Posts tagged with 'air quality'
What Could Be: A 2030 Retrospective on Urban Mobility After COVID-19
What Could Be: A 2030 Retrospective on Urban Mobility After COVID-19
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? ...
Insights from Big Data on How COVID-19 Is Changing Society
Insights from Big Data on How COVID-19 Is Changing Society
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 ...
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 ...
3 Ways California Is Taking a Pro-Equity Approach to Electric Vehicles
3 Ways California Is Taking a Pro-Equity Approach to Electric Vehicles
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 ...
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 ...
What’s in a Question? Finding Innovative Solutions for Air Pollution
What’s in a Question? Finding Innovative Solutions for Air Pollution
UPDATE, 9/7/2020: Vote now! Help us decide which questions should be prioritized to advance the study of air quality by voting on the 10 finalist questions from The GovLab and WRI now. We know that air pollution is a big problem – ...
Heat + Emissions = Dangerous Urban Air Quality
Heat + Emissions = Dangerous Urban Air Quality
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 ...
5 Under-Recognized Impacts of Air Pollution
5 Under-Recognized Impacts of Air Pollution
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 ...
PODCAST: The Political Economy of Air Quality with Jessica Seddon
PODCAST: The Political Economy of Air Quality with Jessica Seddon
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 ...
Achieving Clean Air in Cities
Achieving Clean Air in Cities
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 ...
Here’s What Smoke from California’s Wildfires Looks Like from Space
Here’s What Smoke from California’s Wildfires Looks Like from Space
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 ...
6 Ways to Move the Global Air Quality Movement Forward in Cities
6 Ways to Move the Global Air Quality Movement Forward in Cities
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 ...
Curbing Climate Change and Preventing Deaths from Air Pollution Go Hand-in-Hand
Curbing Climate Change and Preventing Deaths from Air Pollution Go Hand-in-Hand
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 ...
Independence Haze: Data Shows Air Pollution Spikes from July 4th Fireworks
Independence Haze: Data Shows Air Pollution Spikes from July 4th Fireworks
Fireworks, block parties and barbeques: Those are the first things that come to mind when the 4th of July rolls around. But what’s least talked about is the quality of breathable air on the nation’s birthday. Data shows that levels of fine ...
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