New research takes stock of the impact of passenger flights and, for the first time, air freight at 1,300 airports around the world. New research has revealed the climate and air quality impacts of the world’s worst polluting airports. The 2024 Airport Tracker, produced by think tank ODI in partnership with Transport & Environment, measures...
Tag: AirPollution
Coal mining, oil industries among main sources of increasing air pollution in Africa – study
A recent study published in the journal Nature Geoscience presents evidence that shows that the burning of biomass fuel for cooking, heating, and lighting, the crude oil exploitation and coal mining industries, as well as old vehicles being shipped in from Europe are causing severe deterioration of air quality in African countries. According to the article, particulate matter concentration levels in many African...
Air pollution a factor in spiking cancer cases, report says
New estimates from the World Health Organization (WHO) predict a 77% increase in cancer cases globally by 2050. The report points to air pollution as one of the factors driving the expected increase in cancer rates, even though it does not have the same effect on everyone. As a global health watchdog, the WHO rarely has good...
Air pollution from heavy traffic can raise blood pressure, researchers say
People wearing masks while driving alone in their cars may not be so foolish after all. The N95 masksTrusted Source used to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 might also filter out highway air pollution that a new study says can cause a serious and sustained spike in blood pressure. The study, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, reports that...
It’s time to admit that our health and climate crises are one
The writer served as the first national climate adviser to the White House and is a former administrator of the US Environmental Protection Agency.It is of course completely right that climate, economic and technical experts are included in every COP discussion, such as the one in the United Arab Emirates later this month. But only...
Dear COP 28 President-Designate Sultan Ahmed Al-Jaber,
This year, world leaders gathering in the UAE to take stock of their climate commitments will for the first time engage in official programming focused on health. We, the signatories of this letter, support your leadership in bringing health front and center at COP28. As global health leaders, we are committed to achieving health and...
Africa Energy Week: Where climate science makes way for the gods of gas and coal
In the weeks leading up to COP28 in Dubai, the world’s largest climate change conference, Cape Town hosted a very different kind of event – Africa Energy Week (AEW) 2023. Billed as the “biggest energy event in Africa”, AEW was a four-day gathering of oil and gas executives, policy-makers, government officials and investors from around...
Albania, Colombia, Moldova: Which countries are doing the most for air pollution and climate?
G20 countries are failing to integrate air pollution into their climate plans, a new study finds. The authors want that fixed at COP28. When we think about the dangers of fossil fuels, we tend to imagine the climate consequences on a grand scale from wildfires to flooding. But there is, of course, a more insidious...
Air Pollution and Breast Cancer Risk: Residential and Workplace Exposure
Women living and working in places with higher levels of fine particle air pollution are more likely to get breast cancer than those living and working in less polluted areas. Results of a study looking at the effects of both residential and workplace exposure to air pollution on breast cancer risk will be presented by...
We are being poisoned every day, so why do we keep voting for more pollution? Ask a lobbyist
There are some things we rightly find intolerable, such as the possession of poorly trained, aggressive dogs. There are other things, whose impacts are many thousands of times worse, that we decide just to live with. What makes the difference? Visibility is one reason: a photo of a large dog with bared teeth triggers primal...