When we think about the climate crisis our minds often, quite rightly, go to how greenhouse gas emissions are causing the global temperature to rise, causing catastrophic storms, floods, fires, and hunger. What we sometimes forget is that burning fossil fuels is the primary cause of global air pollution and its horrendous effects on health and mortality.

In 2021 more than 8 million deaths worldwide were attributed to air pollution. That’s roughly one out of every 8 deaths caused by air pollution. New studies show that about 61% of these are attributable to pollution caused by fossil fuels. That means that air pollution from fossil fuels kills 5 million people a year globally. Of course the number of people suffering from asthma and other respiratory diseases caused by air pollution is much greater than that.

In the United States, air quality has improved significantly since 1990 and deaths attributable to air pollution have dropped proportionally. However more than 63,000 deaths per year in the U.S. are still attributable to air pollution, with fossil fuels being the leading cause. Obviously, phasing out fossil fuels completely would result in a major decrease in air pollution mortality and illness, both globally and in the U.S.

I was prompted to look at this topic by a new report about how effective the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been during the Biden-Harris administration. The report also looks at what the effects would be of a Trump victory in the upcoming election and the implementation of Project 2025.

When Trump was President, he put lobbyists for polluting industries in charge of the EPA and they spent four years undoing regulations and making the agency more polluter friendly. The Biden-Harris administration choose scientists and environmentalists and they have spent 2021 - 2024 “refocusing the agency on its mission of protecting public health and the environment,” according to Jeremy Symons, a former EPA employee.

Apparently, they have done a remarkable job. The Environmental Protection Network, is a non-profit driven by 650 volunteers, many retired, who used to work at the EPA. The Network just issued a report based on a lot of careful research. They examined “16 major air pollution rules that the EPA has updated under the Biden-Harris administration, including standards that reduce pollution from smokestacks, tailpipes, and oil and gas operations.” What they found is “jaw-dropping.”

Air pollution standards finalized in the last three years, will save over 200,000 lives and prevent more than 100 million asthma attacks by 2050.

There’s a lot of talk from the right-wing about how much regulations cost our economy and our country. I don’t know if they are ever correct about that, but they are certainly incorrect here. The evidence is that the net benefits resulting from these air pollution standards will be $250 billion per year. (I had to go back and make sure I read that correctly, but yes, the net benefit will be $250 billion annually.) The benefits will outweigh the cost of compliance by a ratio of six to one.

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The benefits come from avoided health care bills, reduced damages from climate change, students able to attend school, and workers able to work without being debilitated by pollution-induced illnesses. That’s in addition to the benefits to families of not losing loved ones to unnecessary death or suffering from asthma attacks.

All this is particularly relevant in the midst of this presidential election. Project 2025, the MAGA Republican road map to how Trump and his administration will govern if elected, has a whole chapter on the EPA. It makes it clear that a new Trump administration would put political loyalists committed to gutting the EPA’s ability to protect people’s health and the environment in charge of the agency. Project 2025 would eliminate the EPA departments in charge of enforcement and environmental justice. Scientific findings would be censored by political operatives. The beneficial regulations described above would almost certainly disappear.

As Jeremy Symons writes, “By putting polluters in control of our air and water instead of EPA scientists, Project 2025 would put millions of Americans needlessly at risk of asthma attacks, cancer, lung disease, and heart disease. That’s bad news for anyone who breathes.

Last month some colleagues and I wrote in the Gazette about Valley Green Energy, the new group electricity purchasing program for Amherst, Northampton, and Pelham residents and businesses. The program provides more stable electricity prices and more green energy. It’s prices are also lower than current Eversource and National Grid prices. If you have not received a letter in the mail about this program, I strongly encourage you to go online to valleygreenenergy.org and enroll in the program.

Russ Vernon-Jones of Amherst is a member of the Steering Committee of Climate Action Now (CAN). The views expressed here are his own. His column appears in the Gazette on the third Friday of each month. He blogs regularly on climate justice at http://www.russvernonjones.org and can be reached there.