Why Is Air Pollution So Harmful? DNA May Hold the Answer

The threat of air pollution grabs our attention when we see it — for example, the tendrils of smoke of Australian brush fires, now visible from space, or the poisonous soup of smog that descends on cities like New Delhi in the winter.

A fire burned in Bargo, Australia, about 90
miles southwest of Sydney in December.

But polluted air also harms billions of people on a continuing basis. Outdoors, we breathe in toxins delivered by car traffic, coal-fired plants and oil refineries. Indoor fires for heat and cooking taint the air for billions of people in poor countries. Over a billion people add toxins to their lungs by smoking cigarettes — and more recently, by vaping. 

Ninety-two percent of the world’s people live in places where fine particulate matter — the very small particles most dangerous to human tissues — exceeds the World Health Organization’s guideline for healthy air. Air pollution and tobacco together are responsible for up to 20 million premature deaths each year.

Airborne toxins damage us in a staggering number of ways. Along with well-established links to lung cancer and heart disease, researchers are now finding new connections to disorders such as diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease.

Read the story from The New York Times by Carl Zimmer - “Why Is Air Pollution So Harmful? DNA May Hold the Answer.”

Bushfire incidence in Australia is on the rise.

Bushfire incidence in Australia is on the rise.

The number of bushfires in Australia is on the rise - up 40 per cent since 2007 - local scientists have found.

In a new research paper, published on Wednesday in the journal Royal Society Open Science, scientists from CSIRO and University of Tasmania also say the increasing bushfire frequency indicates a major climatic shift - though the research does not directly ascribe the rise to human-caused global warming.

The research team studied NASA satellite data from 2007 to 2013 to determine the number of bushfires, to try and develop a system to forecast where they might breakout.

Read Tom Arup’s story in today’s Melbourne Age - “Australian bushfires on the rise, new research finds.”

Bushfires arrive earlier, are more intense and cause more trouble

A

ustralian bushfires are arriving earlier in the season, more frequent, more intense and more troubling, reflecting what is happening in other parts of the world.

Author Kyle Dickman has written about why, in America wildfire seasons are so bad and getting worse in, “On the Burning Edge”.

Wildfires in the U.S. have been growing more severe, more costly and more frequent over the past half century.

Dickman writes that mismanagement, suppressing natural fires and allowing forests to grow dense, as well as encroaching development have led to worse fires, with climate change providing even more fuel.

With longer periods of drought and hotter temperatures wicking moisture from the forests, much of the West is a tinderbox. Research shows conditions will continue to worsen as the planet continues to warm.

Read The Inside Climate News interview with Dickman - “The Deadlier Scourge of Wildfires in an Age of Climate Change”.