I was in Spain last year for several weeks and it was so depressing how every town viewed at altitude was covered in a pervasive pea soup of diesel smog.
The link between German industrial policy/protectionism and environmental disasters like diesel has been known for a while now but European cities in particular will be paying the price for a long time.
How do you know it's smog caused by diesel? LA has suffered (don't know how is it today) for years from smog and the majority of the vehicles there are petrol. I mean you can't blame it all on diesel.
Back in those days, gasoline/petrol cars had much worse emissions than they do today. They've since been cleaned up a little when it comes to smog-forming emissions. Diesel hasn't.
The link between German industrial policy/protectionism and environmental disasters like diesel has been known for a while now but European cities in particular will be paying the price for a long time.