Air Pollution Truly a Human Disaster

摘要

The global toll from air pollution is worse than that from natural disasters, by more than an order of magnitude. Yet the policy response has been anything but rapid, and both are the cause of much human suffering. According to E&E News, almost one million people died from natural disasters around the world in the last decade, citing a U.N. International Strategy for Disaster Reduction study. Another report, cited by the New York Times, put the total of pre-mature mortality from outdoor air pollution at 1.2 million people in just one year in China alone. That represents 40 percent of the global total. The data came from the "Global Burden of Disease Study" and was supported by the work of several nongovernmental organizations and the state environmental ministry.