the
 levels of dangerous pollutants in the air to spike to many times the levels
considered safe (AFP Photo/NARINDER NANU)

New Delhi (AFP) - New Delhi banned all construction, barred lorries from entering the city and announced stringent restrictions on private car use on Thursday, seeking to combat a massive spike in pollution across large swathes of India and Pakistan.

Tens of thousands of schools in Delhi and surrounding states remained closed as a hazardous fog of toxic pollution cloaked the region for a third day, bringing growing calls for urgent government action to tackle what doctors are calling a public health emergency.

"The situation in Delhi is so bad and if the pollution can be brought down in any way, we will do it," the city's transport minister Kailash Gahlot told reporters as he announced plans to limit private car use to alternate days from next Monday.

Authorities in the city had earlier ordered a ban on all construction work and barred lorries from entering the city as public pressure on the government mounted.

Around 50,000 mostly diesel-fuelled lorries pass through India's capital every night and they are a major contributor to the pollution plaguing the city.

Air quality typically worsens before the onset of winter as cooler air traps pollutants near the ground and prevents them from dispersing into the atmosphere, a phenomenon known as inversion.

Low winds and the annual post-harvest burning of crop stubble in the northern farming states of Punjab and Hariyana have caused the levels of dangerous pollutants in the air to spike to many times the levels considered safe.

Figures on the US embassy website showed levels of PM2.5 -- the smallest particulates that cause most damage to health -- spiked at over 1,000 on Wednesday afternoon in Delhi, though by Thursday afternoon they had fallen to 400.

The World Health Organization's guidelines say 25 is the maximum level of PM2.5 anyone can safely be exposed to over a 24-hour period.

Doctors say the microscopic particles can penetrate deep into the lungs, increasing the risk of heart attacks and strokes.

Chart showing air quality readings from New Delhi where schools were ordered 

shut as pollution levels went off the scale. (AFP Photo/Nick SHEARMAN)

"Delhi once again has become a veritable gas chamber with denizens finding it difficult to breathe," The Times of India said Thursday, joining growing calls for government action to curb the chronic pollution, which the Indian Medical Association this week termed a public health emergency.

"Air pollution during winter months has become a catastrophe for large parts of north India," the country's most read English-language newspaper said in an editorial blaming "political apathy".

'Burning in my eyes'

In neighbouring Pakistan's second largest city Lahore, near the Indian border, hundreds flocked to hospitals seeking treatment for respiratory illnesses and eye infections caused by the pollution.

The PakAirQuality network, which publishes unofficial air reports on social media, said the concentration of PM 2.5 in the city had topped 300.

Motorcycle riders wore green face masks and goggles as they tried to cope with the smog, but for some the protection was not enough.

"I am feeling burning in my eyes," said labourer Zawar Hussain. "I will visit a doctor in the evening."

It is the second year running that Delhi -- now the world's most polluted capital with air quality worse than Beijing -- has faced such high levels of PM2.5.

Media reports said the thick smog had also led to a series of road accidents in north India.

Eight students were killed late Wednesday when a truck ploughed into them as they waited for a bus on a roadside in Punjab.

Since 2014, when WHO figures showed the extent of the crisis, authorities in Delhi have closed power plants temporarily and experimented with taking some cars off the road.

But the temporary measures have had little effect.

Under pressure to respond, Delhi's Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday sought to blame stubble burning by farmers in neighbouring states.

"We we will continue facing this every year until the neighbouring state governments resolve the issue of crop burning," he told reporters in Delhi.

The practice of burning crop stubble remains commonplace in north India despite an official ban.

Netherlands must prosecute dirty diesel exporters: report

DutchNews, February 7, 2017     

Photo: Depositphotos.com

The Netherlands and Belgium could prosecute dirty diesel exporters Trafigura and Vitol for contravening international agreements, environmental law experts have told Trouw. 

The diesel, which is blended with sulphur and benzene in the ports of Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Antwerp, is commonly sold to African countries by European oil companies who are taking advantages of the weak fuel standards in those countries, the experts say. 

Swiss-based commodity traders Trafigura and Vitol are responsible for 50% of dirty diesel exports. 

There are no EU rules banning such exports, but according to the Centre for International Environmental Law (Ciel), the practice contravenes the 2005 Basel Convention which says that the export of the fuel is illegal if countries themselves prohibit the import of dangerous waste. 

Ciel says this the case since most African countries have signed the Bamako agreement (1991) which declares such imports illegal. 

‘Therefore the export from Belgium and the Netherlands of fuel with a high sulphur content is in contravention of the Basel Convention,’ Trouw quotes the report as saying. 

Ciel’s lawyers say the export of dirty diesel is also in breach of human rights because the Netherlands and Belgium both signed up to a UN agreement which obliges them to respect people’s right to health. 

Sulphur 

Dirty diesel can contain up to two hundred times the amount of sulphur allowed in Europe. 

Milieudefensie spokesman Bram van Liere, said he expects that minister Lilianne Ploumen, who called the practice ‘scandalous’, will now prosecute the two oil companies ‘with the tools we have given her’. 

The Ciel report, which was commissioned by Swiss NGO Public Eye and Dutch environmental group Milieudefensie, was sent to parliament on Monday.