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Environment

Pollution kills nine million people each year and sickens many more, mostly in poorer nations. The global health effects of climate change are not well quantified today and are likely to increase in the future, with lower-income countries again bearing the brunt of greater food insecurity, increased rates of chronic respiratory illnesses, and shifts in vector-borne diseases. This section explores the global health nexus between climate change and pollution and the possibilities for a more coherent policy approach to these issues.

Environment

$5.7

Health costs from ambient air pollution, trillions

Health costs from ambient air pollution, trillions Health costs from ambient air pollution, trillions

9M

Premature deaths caused by pollution, in 2015

Premature deaths caused by pollution, in 2015 Premature deaths caused by pollution, in 2015

8

Of the hottest years on record were in last decade

Of the hottest years on record were in last decade Of the hottest years on record were in last decade

118.4

Temperature (°F) in New Delhi amid 2019 heat wave

Temperature (°F) in New Delhi amid 2019 heat wave Temperature (°F) in New Delhi amid 2019 heat wave

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Environment
Factories emit smoke in Jilin province, China, across the Songhua River from where an elderly man exercises on the morning of Feb 24, 2013, after Chinese authorities announced plans to curb pollution. The photo shows the man in the foreground, back to the camera, with buildings on the other side of the river pouring out smoke. REUTERS/Stringer

What to do About Type 2
by Katherine Leach-Kemon, Theo Vos - February 4, 2020

Aging, obesity, and poor diet are driving the diabetes epidemic worldwide—and so is air pollution

Environment
Parched land is pictured around the Lake Wegnia, in Sahel region of Koulikoro, Mali on November 22, 2019. Picture Shows a lonely tree, small and scrubby with many of its branches dead. It’s in a dry gully with a few other green scrubby bushes scattered in the frame—but mostly nothing but dry yellow dirt and sand everywhere the eye can see off into the distance. REUTERS/Arouna Sissoko

Weathering the Sahel

by Natalie M. Cormier

The overuse of land packs a punch that promises to get worse over time

Environment
A weather vane is pictured on a ranch during the Creek Fire in the San Fernando Valley north of Los Angeles, in Sylmar, California on December 5, 2017. Picture shows a thin metal toy-like vain with a plane, and arrow and a “NESW” directional indicator silhouetted against a burning fire. REUTERS/Jonathan Alcorn

Wildfires, Air Quality, and the Risk of Lung Diseases

by Christopher Troeger

Respiratory diseases caused by invisible "PM2.5" particles released by wildfires are a significant health risk to people

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Kidney disease increases are concentrated among farm workers in hot, humid conditions, including sugarcane fields in Central America, similar to this one in Jacarezinho, Brazil on January 1, 2019. Picture is taken at the edge of a field on a sugar plantation on a spectacularly clear day. The earth is brown, the growing canes are green, and the deep blue sky has little fluffy clouds rolling in. REUTERS/Marcelo Texeira
Environment

Climate Change, the Kidney Killer

by ​​​​​​​Alton Lu

Is chronic kidney disease the canary in the coal mine in terms of feeling the health impacts of climate change?

Attitudes toward leprosy are represented in this watercolor commissioned by Henry S. Wellcome around 1912 from Richard Cooper, a graphic artist known for his advertisements for the London Underground. Painting shows people scrambling to get away from a leper who strolls by, ringing a bell. In their haste, the crowd has left an infant on the roadside. CC-BY 4.0 from Wellcome Collection.
Environment

“Less a Leper Than I Have Been”

by Christopher Lee Manes

Book of documentary poetry recalls Louisiana's Carville Hospital and early 20th century experience of leprosy in America

Factories emit smoke in Jilin province, China, across the Songhua River from where an elderly man exercises on the morning of Feb 24, 2013, after Chinese authorities announced plans to curb pollution. The photo shows the man in the foreground, back to the camera, with buildings on the other side of the river pouring out smoke. REUTERS/Stringer
Environment

What to do About Type 2

by Katherine Leach-Kemon, Theo Vos

Aging, obesity, and poor diet are driving the diabetes epidemic worldwide—and so is air pollution