Rising public awareness
Climate Strikes, radical activism, public opinion, TV & film and social media all demonstrate feelings of impotence and anger at the slow speed of change. For many citizens, it’s personal because they are concerned for their own health. Pollution from coal-fired power-stations and car exhaust pollution – is literally killing people.
Health problems linked to coal power
Air pollution from coal-fired power plants is linked with asthma, cancer, heart and lung ailments, neurological problems, acid rain, global warming, and other severe environmental and public health impacts, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists.
China suffers ‘airpocalypse’
In 2012, more than 1 million people reportedly died from air pollution in China. When a thick smog gripped the country in January 2013, the air pollution was so bad it was called an “airpocalypse”.
The impact of deteriorating air quality
Arvind Kumar, a chest surgeon at New Delhi’s Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, has a ringside view of the toll that northern India’s deteriorating air quality is taking on its residents. When he started practicing 30 years ago, some 80 to 90% of his lung cancer patients were smokers. But in the past six years, half of Dr Kumar’s lung cancer patients have been non-smokers.
Citizens bear the impact
To Dr Kumar, the dramatic shift in the profiles of lung cancer patients has a clear cause: air fouled by dirty diesel exhaust fumes, construction dust, rising industrial emissions and crop burning, which has created heavy loads of harmful pollutants in the air.
Citizens back the clean-energy transition
Air quality is one of the biggest drivers of cultural urgency to make the transition to clean energy. Citizens around the world are embracing renewables as a route to clean air and tackling climate change. Countless public surveys show strong backing for a rapid shift to renewables and opposition to fossil fuels.