DoomsdaysCW<p>We can't breathe</p><p>The Invisible <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/ClimateChange" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>ClimateChange</span></a> Effect That Is Most Likely to Kill You</p><p><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/AirPollution" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>AirPollution</span></a> is less dramatic than floods or storms, less inconvenient, and much harder to politicize. It’s also much more deadly.</p><p>Liza Featherstone, August 1, 2025</p><p>Excerpt: "In <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/NewYorkCity" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>NewYorkCity</span></a>, I’m lucky enough to enjoy better air quality than many other places. We are only the fiftieth most <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/polluted" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>polluted</span></a> city in the world, way behind <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Chicago" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Chicago</span></a>, <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Dubai" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Dubai</span></a>, <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Jakarta" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Jakarta</span></a>, <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Delhi" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Delhi</span></a>, and numerous (enormously populous) cities in <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/China" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>China</span></a>. But for a few days early this week, it was hard to breathe and our phones were buzzing with alerts warning that the most vulnerable—the very young and the very old, and those with poor respiratory health—should stay indoors, due to smoke from Canadian wildfires. But the elderly, the asthmatic, and the babies weren’t the only ones feeling it; my son, a college soccer player, got headaches training outside, as did his friends—all fellow rain-or-shine athletes. Yet for the most part, the problem has gone unremarked.</p><p>"Compared to a flood, a fire, or a heat wave, a bad <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/AirQualityAlert" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>AirQualityAlert</span></a> isn’t that inconvenient even when it’s happening. You can still go to work and otherwise go about your day. If you own property, it won’t be damaged. And because <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/AirPollution" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>AirPollution</span></a> lacks visuals, it doesn’t lend itself to morbid <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/doomscrolling" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>doomscrolling</span></a> or panicked media coverage.</p><p>"Yet compared to floods, fires, and heat waves, bad air is much more deadly. In fact, the danger is barely even comparable. The World Health Organization estimates that air pollution kills about seven million people every year. The direct death toll from heat waves is under half a million, although that’s getting worse. The number of people who die in floods annually is in the thousands, and the direct death toll from wildfires is much smaller than that, though these threats are also getting worse. "</p><p><a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/198675/bad-air-quality-deadliest-effect-climate-change?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">newrepublic.com/article/198675</span><span class="invisible">/bad-air-quality-deadliest-effect-climate-change?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us</span></a> </p><p><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/AirQualityAlert" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>AirQualityAlert</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/AirQuality" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>AirQuality</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/AirQualityIndex" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>AirQualityIndex</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/AQI" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>AQI</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/AirPollution" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>AirPollution</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/AirIsLife" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>AirIsLife</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/ParticulatePollution" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>ParticulatePollution</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/ParticlePollution" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>ParticlePollution</span></a></p>