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Columbia team organizes available scientific evidence on the effects of air pollution on children’s health

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Researchers at Columbia University, with colleagues at Boston University and Abt Associates, have identified concentration-response (C-R) functions for a number of adverse health outcomes in children associated with air pollutants largely from fossil fuel combustion. A paper on their work is published in journal Environmental Research.

Pollution 247
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Study associates long-term exposure to air pollution with increasing emphysema

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Long-term exposure to ambient air pollutants, especially O 3 (ozone), is significantly associated with increasing emphysema, according to a new study led by the University of Washington, Columbia University and the University at Buffalo. Ground-level ozone is mostly produced when ultraviolet light reacts with pollutants from fossil fuels.

Pollution 223
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Cutting Non-CO2 Pollutants Can Delay Abrupt Climate Change; The Fast Action Climate Agenda

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Noting the references in scientific and policy literature to the need for fast-action mitigation to help avoid DAI and abrupt climate changes, the authors define “fast-action” to include regulatory measures that can begin within 2–3 years, be substantially implemented in 5–10 years, and produce a climate response within decades.

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Study projects thermoelectric power in Europe and US vulnerable to climate change due to lower summer river flows and higher river water temperatures

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Projected changes in summer mean usable capacity of power plants in the US and Europe for the SRES A2 emissions scenario for the 2040s (2031–2060) relative to the control period (1971–2000). A study published in Nature Climate Change suggests that thermoelectric power plants (i.e., Source: van Vliet et al.

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Black carbon is a much larger cause of climate change than previously assessed; about twice previous estimates, and 2/3 the effect of CO2

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Accounting for all of the ways black carbon can affect climate, it is believed to have a warming effect of about 1.1 Emission rates of BC in the year 2000 by region, indicating major source categories in each region. Black carbon aerosol plays a unique and important role in Earth’s climate system. Source: Bond et al.

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Latest GHG Inventory shows California remains below 2020 emissions target; much steeper rate of GHG reductions required

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The data shows a slight increase in overall emissions from the previous year, and a slight decline in emissions from transportation, which is the state’s main source of both GHGs and air pollutants. CARB has approved additional measures to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases from super pollutants that must also be reduced significantly.

2020 221
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California Air Resources Board posts revised draft of strategy to reduce “Super Pollutants”

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The California Air Resources Board (CARB) has posted a revised draft of California’s proposed Short-Lived Climate Pollutant (SLCP) Strategy. SLCPs are a category of pollutants which remain in the atmosphere for a relatively brief period, but have global warming potentials that are much higher than those of CO 2.

Pollution 150