[MCN] Confirmed, again: Wildfire smoke during COVID-19 is risk to health and lives

[Lance Olsen]

News Release 21-Apr-2020
Nearly half of US breathing unhealthy air; record-breaking air pollution in nine cities
AMERICAN LUNG ASSOCIATION
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the impact of air pollution on lung health is of heightened concern. A new report from the American Lung Association finds nearly half of the nation's population -- 150 million people -- lived with and breathed polluted air, placing their health and lives at risk. The 21st annual 'State of the Air' report finds that climate change continues to make air pollution worse, with many western communities again experiencing record-breaking spikes in particle pollution due to wildfires.

 <https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-04/ala-nho041720.php>Full release https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-04/ala-nho041720.php <https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-04/ala-nho041720.php>
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Greta Thunberg boils the basics down to just 5 words: “… and it will get worse”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhQVustYV24 <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhQVustYV24>


She knows it will get worse because climate scientists had made the same point; e.g., ….


Camilo Mora: “ ….  our choices for deadly heat are now between more of it or a lot more of it.”
https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/abs/10.1161/circoutcomes.117.004233 <https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/abs/10.1161/circoutcomes.117.004233>

Michael Mann: ““A new normal makes it sound like we have arrived in a new position, and that's where we're going to be. But if we continue to burn fossil fuels ... we are going to ... get worse and worse droughts, and heat waves, and super storms, and floods, and wildfires.”
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/climate-change-is-making-wildfires-more-extreme-heres-how <https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/climate-change-is-making-wildfires-more-extreme-heres-how>

Kate Marvel: “The whole idea that everything’s going to work out isn’t really helpful because it isn’t going to work out ” said Kate Marvel a climate scientist at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. Climate change is going to worsen to a point where millions of lives, homes, and species are put at risk she said. 
https://newrepublic.com/article/151608/case-against-climate-pessimism <https://newrepublic.com/article/151608/case-against-climate-pessimism>

My own view: <<https://mountainjournal.org/why-rising-temps-mean-the-end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it>>

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