TY - JOUR
T1 - Global distribution and coincidence of pollution, climate impacts, and health risk in the Anthropocene
AU - Marcantonio, Richard
AU - Javeline, Debra
AU - Field, Sean
AU - Fuentes, Agustin
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Marcantonio et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
PY - 2021/7
Y1 - 2021/7
N2 - Previous research demonstrates that low-income countries face higher risks than highincome countries from toxic pollution and climate change. However, the relationship between these two risks is little explored or tested, and efforts to address the risks are often independent and uncoordinated. We argue that the global risks from toxic pollution and climate change are highly correlated and should be jointly analyzed in order to inform and better target efforts to reduce or mitigate both risks. We provide such analysis for 176 countries and found a strong (rs = -0.798;95%CI -0.852, -0.727) and significant (p<0.0001) relationship between the distribution of climate risk and toxic pollution. We also found that inequities in pollution production, economic status, and institutional readiness are interconnected and exacerbate risk for countries already in the highest risk categories for both toxic and nontoxic (greenhouse gas) pollution. The findings have policy implications, including the use of the proposed Target assessment to decide where best to address toxic and non-toxic pollution simultaneously, based on the need to minimize human suffering and maximize return on effort.
AB - Previous research demonstrates that low-income countries face higher risks than highincome countries from toxic pollution and climate change. However, the relationship between these two risks is little explored or tested, and efforts to address the risks are often independent and uncoordinated. We argue that the global risks from toxic pollution and climate change are highly correlated and should be jointly analyzed in order to inform and better target efforts to reduce or mitigate both risks. We provide such analysis for 176 countries and found a strong (rs = -0.798;95%CI -0.852, -0.727) and significant (p<0.0001) relationship between the distribution of climate risk and toxic pollution. We also found that inequities in pollution production, economic status, and institutional readiness are interconnected and exacerbate risk for countries already in the highest risk categories for both toxic and nontoxic (greenhouse gas) pollution. The findings have policy implications, including the use of the proposed Target assessment to decide where best to address toxic and non-toxic pollution simultaneously, based on the need to minimize human suffering and maximize return on effort.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85110970541&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85110970541&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0254060
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0254060
M3 - Article
C2 - 34288922
AN - SCOPUS:85110970541
SN - 1932-6203
VL - 16
JO - PloS one
JF - PloS one
IS - July
M1 - e0254060
ER -