Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- List of Tables
- List of Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Summaries
- Chapter 1 Air Pollution: Global Damage Costs from 1900 to 2050
- Chapter 2 Armed Conflicts: The Economic Welfare Costs of Conflict
- Chapter 3 Climate Change: The Economic Impact of Climate Change in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries
- Chapter 4 Ecosystems and Biodiversity: Economic Loss of Ecosystem Services from 1900 to 2050
- Chapter 5 Education: The Income and Equity Loss of not Having a Faster Rate of Human Capital Accumulation
- Chapter 6 Gender Inequality: A Key Global Challenge – Reducing Losses due to Gender Inequality
- Chapter 7 Human Health: The Twentieth-Century Transformation of Human Health – Its Magnitude and Value
- Chapter 8 Malnutrition: Global Economic Losses Attributable to Malnutrition 1900–2000 and Projections to 2050
- Chapter 9 Trade Barriers: Costing Global Trade Barriers, 1900 to 2050
- Chapter 10 Water and Sanitation: Economic Losses from Poor Water and Sanitation – Past, Present, and Future
- Index
Summaries
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2014
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- List of Tables
- List of Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Summaries
- Chapter 1 Air Pollution: Global Damage Costs from 1900 to 2050
- Chapter 2 Armed Conflicts: The Economic Welfare Costs of Conflict
- Chapter 3 Climate Change: The Economic Impact of Climate Change in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries
- Chapter 4 Ecosystems and Biodiversity: Economic Loss of Ecosystem Services from 1900 to 2050
- Chapter 5 Education: The Income and Equity Loss of not Having a Faster Rate of Human Capital Accumulation
- Chapter 6 Gender Inequality: A Key Global Challenge – Reducing Losses due to Gender Inequality
- Chapter 7 Human Health: The Twentieth-Century Transformation of Human Health – Its Magnitude and Value
- Chapter 8 Malnutrition: Global Economic Losses Attributable to Malnutrition 1900–2000 and Projections to 2050
- Chapter 9 Trade Barriers: Costing Global Trade Barriers, 1900 to 2050
- Chapter 10 Water and Sanitation: Economic Losses from Poor Water and Sanitation – Past, Present, and Future
- Index
Summary
Introduction
This chapter considers only air pollution of anthropogenic origin, since natural pollution events tend to be localized and relatively unimportant over the timescale covered. Indoor pollution can be traced back to the early use of fire for cooking and heating, and became an increasing problem as large-scale settlements developed. In present-day developing countries, the percentage of households burning solid fuels indoors ranges from 16% in Latin America and the Caribbean up to 77% in Africa. Man-made outdoor air pollution, on the other hand, only began to be a significant health issue with the Industrial Revolution in the eighteenth century.
Primary pollutants such as carbon monoxide or sulfur dioxide are released directly from engines or processes; ozone and particulate matter are among secondary pollutants formed by the reaction of primary pollutants. Polluted air can have direct impacts (on health, materials, and ecosystems) or less direct ones such as the formation of “acid rain” from sulfur dioxide, or population relocation. The major indirect effect of air pollution is the warming of the Earth’s atmosphere by greenhouse gases emitted when fossil fuels are burned. This is included in another chapter in this Copenhagen Consensus project.
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- How Much Have Global Problems Cost the World?A Scorecard from 1900 to 2050, pp. 26 - 69Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2013