Global Scans · Pollution · Weekly Summary

• [New] In the United States, air pollution is at the lowest levels in decades, but even just a year living in an area with high levels of pollution can have a big impact on a person's risk for developing Alzheimer's disease. ScienceDaily
• [New] Experts rank pollution as the No. 1 global risk ten years from now. ISHN
• [New] The federal government's announcement to pause the EV mandate is a missed opportunity to reiterate the clear benefits of good climate policy, like the Electric Vehicle Availability Standard, to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and protect Canada's economic competitiveness. vancouversun
• [New] Amid worsening air pollution, the Iranian regime's reliance on burning mazut fuel in power plants has created a public health and environmental disaster, endangering millions of citizens. NCRI
• [New] The cost of living crisis is being made worse by governments failing to introduce policies to cut climate pollution, and by polluters (aka fossil fuel companies and agribusiness) buying politicians and threatening any campaigners like Greenpeace who oppose them. Greenpeace Aotearoa
• [New] Because the Earth's climate is so complex, running a state-of-the-art climate model to predict how pollution levels will impact environmental factors like temperature can take weeks on the world's most powerful supercomputers. MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• [New] The true success of addressing plastic pollution in South Africa will depend on independent science that validates the effects of microbeads (and microplastics) on the environment, economy, health and society. The Conversation
• [New] Delhi will witness its first cloud-seeding trial in the first two weeks of September in a bid to trigger artificial rain and reduce air pollution levels. India Today
• [New] The Trump administration's plan to undo a landmark finding that climate pollution threatens public health and welfare poses lots of risks for corporate America. NPR
• [New] Today the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed new rulemaking to dismantle the Endangerment Finding, the foundational scientific determination that greenhouse gas pollution from gas-powered vehicles, power plants, and oil and gas operations, endanger public health and the environment. Earthjustice
• [New] Incidents of hot weather are only going to become more frequent in the UK, making it even more critical to crack down on human-driven VOC emissions to limit ozone pollution. The Conversation
• [New] On the technology side, MIT is testing an AI tool that can predict floods before storms strike, while UC Berkeley is developing a material to trap carbon pollution from factories, which was once thought to be too hot to capture. Yahoo News
• [New] A case in point is the electrification of school buses in the U.S., which is projected to generate $1.6 billion in annual health benefits by reducing pollution in vulnerable communities. Ainvest
• [New] Seagrass has the potential to be one of the world's most effective sponges at soaking up and storing carbon, but we do not yet know how nutrient pollution affects its ability to sequester carbon. ScienceDaily
• [New] PM2.5 pollution remains a major global health risk, causing millions of premature deaths annually. World Meteorological Organization
• [New] The rapid expansion of nickel extraction in the Philippines has sparked concerns over deforestation, water pollution, and the disruption of the local community's livelihood. ASEAN Climate Change and Energy Project (ACCEPT)
• [New] The vehicles standards were projected to reduce planet-warming emissions by more than seven billion tons over the next three decades, and the power plant carbon pollution standards were projected to limit emissions by 1.38 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide through 2047. Scientific American
• [New] IPM increases biodiversity on farms while reducing pollution risks-making it a favorite of sustainable agriculture in 2025. Farmonaut
• [New] With high levels of heat-trapping pollution, future summer high temperatures in U.S. cities would heat up by an average of 3.6 °F by 2060 and 7.9 °F by 2100. LiveNOW from FOX
• Researchers at Caltech and the University of California, Riverside, project that the public health burden of AI-related pollution will exceed that from automobile and steelmaking by the end of the decade. Public Health Communications Collaborative
• A new preprint study driving conversation online estimates that by 2030, excess air pollution caused by artificial intelligence could cause up to 1,300 premature deaths a year in the United States alone. Public Health Communications Collaborative

Last updated: 15 September 2025