Millions of people die every year because of air pollution, which is why health groups and protesters want things to change.
Seven million people die every year because of things that are caused by air pollution. On the other hand, not many people are aware of how air pollution actually hurts health. A lot of groups are trying to get money to help clean up the air because it’s very bad for people’s health. At the Energy Policy Institute, Christa Hasenkopf is in charge of clean air projects. She hopes to put together a budget to help solve this problem. She said that health problems caused by air pollution are like those caused by HIV/AIDS, TB, and Malaria.
A lot of health problems, like heart disease, lung disease, cancer, and even pneumonia, are made worse by dirty air. Sunil Dahiya, a South Asian scientist at the Energy and Clean Air Research Center, spoke out: “It’s a slow poison; you slowly move toward death, and because this pandemic has been so slow, we have not been able to respond to it the way we should have.”
They say that less than 1% of “international development finance and philanthropic funding” is used to clean up the air.
Sean Maguire, director of strategic partnerships at the Clear Air Fund, said, “No one is saying stop funding work on tuberculosis and malaria and start funding work on air pollution instead. What we are saying is that if you deal with air pollution, you’ll reduce a lot of non-communicable diseases.”
There are many thoughts and points of view that have been put forward about how to fight air pollution, but some people are still not on board. Deputy director of the Center for Global Development Peter Baker is one of them. He said, “That it would be hard for a single global fund to manage.”
The group keeps moving forward in the hopes of getting the money they need to fight air pollution, which they call a “silent killer.”