Air pollution affects life expectancy worse than smoking, terrorism

The effect of pollution on life expectancy in India is worse than that of HIV/AIDS, cigarette smoking, and even terrorism, according to a study which found that Indians would live 4.3 years longer if the country met the WHO guidelines.

According to the new Air Quality Life Index (AQLI), developed by researchers at University of Chicago in the US, particulate air pollution cuts global average life expectancy by 1.8 years per person.

The AQLI reveals that India and China, which make up 36 per cent of the world's population, account for 73 per cent of all years of life lost due to particulate pollution.

On average, people in India would live 4.3 years longer if the country met the WHO guideline -- expanding the average life expectancy at birth there from 69 to 73 years.

Extreme heat increasing in both summer and winter

The new study found both relative and absolute extreme heat events have increased across the US and Canada since 1980. This upward trend is greatest across the southern US, especially in the Ozarks and southern Arizona, as well as northern Quebec. That means there are more extremely hot days during the summer as well as more days that are considered extremely hot for the time of year, like abnormally warm days in the winter.

The new research also found both relative and absolute extreme cold events are decreasing, most notably in Alaska and Northern Canada, along with patches along the US Atlantic coast. In these areas, there are fewer instances of temperatures that are extremely cold either compared to the normal range, like in winter, or for the time of year, like unusually cold days in the summer.

Global mean surface temperature, the most frequently cited indicator of climate change, has been steadily increasing since the 1970s.

2°C rise ‘disastrous’ for poor

The 24th Conference of Parties (CoP) at Katowice, Poland, on climate change from December 2 to 14 will indicate whether or not the Paris Agreement (which entered into force in November 2016) will be relevant.

This was one of the key takeaways of a media briefing on climate change organised by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) here last week. The Paris Agreement prescribes an overarching temperature goal — to keep the increase in global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C.

The IPCC’s Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C establishes that the world has already warmed by 1°C since pre-industrial levels. Some regions have warmed even more. India, for instance, has warmed by about 1.2°C between 1901 and 2017, according to CSE research,

The impact at 2°C will be far higher than at 1.5°C and will be catastrophic for the poor and the vulnerable communities. This makes 2°C an anti-poor target.