Air Pollution and Environmental Racism

One of last week's news stories really got us thinking. Climate Reporter Victoria Seabrook spoke to a researcher who had found that 70% more people died from COVID in areas with high level of pollution than the England average. That percentage is huge. We were stunned that this wasn’t more widely known and could see that the ramifications for environmental justice are huge. And this research is also timely -- in April this year, a coroner called for a change in the law, after a little 9 year old girl, Ella Adoo-Kissi-Debrah, who lived on one of the busiest roads in London -- died of air pollution—the first person to have that officially cited on her death certificate. So this week, Victoria and ClimateCast host Sam Washington dig deeper into the causes and effects of air pollution and how it amplifies not only the impact of COVID but social injustice too. They started by talking to Destiny Boka Betesa, who, when she’s not studying for her A levels, is lobbying those in power to make changes literally to the air we breathe. She’s one of the co-founders of Choked UP—the campaign group set up after Ella’s death. And we speak to David Carlin, programme lead for United Nations Environment Programme on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures and a columnist for Forbes, about the global impact of air pollution which is estimated to kill up to eight million people a year.