Why ‘Carbon Emissions’ Are Now ‘Climate Pollution’

Images of billowing smokestacks are conjured up by the term "climate pollution". More Americans are starting to understand that the climate crisis requires big-picture solutions from governments and corporations. To solve it, you need to solve it for everyone, that is what it shows.

It was one of the earliest signs that public health was important in framing climate action. Polluting companies were worried that green groups would highlight how harmful greenhouse gas emissions are.

The Global Climate Coalition, a group of corporations working to stop environmental regulations, expressed concerns to their board when research showed that a hotter planet would be hospitable to mosquitoes. According to the coalition's annual report from 1995, environmental organizations' activities suggest their strategy is shifting to one of focusing on a purported increase in the spread of dangerous and lethal diseases. This could have a big impact on the region.

The early climate movement was unwilling to include public health in its plans to tackle global warming. The push for tackling air pollution and climate change was led by people living in polluted areas of California. The same smokestacks that were emitting carbon emissions into the atmosphere were also emitting pollutants that harmed their families' health more directly. It would be better to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and clean up air at the same time.

Local air quality was deprioritized when California began to develop climate legislation. According to Michael Méndez, a professor of environmental policy at UC Irvine who wrote the book Climate Change From the Streets: How Conflict and Collaboration Strengthen, the state began to divert staff, time, resources, money, and grants away from local pollution.

Activists fought to get policymakers to address air pollution and climate change. Many officials and economists don't want to combine the issues.

At an environmental law conference in California, a panel commented on developing cap-and-trade programs. The challenge of global warming was so great that it should be the sole focus of policies according to Dan Skopec. He said that using the umbrella of global warming to satisfy other agendas would distract from the solution. I hope that we can all focus on the problem of reducing greenhouse gases and not try to solve everyone else's unsolvable problems in other areas.

The phrase "climate pollution" was popularized by environmental justice activists in California. He recalls talking to a legislative advocate for the California Chamber of Commerce who was uneasy about lumping all types of pollution together.