Posted by: Josh Kalla in pollution, electric cars on
Jun 30, 2010
Conventional vehicles with their internal combustion engines are causing a public health crisis:
According to researchers at Tufts University, 40 million Americans, or 16 percent of households, live within 300 feet of a four-lane highway, railroad, or airport.- Researchers at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine found that "exposure to outdoor levels of nitrogen dioxide (N02) or other freeway-related pollutants was a significant risk factor for asthma."
- Researchers from the Department of Public Health and Community Medicine at Tufts University found that, "Traffic exposure at roadway volumes as low as 20,000-40,000 vehicles/day may increase cardiovascular disease risk through adverse effects on blood pressure and inflammation."
- According to a paper in the Journal of Epidemiology and Public Health conventional automobiles are the largest human-caused source of particulate matter pollution, which has been strongly associated with heart disease, cardiopulmonary disease, atherosclerosis development, cystic fibrosis, chronic lung disease, and some forms of cancer.
- In 1996, the Natural Resource Defense Council conducted an analysis of epidemiological studies and concluded that 64,000 people die annually from heart and lung disease attributable to particulate matter pollution. Nearly twice as many Americans die from particulate matter pollution than in automobile accidents.
Posted by: Ruth Patton in pollution on
May 13, 2010
Minnesota (and the Twin Cities area in particular) is teetering on the edge of unhealthy levels of several types of air pollution that have a direct impact on human and environmental health. But making a few small-and pretty painless-lifestyle changes can have a big effect. In fact, what you can do to improve local air quality is similar to the actions you're already taking to reduce global warming pollution...because clean energy is good for your health as well as the planet's. (Need help getting started? Check out our list of resources.)
Posted by: Ruth Patton in pollution on
May 13, 2010
Want more information on how to protect the air we breathe? Here's a list of resources-from bike routes to buying guides-that will keep you breathing easy. (You can track Minnesota's air quality by signing up to receive air quality alerts by email.)
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is currently in the midst of reevaluating its air quality standards for six major air pollutants that have direct impacts of human and environmental health. For most of the pollutants, this means that the EPA is tightening the standards in response to improved information about the health impacts of different types of pollution. The new standards - which started coming out in fall 2008 and will all be out by 2012 - could impact whether parts of Minnesota continue to meet (attain) the standards or fail and move into "nonattainment" status for one or more pollutants.
Yesterday, 13 U.S. Senators, including Al Franken from Minnesota, signed a letter to Senate Majority Leader Reid, urging him to ensure that legislation does not weaken the Environmental Protection Agency's authority to protect human health by regulating coal-fired power plants and other global warming polluters.
Efforts are afoot in Washington, DC - particularly in the U.S. Senate - that would dramatically impair national work under the Clean Air Act to reduce global warming pollution from cars and trucks and industry. Here's what's at stake: on April 2, 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court found that greenhouse gases are air pollutants covered by the Clean Air Act. In December 2009, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued findings that the greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming constitute a danger to public health and welfare here in the United States. Some of those human health impacts include mortality from more frequent and intense heat waves and degraded air quality that negatively impacts people with respiratory diseases and asthma. The worst of the health impacts are likely to be felt by the very young and older Americans - children and senior citizens - particularly in urban areas and among low income populations. The EPA findings are a crucial step in work to require reductions in global warming pollution.
One of our nation's most valuable environmental laws is under attack by members of the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives. Their target: the Clean Air Act. In 2009, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency determined, based on an in-depth scientific evidence, that global warming pollutants endanger human health and welfare, including right here in the United States. Some of our federal elected officials are working to overturn that scientific finding and prevent policy that should help us protect public health into a toothless law on the crucial issue of lowering global warming pollution.
Today we went to Tiritiri Matangi with our group of Midwest college students studying sustainability and policy in New Zealand. We hiked the trails (or tramped the tracks as Kiwis say) with a volunteer for the Supporters of Tiritiri Matangi, an island sanctuary that is an exemplar of a conservation and restoration project. Olga, a opthamology nurse in Auckland, was our guide. She spoke with great demonstrative gestures and a joie de vivre revealing a true excitement for the conservation efforts on the island. We saw New Zealand birds that were once well on their way to extinction and now were faring well. Tiritiri Matangi is small dot of land in the ocean, situated off the eastern coast of Auckland, NZ. It is one of the world's pioneering habitat restoration projects, with over 300,000 trees planted and several species of endangered birds re-introduced by hundreds of volunteers in partnership with the New Zealand Department of Conservation.
Seems everybody's trying to make a run for the border these days. With Latinos becoming the fastest-growing ethnic demographic in America, everyone wants them as customers, and yes, voters. Latinos (or Hispanics or Chicanos) are fiercely brand-loyal, credit averse, and proudly patriotic. If Latinos take up the cause of climate change and climate mitigation, they'll be formidable allies.
This afternoon, I participated in a conference call with Mary Nichols, head of the California Air Resources Board with clean cars advocates from around the country. She spoke for 20 minutes immediately before boarding her plane to Washington, D.C. for a huge victory announcement on clean cars with President Obama and Governor Schwarzenegger on Tuesday. With more details to come, the Obama Administration has brought together the auto companies and the states following California's lead to regulate global warming emissions from cars.
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