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Climate Progress

History Shows U.S. Can Tackle Pollution And Climate Change

By Climate Guest Blogger on Jan 23, 2013 at 11:05 am

President Nixon signs the 1969 National Environmental Protection Act

By Arpita Bhattacharyya, Center for American Progress

President Obama’s strong remarks on climate change yesterday left the environmental community hopeful that actions will soon follow his words. The Center for American Progress has laid out a blue print for how the President can move forward on climate change and energy, and most of those recommended actions can be taken now through executive orders, including setting carbon-pollution standards for existing power plants, oil refineries, and other major industrial sources under the federal Clean Air Act.

If President Obama takes these up, he will inevitably face push back from members of Congress who falsely claim that the economic costs are too high for crucial Environmental Protection Agency public health regulations. In reality, these regulations have saved thousands of lives and strengthened our economy. China’s extreme air pollution earlier this month serves as reminder of why we can’t let anti-public health rhetoric shake our resolve on crucial live saving regulations.

Air pollution levels in Beijing literally went off the charts earlier this month. On the normal scale of 1 to 500 for measuring small pollution particulates harmful for health known as PM2.5, the U.S. Embassy monitors in Beijing recorded 755 on January 12th. To put that in context, 50 or below is considered good air quality by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Air Quality Index. 301 to 500 is considered extremely hazardous and people are advised against going outdoors. The 755 rating surpassed the “crazy bad” pollution record set two years ago in China. The Chinese government responded by pulling government vehicles off the road and limiting activity at construction sites. Meanwhile, hospitals were full of patients with heart and respiratory ailments. China’s challenges with pollution serves as a reminder for Americans on how important Environmental Protection Agency regulations are for protecting public health.

While China’s air pollution problems may sound extreme and incomparable to air quality here in the U.S., we actually did face a very similar environmental situation during its industrialization. The reason? Tight regulatory standards for public health didn’t exist yet. In the 1940s and 1950s, smog had blanketed major cities while sewage and industrial waste infected U.S. rivers. In 1948, pollutants trapped over the industrial city of Donora, Pennsylvania killed twenty and permanently injured hundreds.

Slowly, the American Public became more aware of the effect of pollution on public health and demanded action.

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Health

What The U.S. Can Learn From China’s Off-The-Charts Air Pollution

By Aviva Shen on Jan 14, 2013 at 4:40 pm

CNN's Steven Jiang stands in front of the Beijing skyline


Beijing has tolerated abysmal air pollution for years as the price for China’s rapid economic development. But on January 12, the city’s air pollution reached unprecedented levels, even beyond the upper limits of the Air Quality Index, which reports daily air quality around the world.

The worst pollution on record is taking a serious toll on Beijing’s residents. According to one hospital official, the number of emergency room patients with heart attacks roughly doubled over the weekend. Hospitals are struggling to handle an influx of people suffering from respiratory and cardiac trouble.

As dictated by emergency procedure, the city banned government vehicles from the roads, and asked industrial companies to reduce their emissions. Hyundai also suspended production for a day. While these measures may help ease the immediate problem, this public health crisis has been a long time coming. In the past year, air pollution was responsible for 8,572 premature deaths in China. Studies show that air pollution is now more deadly than high cholesterol.

The main cause of the out-of-control pollution is burning coal, exacerbated by weather conditions trapping the smog. As Beijing-based engineer Vance Wagner notes, the bulk of the pollution originates in factories and power plants spawned by the breakneck speed of China’s unchecked industrialization.

Indeed, as air quality worsens, the country’s economic growth has also exploded. China’s coal production has tripled in the past decade to keep pace with skyrocketing energy consumption rates. The government has tried to dismiss the environmental consequences of modernization, even whitewashing this most recent episode as “heavy fog.”

China’s pollution disaster should serve as a warning for American lawmakers who claim environmental regulation hurts business. While US pollution levels are nowhere near China’s, cities like Los Angeles and Birmingham struggle to meet basic federal air quality standards.

Despite Republican opposition, the Environmental Protection Agency recently issued more stringent soot standards projected to save roughly 15,000 lives a year. Still, Congressional Republicans have not given up on their long campaign to defund the EPA. As part of the impending “fiscal cliff,” the agency’s clean air program stands to lose more than $100 million in funding.

