Increased air pollution could make global warming an even bigger killer.
A new study reveals that air pollution associated with elevated carbon dioxide levels is already responsible for around 22,000 deaths every year. When these are added to casualties from extreme weather events, it doubles the number of fatalities that can be linked to global warming.
Mark Jacobson at Stanford University in California modelled the effect of CO2 levels on air pollution and estimated the resulting impact on people’s health. A rise in CO2 increases the temperature and water vapour content of the atmosphere, which in…
