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Reaction Paper On Air Pollution and Climate Change As A Global Health Issue

Climate change and air pollution are interrelated problems that are damaging human health on a global scale. The emission of greenhouse gases from human activities, such as the burning of fossil fuels, is increasing Earth's temperature and causing more air pollution. Air pollution directly harms human respiratory health, while climate change indirectly impacts health through effects on food and water. According to the WHO, air pollution causes approximately 7 million premature deaths annually, with children being the most vulnerable. Reducing emissions of carbon dioxide alone will not solve the problems of climate change and air pollution; emissions of other pollutants like methane and black carbon must also be decreased to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement and protect public health.

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255 views

Reaction Paper On Air Pollution and Climate Change As A Global Health Issue

Climate change and air pollution are interrelated problems that are damaging human health on a global scale. The emission of greenhouse gases from human activities, such as the burning of fossil fuels, is increasing Earth's temperature and causing more air pollution. Air pollution directly harms human respiratory health, while climate change indirectly impacts health through effects on food and water. According to the WHO, air pollution causes approximately 7 million premature deaths annually, with children being the most vulnerable. Reducing emissions of carbon dioxide alone will not solve the problems of climate change and air pollution; emissions of other pollutants like methane and black carbon must also be decreased to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement and protect public health.

Uploaded by

anne marie
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Reaction Paper on Air Pollution and Climate Change as a Global Health Issue

Climate change and air pollution are problems related to each other. The excessive
emission of carbon dioxide by humans’ daily activities and the extraction and burning of fossil
fuel, increase the greenhouse gasses effects that unceasingly adds to the rising of Earth’s
temperature. The rise in Earth’s temperature is what causes global warming, which is the cause
of the change on the Earth’s climate. Humans’ daily activities does not only heat up the world
but also contribute to air pollution.
Air pollution doesn’t only donate to global warming but also directly affects the health
of a lot of people, especially those living in urban areas where air pollution is prevalent. On the
other hand climate change has a more indirect effect on health, in terms of its impact on the food
and water that people consume.
One of the key points mentioned in the article is that, how air pollution is a health risk
worldwide and a “silent public health emergency” as addressed by the WHO Director General
Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. In the 2018 WHO first Global Conference on Air Pollution
and Health, it was stated that roughly seven million premature deaths transpire annually because
of the effects of air pollution and also one of the causes of respiratory illness in which children
are the most vulnerable.
Another key point made in the article is that, carbon dioxide and the burning and
extraction of fossil fuels are not the only sole contributor to air pollution and climate change.
Other air pollutants such as the short-lived climate-forcing pollutants (SLCPs) which includes,
methane, black carbon, ground-level ozone, and sulfate aerosols also adds to the pollution of the
air. Out of all of these air pollutants, methane and black carbon are the ones that impost the most
harmful risks to health and methane more specifically, is the precursor of ground-level ozone,
which causes asthma and other respiratory diseases. Moreover methane and black carbon come
after carbon dioxide in adding to the continuously rising temperature of the Earth.
The last key point made was the Paris Agreement that aims to lessen climate change and
air pollution and their effects by rapidly cutting down the emission of carbon dioxide and
limiting warming to 1.5 or 2 degrees Celsius. It was also emphasized that reducing the emission
of carbon dioxide will not suffice in itself in reducing climate change and air pollutions. To be
able to reach the goal of the Paris Agreement, carbon dioxide and other air pollutants, especially
methane and black carbon should be reduce together and to ensure that the technologies
promoted to be climate-friendly do not emit more carbon dioxide than the ones replaced.
Normally when we hear about air pollution and climate change we think of them as only
affecting our environment. What we don’t realize, is that all the negative effects of these
phenomena all comes down to destroy our health. This is mainly because we don’t see the
damage immediately and directly. Continuous intake of polluted air causes respiratory illnesses
overtime. Climate change driven by global warming which is caused by air pollution destroys
our environment, which is what we depend on to continue to live. It also opens our eyes on how
serious of a problem air pollution and climate change are, causing the loss of millions of lives.
The sad reality is that we aren’t even fully aware that we are their driving force. Our daily
activities that makes our lives convenient in return are slowly destroying our environment, which
is crucial for our health. What’s even sadder is that what we do isn’t something we can just
put to a complete halt. An example is our dependency on our appliances that runs on electricity
which causes greenhouse gasses emission. The vehicles on land, water, and air that emit tons of
carbon dioxide are our means of transportation which keep our modern daily needs moving. The
ongoing emission of methane from our food waste is also something that we cannot help.
Modern industrialisation which supports our society emits harmful air pollutants more potent
than CO2 is another thing that just can be stop. If this continues to happen, living in a world
where breathing is as if doing suicide for the air is poison, is going to come sooner than anyone
is expecting.
In this age and time, it is hard to imagine living a life that isn’t instant. The technologies
and new innovations are just too convenient to use for us to refuse them. The best that we can do,
to help our situation is to make the reduction of all these harmful gasses a global policy. It is a
fact that this kind of policy is going to be hard to implement and follow, but seeing the situation
we are in now, it is the only way to buy us time before this hits its worst peak. To be honest,
from a personal perspective, I don’t our situation is going to get better. If we can send an
aircraft to space and build skyscrapers, surely we can invent new technologies that will be
efficient to support our needs and are eco-friendly enough, for the next few generations to live
with adequate clean air.

Reference: https://www.iass-potsdam.de/en/output/dossiers/air-pollution-and-climate-change

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