Posts tagged with 'air quality'
Capital City, a (hypothetical) seaside metropolis, has a growing population. However, much of its infrastructure was built 100 years ago and is straining from deferred maintenance, unable to meet the city’s future needs. To make matters worse, Capital City has ...
COVID-19 is a radical moment in so many ways. By disrupting urban systems so profoundly, it has thrust the question of urban futures before us in a way that we cannot ignore. Will cities recover? What will they look like? ...
Between the 1918 flu pandemic and the 2020 COVID-19 crisis, our ability to understand the effects of infectious diseases has increased exponentially. Networked personal devices and automated sensors are now ubiquitous, not to mention communications technologies like the internet that ...
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 ...
California is home to 7 of the 10 most polluted metropolitan areas in the United States, with transportation being the state’s leading source of greenhouse gases. While pollution from the transport sector is bad for everyone, it disproportionately impacts people ...
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 ...
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 ...
We know that air pollution is a big problem – for health, climate, food security and more. But there’s a difference between generally knowing that “we need to do something” and actually marshalling the allies, resources and power to act. Before we ...
Summertime often means soaring, dangerous temperatures. Recent heat waves in Europe brought government warnings, power plant shutdowns, restrictions on automobile use, heat stroke and deaths. But misery in Europe and elsewhere is compounded by the chemistry of how emissions from ...
Most of the rising global attention to air pollution focuses on the impacts that ozone, particulate matter and other pollutants have on human health. This is natural; the numbers in the headlines are striking. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that ...
Did you know that air quality is a major contributor to global warming? Or that poor air quality can reduce sunlight, disrupting rainfall patterns, depressing crop yields and diminishing solar energy output? Did you know air pollution is the biggest ...
The original version of this text appeared in the International Finance Corporation analysis, “Climate Investment Opportunities in Cities.” Air pollution is the world’s fourth-leading fatal health risk and the top environmental health risk. One in nine deaths globally are attributed ...
Several wildfires are still burning through California. The Camp Fire in Northern California has killed at least 48 people and is now the deadliest ever recorded. The fire has burned 130,000 acres near Paradise, 80 miles north of Sacramento. Near Thousand Oaks, Woolsey Fire ...
Solving the world’s air pollution problems is not going to be easy. Ninety-eight percent of cities in low- and middle-income countries with more than 100,000 inhabitants do not meet World Health Organization air quality guidelines for PM2.5. In total, 95 ...
More than 7 million people die prematurely every year due to air pollution. That’s like the entire population of Hong Kong dropping dead due to a cause that’s ultimately avoidable. The World Health Organization (WHO) is turning its attention to ...
