ENERGY AND AIR TOXICS PAGE

The effects related to world population and energy growth, global warming , ozone layer degradation, worldwide mercury pollution have been documented to the growing and causing widespread adverse effects costing billions of dollars already and predicted to grow rapidly in the near future. World energy and coal use have been growing rapidly as population growth has also led to falling water tables, deforestation, desertification, droughts, increased dust storms, coral reef and fisheries declines, etc.

The average temperature of the last decade has been much higher than any previous recorded period; glaciers are melting at unprecedented rates all over the world; ice sheets in Antarctica and the Arctic are melting, and sea level is rising. Stronger storms and more serious droughts are doing damage to property and crops at levels never seen before, and tropical diseases are spreading northward into areas of the U.S. that have never had them before. Likewise the ozone hole over Antarctic is causing serious problems in the southern hemisphere and ozone layer is declining and ultraviolet exposure increasing in the northern hemisphere as well.

The problems and widespread adverse health effects related to acid pollutants and toxic metals are also widespread and growing. Papers here document both the adverse effects and estimates of the economic costs of acid pollutants and mercury or toxic metals.

There is also a paper on the adverse health effects of radiation, which causes DNA damage, cancer and birth defects.