Good news: The world has passed ‘peak air pollution’

Good news: The world has passed ‘peak air pollution’
Indoor air pollution in Nigeria (Image: Nigeria Cleancooking)

“Global emissions of local air pollutants have probably passed their peak,” reports Our World in Data.

The chart shows estimates of global emissions of pollutants such as sulphur dioxide (which causes acid rain), nitrogen oxides, and black and organic carbon.

These pollutants are harmful to human health and can also damage ecosystems.

It looks like emissions have peaked for almost all of these pollutants. Global air pollution is now falling, and we can save many lives by accelerating this decline.

The exception is ammonia, which is mainly produced by agriculture. Its emissions are still rising.

Sulfur dioxide emissions are down sharply since the 1980s. So are carbon monoxide emissions. Black carbon is down over the last decade, while nitrogen oxide is down over the last 15 years.

Some places, however, still have lots of air pollution. Pollution is so bad in India’s capital that it is planning to use artificial rain to combat air pollution.

Pollution is very bad in much of northern India. If you travel through it, you get dust all over your car’s windshield, dust between your teeth, and dust covering your clothes. India’s capital, Delhi, is a dusty megacity. Its 34 million people die years sooner than they otherwise would, due to air pollution.

“India’s capital territory of Delhi is keen to use artificial rain to fight air pollution this year, its Environment Minister Gopal Rai said” last year, “as deteriorating air quality in the region led to an increase in respiratory illnesses,” reports a south Asian newspaper:

Large swathes of north India battle pollution each winter as cold air traps dust, vehicle emissions and smoke from farm fires in the breadbasket states of Punjab and Haryana, shrouding the national capital and its suburbs in a toxic haze.

Cloud-seeding — the method of triggering rain by seeding clouds with salts — was considered to curb pollution in 2023 too but the plan did not materialise due to unfavourable weather conditions….

Doctors at private hospitals in Delhi and its suburbs said they had seen a spike in patients with respiratory illnesses… “We are seeing more patients due to pollution related flare up of asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and bronchitis. There is an approximately 20 per cent-30pc increase in patients,” said Prashant Saxena….At C K Birla Hospital in industrial hub Gurugram, doctors are seeing more than 50 patients with pulmonary complaints every day, some of whom also need hospitalisation…

Rising air pollution can cut the life expectancy of each person in South Asia by more than five years,…Swiss group IQAir rated Delhi the world’s second most polluted city on Tuesday, after Lahore in Pakistan, where authorities also took emergency measures following Sunday’s unprecedented pollution levels.

 

LU Staff

LU Staff

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