Our planet, our selves

Curbing greenhouse gas emissions will improve people’s health as well as slow
global warming. Researchers report in Science that cutting pollution in
New York, Mexico City, Santiago and São Paulo will avoid some 64,000
premature deaths and 65,000 cases of chronic bronchitis by 2020. The researchers
looked at the effects of using less-polluting fuels, reducing levels of harmful
particulates from power stations and reducing traffic by 30 per cent. “These are
existing technologies that could be purchased tomorrow,” says Devra Lee Davis of
Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.