The negative impacts of climate change are almost always depicted on a global scale and decades-long timeframe. However, the positive impacts of reducing the use of fossil fuels are realized at the local level and almost immediately. The co-authors of the recently published paper, "Reductions in Premature Deaths from Heat and Particulate Matter Air Pollution in South Asia, China, and the United States Under Decarbonization", found that the near term health benefits of moving to a clean energy-fueled society far outweigh the costs of the clean energy transition, because death rates from air pollution and excessive heat are reduced drastically. How much and when those death rates depend on region-specific variables, but across the board, any country that decarbonizes will see both near term and long term benefits to the health of their citizens.
Dr. Drew Shindell, the Nicholas Professor of Earth Science at Duke University, joined The Climate Pod this week to discuss the paper that he co-wrote and other research he has done on methane and the co-benefits of transitioning our world beyond its current reliance on fossil fuels.
Follow Dr. Shindell's work here: https://nicholas.duke.edu/people/faculty/shindell
Read the paper here: https://www.pnas.org/doi/epdf/10.1073/pnas.2312832120
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