The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
August 12, 2015
LTE written by Susan Berryman-Rodriguez, Project Director, Mothers & Others for Clean Air: American Lung Association
Make Health No. 1 Priority
I appreciate the AJC’s coverage of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan and the environmental impacts from climate change on our state. While this coverage is important to help Georgians understand what is at stake, you’ve left out a significant, compelling argument. The CPP will save lives and protect the health of Georgia residents.
Carbon pollution drives warmer temperatures and climate change, enhancing conditions for dangerous ground-level ozone formation and particle pollution. Both ozone and particle pollution can cause asthma attacks, breathing problems, and premature deaths. Particle pollution also causes heart attacks, strokes, and cancer.
The third National Climate Assessment demonstrates that climate change threatens public health not only through worsened air pollution, but also more frequent and intense wildfires, increased extreme weather events, and the spread of certain diseases.
The CPP, and other policies put in place to drive a cleaner energy sector, will reduce premature deaths from power plant emissions by nearly 90 percent in 2030 compared to 2005 and decrease the pollutants that can lead to more asthma attacks in kids by more than 70 percent.
If history is our guide, then we know that under the Clean Air Act, deadly pollution has been cut while the economy has grown. The EPA has done their job to protect public health, now its time for Georgia’s leaders to step up, stop making excuses and make our health its number one priority.
###
