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Where does air pollution come from?

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Re: Where does air pollution come from?

#21

Post by jajko »

dyauspitr wrote: post #15
phtrivier wrote: post #11

What still baffles me is the reduction in SO2 emissions due to regulations on shipping fuel. How did the shipping industry accept / manage / afford to switch fuels (presumably, to more expensive ones) in order to follow the regulation ; as opposed to delay / deny / deflect, or plain old lobbying the hell against the changes ? Are we in a "Montreal protocol" situation, where the alternative was existing and acceptable…

Are we at the point where corporate adherence to laws is considered shocking?

Yes

Re: Where does air pollution come from?

#23

Post by NhanH »

rdtsc wrote: post #19

The deaths breakdown by region is interesting: Africa: 1.8M South America: 149k North America: 179k Australia: 4k Europe: 434k Asia: 6.3M I guess to keep it positive, I'd say "Great job, Australia"!

Asia has about 4.8B population, Australia has 26M. On a per capita basis Australia has about 1x% more deaths

Re: Where does air pollution come from?

#25

Post by TimByte »

alexmccain6 wrote: post #16

One of the most striking aspects of air pollution is how invisible yet pervasive its effects are. Unlike more immediate environmental disasters, air pollution slowly chips away at public health, reducing life expectancy and quality of life, often without dramatic headlines. The comparison to starvation as a "frailty multiplier" is an interesting one; pollution doesn’t always kill directly but makes people more suscep…

Also, the industry had a few years of lead time to prep, which probably helped avoid a full-blown logistical panic

Re: Where does air pollution come from?

#26

Post by brokegrammer »

NhanH wrote: post #23
rdtsc wrote: post #19

The deaths breakdown by region is interesting: Africa: 1.8M South America: 149k North America: 179k Australia: 4k Europe: 434k Asia: 6.3M I guess to keep it positive, I'd say "Great job, Australia"!

Asia has about 4.8B population, Australia has 26M. On a per capita basis Australia has about 1x% more deaths

My thoughts exactly. Africa and Asia see the highest numbers but this is proportional to the population count. Plus, countries in these regions have less advanced healthcare than in countries like Australia, but the latter still has a higher death rate. Quite mysterious.

Re: Where does air pollution come from?

#27

Post by defrost »

NhanH wrote: post #23
rdtsc wrote: post #19

The deaths breakdown by region is interesting: Africa: 1.8M South America: 149k North America: 179k Australia: 4k Europe: 434k Asia: 6.3M I guess to keep it positive, I'd say "Great job, Australia"!

Asia has about 4.8B population, Australia has 26M. On a per capita basis Australia has about 1x% more deaths

On a per capita basis, Australia has world class epidemiology, medical record keeping, and "no sparrow falls" cause of death certification . . .

This might be a case of a shortfall in record keeping and open reporting.

Re: Where does air pollution come from?

#28

Post by TimByte »

johnthesecure wrote: post #3

It's interesting to see the number of deaths caused by pollution. But everyone will die of something. Could it be that many of those people whose death was caused by pollution may have been frail and close to death anyway? I wonder if it would be more useful to talk about quality-life-years (QUALYs) lost as a result of pollution. Probably much harder to get that data though.

You're right, "everyone dies of something" is technically true, but the key issue with pollution isn’t just that it shortens life, it's how it does it. Chronic exposure doesn’t just tip over the already frail, it increases the burden of disease across the board

Re: Where does air pollution come from?

#29

Post by TimByte »

phtrivier wrote: post #11

What still baffles me is the reduction in SO2 emissions due to regulations on shipping fuel. How did the shipping industry accept / manage / afford to switch fuels (presumably, to more expensive ones) in order to follow the regulation ; as opposed to delay / deny / deflect, or plain old lobbying the hell against the changes ? Are we in a "Montreal protocol" situation, where the alternative was existing and acceptable…

And especially considering its usual resistance to change

Re: Where does air pollution come from?

#30

Post by Teever »

DeathArrow wrote: post #10
johnthesecure wrote: post #3

It's interesting to see the number of deaths caused by pollution. But everyone will die of something. Could it be that many of those people whose death was caused by pollution may have been frail and close to death anyway? I wonder if it would be more useful to talk about quality-life-years (QUALYs) lost as a result of pollution. Probably much harder to get that data though.

>It's interesting to see the number of deaths caused by pollution. But everyone will die of something. People can die because they don't have access to energy or agricultural products. I wonder what would be the word population now had we not used fire, coal oil, haf we not grew rice and cereals, had we not raised cows and sheep.

A more important question is what would the world look like if we didn't waste resources[0].

Some would consider raising cows and sheep to be bad idea too, given how inefficient it is in terms of input resources for output calories -- not to mention it has very detrimental effects on ecosystems.

[0] https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/27/climate/un-food-waste-one-bil...

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