US carbon pollution from power plants hits 27-year low

[pwjohn]

A big factor was the long-term shift from coal to cleaner and cheaper natural gas, said Energy Department economist Allen McFarland. Outside experts also credit more renewable fuel use and energy effi

US carbon pollution from power plants hits 27-year low - Yahoo News

 

[waltky]

New, low-cost pollution monitoring tool...

Cheap Pollution Monitor Aims to Help World’s Cities
September 09, 2015 — A new, low-cost tool backed by the United Nations may help developing-world cities control pollution that kills millions each year.

A toxic haze shrouds the Nairobi skyline. Buses spew out gray clouds of diesel exhaust at every stoplight. The city’s notorious traffic jams add dangerous gases and particles to the air. The pollution is a direct threat to Tabitha Wangeci’s health. She is dealing with asthma in one of the city’s “informal settlements,” a polite word for slums. With the little money she makes selling charcoal, she can’t always afford her asthma medication. “My chest is always blocked, like my ribs are dried up,” she said. “I run out of oxygen, then I start breathing heavily.”

Pollution problem

She’s far from alone. “Many Nairobi residents are exposed on a regular basis to air pollution with potentially serious long-term implications,” said Kenyan environment secretary Judi Wakhungu at a recent U.N. Environment Program press conference. For a quarter century, lung specialist Dr. Ndambuki Mboloi has been seeing patients at Kenyatta National Hospital. A World Asthma Day certificate of appreciation hangs on the wall in his cramped office. Mboloi says the toxic haze that shrouds Nairobi raises rates of asthma, heart disease, lung disease and airway infections. “Judging by the number of patients that we see who present with respiratory problems, it may be getting worse,” he said.

Buses and other vehicles are the top source of pollution in Nairobi.

Information gap

Outdoor air pollution kills an estimated 3.7 million people per year around the world, according to the World Health Organization. But in Nairobi, as in much of the developing world, there is little information on exactly how bad the problem is - which actually creates problems of its own. For example, Nairobi’s air pollution law “focuses a lot on limiting emissions from industries, while the number-one polluters are actually vehicles, waste burning and indoor air pollution,” said UNEP atmospheric chemist George Mwaniki. “The lack of data is contributing to policies that really do not address the problem,” he added.

New tool

But UNEP hopes to change that, with the help of a new air quality monitor that measures levels of most major pollutants for about one one-hundredth of the cost of the standard equipment. “The technology we’re launching... is a way to measure that very accurately and very cheaply,” said UNEP chief scientist Jacqueline McGlade. McGlade said cities can build an effective network of monitors at a price they can afford. Policymakers can identify the sources of pollution and target policies accordingly. Blueprints for the monitors will be available for free. Environment secretary Wakhungu said it could be manufactured locally, helping Kenya develop its technology industry. “Information isn’t enough, but it’s enough to allow people to act,” McGlade said.

Cheap Pollution Monitor Aims to Help World’s Cities

 

[Mr. H.]

Obama is a lost soul in a sea of complexity.

He is a ruinous lunatic.

A semi-Negro Marxist Liberal Socialist Gay married to an Hermaphrodite.

 

[waltky]

Granny says, "Dat's right - lil' kids gonna start droppin' like flies `cause o' pollution...

UNICEF: 1 in 7 of World's Children Exposed to Toxic Air Pollution
October 31, 2016 - One in seven of the world's children is exposed to pollution levels six or more times higher than international standards set by the World Health Organization, according to a new report by UNICEF. The report was released a week ahead of the United Nations Climate Change conference in Marrakech.

"Air pollution is a major contributing factor in the deaths of around 600,000 children under five every year," says UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake, "and it threatens the lives and futures of millions more every day."

Haze hangs over Mexico City. Some two billion children live in regions where outdoor air pollution exceeds WHO's minimum air quality guidelines.​

Some two billion children live in regions where outdoor air pollution exceeds WHO's minimum air quality guidelines, with 620 million of those children living in South Asia, followed by 520 million children in Africa, and 450 million children in the East Asia and Pacific region. UNICEF says young children are particularly susceptible to indoor and outdoor air pollution because their lungs, brains and immune systems are still developing and their respiratory tracts are more permeable.

Around 2 billion children live in areas where outdoor air pollution exceeds international limits.​

UNICEF says it will ask the countries attending the climate change conference to take "four urgent steps" to protect children from air pollution:

Those steps are:

1. adopt measures to reduce pollution;

2. increase children's access to healthcare;

3. minimize children's exposure to pollution; and

4. establish better monitoring of air pollution.

Lake said "We protect our children when we protect the quality of our air. Both are central to our future."

UNICEF: 1 in 7 of World's Children Exposed to Toxic Air Pollution

 

[pwjohn]

600,000 kids a year according to some.