Climate Change - Who Cares?

I think it's about time I wrote something of my own. Here goes.

Let us, for the moment, put aside any prejudices or arguments related to climate change and look at a different benefit of reducing global GHG emissions. Plain and simple - Neither I, nor many of my peers, want to grow up in a world that is being destroyed by pollution itself. Worldwide there are approximately 2.4 million deaths from causes that are directly attributable to air pollution. Of these, 1.5 million are due to indoor air pollution. That leaves 900,000 people a year actually dying of air pollution in the environment¹.

In addition to these deaths, there are of course non-lethal effects of pollution. One of the major diseases related to this sort of thing is chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Following the Great Smog of 1952 in London, during which huge amounts of built up pollutants hung over London, a study compared 293 London residents with 477 residents of Gloucester, Peterborough, and Norwich. The study showed that Londoners had much more severe respiratory symptoms of COPD and reduced lung function. It concluded that the most likely reason for this was the increased amount of pollution in London².

If these health related reasons aren't enough to convince you, there are economic reasons as well. A 2005 scientific study for the British Columbia Lung Association showed that a 1% improvement in ambient PM2.5 and ozone concentrations will produce a $29 million in annual savings in the region in 2010^{3, 4}.

The point I'm trying to make here is that there are no bad consequences to developing green technologies. Some of them will likely even pay for themselves over time, and continue to provide profits afterwards. Please, don't make an argument over global warming a reason for not cleaning up our atmosphere. CO₂ is a pollutant, and it is up to us to reduce its presence in the atmosphere to more sustainable levels. If you support nothing else, at least support these efforts in Copenhagen.


Sources:
1. Estimated deaths & DALYs attributable to selected environmental risk factors, by WHO Member State, 2002
2. Holland WW, Reid DD. The urban factor in chronic bronchitis. Lancet. 1965;I:445-448.
3. Quoted from Wikipedia
4. 2005 BC Lung Association report on the valuation of health impacts from air quality in the Lower Fraser Valley airshed