Urgent action needed to stop terrifying rise in air pollution, warns OECD
Source: The Guardian
Urgent action needed to stop terrifying rise in air pollution, warns OECD
Toxic air set to cause as many as 9 million premature deaths a year
around the world in the next four decades, with economic costs rising
to trillions a year
Fiona Harvey Environment correspondent
Thursday 9 June 2016 16.56 BST
Air pollution is becoming a “terrifying” problem around the globe, one of the world’s leading economic organisations has warned, and will get much worse in the coming decades if urgent steps are not taken to control the pollution.
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said on Thursday that pollution of our air from industry, agriculture and transport was set to cause as many as 9 million premature deaths a year around the world in the next four decades, and the economic costs are likely to rise to about $2.6 tn (£1.8tn) a year over the same period.
“The number of lives cut short by air pollution is already terrible and the potential rise in the next few decades is terrifying,” said Simon Upton, environment director for the organisation. “There will also be a heavy economic cost to not taking action. We must prevent these projections from becoming reality.”
India and China are likely to suffer the most, but the problem is increasing in many developing countries, where economic growth is lifting people out of poverty but where regulations on emissions have lagged behind. In developed countries, the problem is seen as likely to stabilise, though still with a high number of illnesses.
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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jun/09/urgent-action-needed-to-stop-terrifying-rise-in-air-pollution-warns-oecd
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... at least *someone* is doing their bit to keep the population down ...
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