Posts in the 'Air Pollution' category
What Happens When Extreme Heat and Air Pollution Collide
What Happens When Extreme Heat and Air Pollution Collide
On July 22, the world experienced its hottest day in recorded history. The global average temperature reached 17.2 degrees C (62.9 degrees F), prompting UN Secretary-General António Guterres to issue a global call to action on extreme heat. The problem of extreme ...
Grassroots Action Against Polluted Skies: How Jakarta's Urban Villages Tackle Air Pollution 
Grassroots Action Against Polluted Skies: How Jakarta’s Urban Villages Tackle Air Pollution 
On a Sunday afternoon in September 2023, a group of about 30 individuals, including a group of mostly female neighbors from nine kampungs (a common term for “urban villages” or “informal settlements” across multiple languages and nations in Southeast Asia) ...
How Data and Integrated Planning Approaches Can Help Cities Fight Air Pollution 
How Data and Integrated Planning Approaches Can Help Cities Fight Air Pollution 
In Bogotá, Colombia, over 3,000 people die prematurely each year due to exposure to air pollution—namely from PM2.5, a fine particulate matter produced by vehicle exhaust, burning and industrial outputs. Bogotá is not alone: According to 2021 data, of 174 ...
Delhi’s Air Quality Needs Data-Driven Action
Delhi’s Air Quality Needs Data-Driven Action
The issue of Delhi’s poor air quality resurfaces periodically in public consciousness. It garners attention on social media, in newspapers and in scientific studies, largely during winter months. During this period, Delhi’s air quality index drops from “poor” to “severe” ...
Southeast Asian Cities Have Some of the Most Polluted Air in the World. El Niño Is Making it Worse
Southeast Asian Cities Have Some of the Most Polluted Air in the World. El Niño Is Making it Worse
Residents of Jakarta, Indonesia woke up on August 31, 2023, to a thick blanket of haze and news that their city was again ranked the most polluted in the world — one of many times during the last several months when air quality became ...
Nairobi Highlights Air Quality During Africa Climate Week
Nairobi Highlights Air Quality During Africa Climate Week
Against the backdrop of the Africa Climate Summit and Africa Climate Week, Nairobi hosted the UN Environment Programme’s fourth annual International Clean Air Day for blue skies event with Nairobi City County Governor, Sakaja Johnson, on September 7th, 2023. This ...
Poor Air Quality Isn’t the Only Way Wildfires Affect Cities
Poor Air Quality Isn’t the Only Way Wildfires Affect Cities
Thousands of people in Quebec, Canada evacuated their homes this month due to raging wildfires. More than 400 miles away, New York City experienced its worst air quality in history, and briefly had the worst air quality of any city in the ...
Clean Indore Making Strides for Clean Air
Clean Indore Making Strides for Clean Air
Indore is known as India’s cleanest city, having secured the title seven years in a row in Swachh Bharat National Cleanliness Surveys, and it is now determined to clean its air too. On February 15, the “Clean Air, Clean Indore” ...
Putting Women at the Center of Clean Air Action
Putting Women at the Center of Clean Air Action
A key objective of the Clean Air Catalyst is to exchange knowledge, build trust and foster opportunities to elevate the voices of those most impacted by air pollution, particularly women and low-income communities. Funded by the U.S. Agency for International ...
Achieving Clean Air for Girls and Women [PODCAST]
Achieving Clean Air for Girls and Women [PODCAST]
How much do air quality and pollution issues affect women and girls, and how much can those problems be solved by making sure they have a seat at the decision-making table? These questions are addressed in this episode of WRI’s ...
Expanding Mexico City’s Air Quality Forecast To Help Citizens Live More Healthy Lives
Expanding Mexico City’s Air Quality Forecast To Help Citizens Live More Healthy Lives
Today, air quality awareness is common among Mexico City’s residents. People with respiratory conditions are consulting the official reports of the Atmospheric Monitoring System (SIMAT, for its Spanish acronym) before engaging in outdoor activities more frequently. Education authorities are aware of pollution ...
4 Reasons to Make Air Quality a Priority in Brazil – and Around the World
4 Reasons to Make Air Quality a Priority in Brazil – and Around the World
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the ongoing epidemic of air pollution continues around the world. The problem is particularly neglected in Brazil, where air pollution kills about 51,000 people every year, yet the country lacks strong policy for reducing pollutant emissions ...
The Most Successful Air Pollution Treaty You’ve Never Heard Of
The Most Successful Air Pollution Treaty You’ve Never Heard Of
International consensus on cross-border environmental issues has been difficult to achieve, but the 40-year-old Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution (or LRTAP as it is known to development professionals) has enjoyed great, if largely unsung, success in the fight against air ...
To Clean Delhi’s Air, Reform Its Transport System
To Clean Delhi’s Air, Reform Its Transport System
Over the past few years, around the time when Diwali – the Hindu festival of lights and India’s biggest holiday – ends and winter sets in, Delhi’s air quality has plummeted to dangerous levels, initiating a series of debates and ...
Red Alert: 3 Strategies for Reducing Toxic Ozone Pollution
Red Alert: 3 Strategies for Reducing Toxic Ozone Pollution
High up in the stratosphere, naturally occurring ozone reflects solar radiation back into space, protecting people and the planet from harmful ultraviolet rays. But closer to Earth’s surface, rising ozone levels – formed when pollutants from a wide range of sources react ...
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