Climate Progress

Keep Pollution Cops On The Beat: Congress Proposes Stripping $100 Million From Clean Air Enforcement

By Climate Guest Blogger on Jan 9, 2013 at 10:30 am

by Peter Iwanowicz

The Clean Air Act is one of the most successful public health laws we have.  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s  (EPA) assessment of the Act finds that in 2010 alone, the reductions in fine particle and ozone pollution from the 1990 Clean Air Act amendments prevented more than: 160,000 cases of premature mortality; 130,000 heart attacks; 13 million lost work days; and, 1.7 million asthma attacks.

Under normal implementation and enforcement of the Act, the EPA projects that in 2020, benefits will be even greater, preventing more than 230,000 cases of premature mortality, 200,000 heart attacks, 17 million lost work days, and, 2.4 million asthma attacks.  The health benefits are expected to exceed $2 trillion while the costs will be $85 billion.

We are, however, working in anything but “normal” circumstances and EPA’s ability to realize these benefits is under significant risk.

For the past two years, Big Polluters and their allies in Congress have been working to roll back, weaken and block critically important updates to clean air standards that the EPA is required to make under the Act.  These efforts included attempts to permanently block EPA rules that would limit standards to limit toxic air pollution from coal-fired power plants and protect us from air pollution that blows into other states. At the urging of Big Oil, members of Congress have also tried to strip away EPA’s authority to limit greenhouse gas emissions, which not only endangers our health today but also  future generations by increasing temperatures that significantly contribute to the formation of lethal ozone (smog) pollution.  Other attacks on the Clean Air Act have focused on undermining the very core of this public health focused law by attempting to block consideration of health benefits in setting clean air protections

Thus far, these attempts to impede our nation’s healthy air progress have been thwarted by the leadership in the Senate and the effective implementation of this healthy air law by the Obama Administration.  Except for the outrageous decision made by the President in September 2011 to reject EPA’s proposed health standard for ozone, the Administration has largely acted to implement the Clean Air Act as required and as a result millions of people will lead healthier lives and tens of thousands will not die prematurely.

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Health

Deadly Air Pollution In Tehran Makes Breathing A Health Risk

By Rebecca Leber on Jan 8, 2013 at 6:00 pm

Air pollution has left close to 5,000 dead since March 2011, according to Iranian health officials, as pollution forced the city to close completely over the weekend. Iran’s state radio claimed going outside “could be tantamount to ‘suicide,’” according to the New York Times. The World Health Organization ranks three of Iran’s provincial towns as the world’s top 10 polluted cities.

There are a number reasons behind Tehran’s terrible pollution problem, in a city that experienced fewer than 150 “healthy days” in 2011: High traffic from 5.5 million vehicles, combined with low-grade petrol, create a deadlier dose of carbon pollution and carcinogens.

Worldwide, pollution is a major public health problem, posing a greater danger than high cholesterol for millions.

Major cities in the U.S. have lower — and considerably less deadly — levels of pollution, but that is not without smart new steps that help save tens of thousands of additional lives. However, Republicans still routinely seek to roll back standards proven to protect the air we breathe, from attacking new mercury standards for coal-fired power plants to opposing fuel efficiency standards that lower vehicles’ carbon emissions.

Health

The Dangerous Link Between Lead Emissions And Crime Rates

By Jeff Spross on Jan 3, 2013 at 5:55 pm

From 1960 to the early 1990s, the rate of violent crime in the U.S. rocketed from 150 to 750 per 100,000 people. Then it dropped just as precipitously, falling below 450 per 100,000 by 2009. A host of theories were been put forward to explain the turnaround: New crime fighting practices, economic booms and slumps, the crack epidemic, legalized abortion leading to fewer unwanted children, prison expansion, gun control, the list goes on. All of them have been knocked down by econometric and statistical analysis, or by the failure of follow-up studies to replicate results. But, as Kevin Drum lays out in a new piece for Mother Jones, the public health risks posed by lead emissions could be the missing link.

Lead emissions from cars increased by a factor of four between the late 1930s and the early 1970s, then plummeted back down with the introduction of unleaded gasoline, the catalytic converter, and stricter regulations. Allow a 23-year time lag to give the lead time to work its way into people’s bodies, and those changes in lead emissions explain 90 percent of the changes in violent crime, according to a 2000 paper by economist Rick Nevin:

Nevin also replicated his study at the international level and found that Canada, Australia, Britain, Finland, Italy, France, New Zealand and West Germany all fit the same pattern.

Since then, other researchers have also demonstrated the connection between crime and lead in six different U.S. cities. In New Orleans, connections emerged on the basis of individual neighborhoods. Lead emissions didn’t drop uniformly across the country — and in the states where lead reductions occurred slowly, there was a slower drop in crime than in the states where lead was reduced more quickly.

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Climate Progress

Cartoons: The Lighter Side Of Air Pollution

By Climate Guest Blogger on Dec 24, 2012 at 11:00 am

by Dominique Browning

Sometimes, you just have to laugh. As in, need to laugh…otherwise, the issues we are tackling each and every day here at Moms Clean Air Force start to weigh too heavily on our hearts.

Our marvelous cartoons, by Liza Donnelly and Danny Shanahan, never fail to deliver smiles. We can’t help but see the absurdity in some of the positions our opponents are taking–and there are times when a cartoon is the sharpest way to point out the ridiculous situation we’re in: being forced to fight for clean air.

You have to wonder: who loves pollution? Well, we know the answer to that. The people who profit from it.

This collection is a gift from our house to yours; enjoy and share. Whether we’re laughing or outraged– or, as is usually the case, both– we take our work fighting air pollution seriously. After all, we’re fighting air pollution for love of the world.

From the Moms Clean Air Force family to yours, have a happy safe and loving holiday!

Dominique Browning is the co-founder of Moms Clean Air Force and its lead blogger.

Health

Air Pollution Now Deadlier To The World Than High Cholesterol

By Rebecca Leber on Dec 20, 2012 at 5:50 pm

More than 3 million people, a record number, suffered premature deaths from air pollution in 2010, according to a new report published in the Lancet. For the first time, air pollution has moved to the top 10 list of killers, making it a top public health concern surpassing even high cholesterol.

For comparison, air pollution killed just 800,000 in 1990. Pollution and related deaths have surged in countries seeing economic gains, like China and India, although technology and new standards can mitigate the problem around the world. In East Asia, pollution ranks fourth, behind smoking, as a high risk factor.

These deaths are largely preventable. David Pettit at NRDC writes:

Fortunately there are many actions that can be taken to address outdoor air pollution. The technology is readily available at a fraction of the investment cost compared to the health costs that the public bears. We can replace polluting old engines with much cleaner new models. Alternative fuels and more efficient equipment can address global warming pollution in addition to traditional air pollutants like soot. Renewable-based electric power can replace polluting diesels and other fossil fuel engines in virtually every sector.

The U.S. took additional steps this year by releasing mercury standards for coal-fired power plants, which is estimated to save up to 11,000 lives annually.

Climate Progress

What Moves Conservatives On The Environment? Show Them Pictures Of What Happens Without The EPA

By Stephen Lacey on Dec 12, 2012 at 1:00 pm

If you’re a conservative, this image of Cleveland from 1973 taken before the Environmental Protection Agency started cleaning up our skies should make you care about the environment:

That’s according to a new paper from UC Berkeley, anyway.

In a study released this week, UC Berkeley researchers looked at how conservatives respond to messages about protecting the environment. Rather than being moved by the moral arguments that progressives often make, the study found that conservatives responded to images and videos within a “purity/sanctity” frame:

The purity/sanctity-themed article stressed how pollution has contaminated Earth and people’s bodies, and argued for cleaning up and purifying the environment. To enhance those themes and elicit disgust, the accompanying images showed a person drinking filthy water, a city under a cloud of pollution and a forest full of garbage. The neutral article talked about the history of neckties.

Participants were then asked to rate how strongly they felt certain emotions, including disgust, in response to what they’d read. Next, they reported how strongly they agreed or disagreed with such statements as “It is important to protect the environment,” “I would support government legislation aimed at protecting the environment” and ‘I believe humans are causing global warming.”

Overall, the study found that the purity-themed message inspired conservatives to feel higher levels of disgust, which in turn increased their support for protecting the environment.

Interesting. Let’s test out the study. Theoretically, that response to “purity” would make this photo of a severely asthmatic child living near a coal plant in Nevada an effective message for conservatives:

It would also make this photo of Pennsylvania resident Sherry Vargson lighting her methane-contaminated tap water on fire from fracking a pretty effective tool:

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Health

Mounting Evidence Shows Possible Link Between Air Pollution And Autism

By Rebecca Leber on Nov 28, 2012 at 5:30 pm

A new study from University of Southern California researchers finds that children exposed to more air pollution had higher rates of autism. Though there is no conclusive answer about whether pollution can cause autism, the lead author says “it may be a risk factor for autism. Autism is a complex disorder and it’s likely there are many factors contributing.”

Studying 500 children California cities, the researchers found those likely exposed to the most pollution — estimated based on traffic, vehicle emissions, wind patterns, and regional data — are two to three times more likely to be diagnosed with the disorder. Some children may be more susceptible because of genetics.

TIME describes the growing body of research that links autism to pollution:

Even so, the latest study findings suggest that air pollution may be one of the best characterized environmental risk factors for autism. In an earlier study published in 2010, Volk and colleagues showed that kids with autism were much more likely than kids without the disorder to have been born to mothers living within 1,000 feet of a freeway. Other researchers have shown that kids with autism are also unusually likely to have exposure to high levels of diesel exhaust particles and metals (mercury, cadmium, and nickel) and to other air-pollutant chemicals, such as those used to make rubber, plastics, and dyes.

These associations continued to remain strong even after researchers adjusted for other characteristics, like poverty, that may also be connected to pollution. Unlike asthma, for example, autism rates are not consistently higher among lower income populations. In Volk’s study, the links between air pollution and autism risk were virtually unchanged after accounting for parents’ race and ethnicity, educational attainment, and smoking status, as well as for the area’s population density.

Some questions do remain, such as why autism diagnoses have increased since 2006 to 1 in 88 children without any major changes in pollution. Although scientists need to further examine that link, outdoor pollutants are already a known trigger in asthma, which has also become more common in recent years.

Climate Progress

Poll: Growing Majority Of Americans Understand The Earth Is Warming And Humans Are The Cause

By Joe Romm on Oct 18, 2012 at 5:57 pm

George Mason University and Yale’s Project on Climate Change Communication have released more polling results. Here are the highlights (full PDF here):

  • Americans’ belief in the reality of global warming has increased by 13 percentage points over the past two and a half years, from 57 percent in January 2010 to 70 percent in September 2012. At the same time, the number of Americans who say global warming is not happening has declined nearly by half, from 20 percent in January 2010 to only 12 percent today.
  • For the first time since 2008, more than half of Americans (54%) believe global warming is caused mostly by human activities, an increase of 8 points since March 2012. Americans who say it is caused mostly by natural changes in the environment have declined to 30 percent (from 37% in March).

  • A growing number of Americans believe global warming is already harming people both at home and abroad. Four in ten say people around the world are being harmed right now by climate change (40%, up 8 percentage points since March 2012), while 36 percent say global warming is currently harming people in the United States (up six points since March).
  • In addition, they increasingly perceive global warming as a threat to themselves (42%, up 13 points since March 2012), their families (46%, up 13 points), and/or people in their communities (48%, up 14 points). Americans also perceive global warming as a growing threat to people in the United States (57%, up 11 points since March 2012), in other modern industrialized countries (57%, up 8 points since March), and in developing countries (64%, up 12 points since March).
  • Today over half of Americans (58%) say they are “somewhat” or “very worried” – now at its highest level since November 2008.
  • For the first time since 2008, Americans are more likely to believe most scientists agree that global warming is happening than believe there is widespread disagreement on the subject (44% versus 36%, respectively). This is an increase of 9 percentage points since March 2012.

Recent polling has confirmed Americans are attributing their increased understanding the planet is warming to their (correct) perception that the planet is warming and the weather is getting more extreme. A Brookings poll from February found that about half of people who understand the planet is warming said that these factors were the primary influence — see Poll: Americans’ Understanding of Climate Change Increasing With More Extreme Weather, Warmer Temperatures.

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