scientists have warned that the earth’s climate is close to reaching a tipping point known as the point of no return. in an interconnected climate system, passing one tipping point could trigger a flood of irreversible changes. if global temperatures rise past 1.5 degrees celsius, ice sheets could collapse entirely, leading to even higher sea levels. as the sea ice melts and mixes into warming oceans, which store massive amounts of carbon dioxide, the gas from deeper waters will be released. this chain reaction will create an enduring cycle of global warming. 

not only are anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions causing us to near the climate tipping point, but the united nations has reported that climate change exacerbates inequality. this disparity is caused by the three factors of increased exposure of disadvantaged groups to the effects of climate change, increased susceptibility to damage, and decreased ability to cope and recover. advantaged groups that are the most prepared for climate disasters are often the ones who live in safer areas or have the ability to move and rebuild their lives after a disaster hits. for them, the threat may not seem real. 

even amid the massive california wildfires, residents were not affected equally. as the sky turned an apocalyptic red, celebrities were criticized for hiring private firms to supplement state and local firefighters to protect their homes. meanwhile, housekeepers and gardeners continued to go to work in these homes out of fear of losing their jobs or because no one had bothered to notify them of evacuation orders. for some, the wildfires are a looming threat of losing everything they’ve worked for. others watch the destruction from the safety of their second homes. 

while the nation is busy debating whether climate change is real, a false dichotomy exists between climate change and equality. climate change is interwoven with racial injustice, gender inequality, and poverty, among other issues. these are not separate issues for policymakers to prioritize, one over the other. by creating awareness for the interconnectivity between the united states’ most pressing problems, people might be able to understand that climate change is tangible. if the nation cannot move past the argument of what is true and what is false, we are already past the point of no return. 

to overcome this argument, we need to believe in science. this may seem simple, but how many modern scientists have household names in the united states? scientists have become faceless in our society due to a lack of adequate communication between scientists and the public. the american media has a duty to become better equipped with reporting scientific news by listening to scientists and translating their quantitative findings into a language that can be consumed and understood by the general public. the pew research center has found that public trust in the government has hit record lows. if the media practiced science reporting that did not get entangled with american politics, trust in science and trust in the government could be renewed. 

in an electoral year, people voted based on the partisan issues they stand for and against. unless we can urgently return climate change to its status as a bipartisan issue, the conversations surrounding taxes, gun laws, or abortion rights won’t matter anymore.

researchers mengyao li, susana ferreria, and travis smith examined data between 1993 and 2010 on temperature and on self-reported mental health obtained from a state based health survey system under the center for disease control and prevention. cooler days were found to reduce the probability of reporting bad mental health days whereas hotter days, mostly after ten consecutive days, increased this probability. the probability of frequent mental distress (more than 14 days of bad mental health for the past month) was even higher during these hotter days. 

three years prior to these findings, a study published in environmental health perspectives concluded that exposure to air pollution was also related to poor mental health. long-term exposure to particulate matter (pm 2.5) was associated with depression and anxiety, and short-term exposure to pm 2.5 was associated with suicide. pm 2.5 are fine inhalable particles that can be emitted directly from sources, such as construction sites and unpaved roads, or through complex chemical reactions of pollutants emitted from power plants and automobiles. 

the release of new research on temperature and mental health is a concerning addition to the psychological health effects humans could face from air pollution. understanding these implications, li and the other researchers suggested future studies examine how community-level factors impact the mental effects of climate change. 

“i think it’s necessary to know how community-level factors like neighborhood environment, social cohesion, and also individual adaptation actions like use of air conditioning or migration, whether those things would help mitigate the effect of temperature on individual mental health,” li said. 

at local levels, air pollution is often worse in lower income areas, where industrial facilities or highways serve as point sources, increasing exposure. speaking on both temperature and air pollution, li said, “the two factors combined together would pose extra pressure on people that have more exposure in those communities.”

as poorer and less developed communities will ultimately bear the mental burdens of increased air pollution combined with hotter days, it is clear that climate change is not the great equalizer. this health disparity will grow as increased temperatures will only exacerbate the mental health decline of exposed communities. 

at a local level, air pollution varies throughout the district of columbia and is generally higher in the seventh and eight wards which are historically low-income and often minority neighborhoods. this inequality is left unaddressed because the environmental protection agency aggregates air quality data from their six high-cost monitoring stations, labeling the district with the same pollution levels despite drastic differences between communities.

fresh air d.c., a student-run and community focused research project about air quality at george washington university, seeks to create the first and only community level network of low-cost air quality monitors. these monitors would serve to fill the gaps in pollution level data throughout the district’s wards. aitana mendiguren, a student working on community outreach for the project, said, “we mainly want to educate and empower community members of wards seven and eight who are exposed to higher local levels of air pollution. using our sensors they will be able to actually monitor their community-levels with real data.”

while fresh air d.c. stresses the physical health effects of air pollution, the recently discovered associations between mental health and global warming only further support the necessity for their efforts. “people living in these wards need the hands-on tools to understand how their health is a risk,” mediguren said. 

at harvard university’s t.h. chan school of public health, researchers analyzed data on pm 2.5 levels and covid-19 deaths. this extensive information came from 3,000 u.s. counties, including up to 98% of the u.s. population, and covered data through april 4. researchers found a 15% higher covid-19 death rate in counties that averaged one microgram per cubic meter more of pm 2.5 in the air.

as the world faces a respiratory virus, it is important to understand that our lungs might not be as strong as we think.

fine particulate matter are tiny chemical particles or droplets in the air that are two and one-half micrometers or less in width. human visibility is limited to particles larger than 40 micrometers. this matter exists in materials like organic dust, airborne bacteria, construction dust, and coal particles from power plants. 

when inhaled, particulate matter carries toxic chemicals into the respiratory tract, and accumulates in the lungs while also damaging other parts of the body, according to a 2016 study published in the journal of thoracic disease.

kelly jones, a registered nurse with a doctorate in nursing science, is an expert at the national socio-environmental synthesis center researching the effects of neighborhood conditions related to health outcomes. she describes the human lungs as branch-like structures with built-in mechanisms to keep out foreign invaders. the larger particles are subjected to our bodies’ natural defenses such as coughing and sneezing.

meanwhile, “these tiny tiny little particles, especially the 2.5 particles, make it all the way down into the lungs, lining the tissue and blocking the ability for gas exchange and lung movement,” jones said. ultrafine particles, 0.1 micrometer or less, can mimic oxygen molecules, entering into our bloodstream. the chemical reactive compounds found in ultrafine particles then impair the contraction of blood vessels causing clotting.

outside of cities, large amounts of fine particulate matter exist in certain desert conditions such as the sahara. “as far as man-made particles that we could actually control, definitely in urban spaces in more densely populated areas, there’s going to be more particulate matter overall. but with the exception that there are some natural systems where there is also fine matter,” said jones.  

it’s especially hard to imagine your lungs being coated with fine grains of sand in the sahara desert.  

beth gardiner, journalist and the author of the book “choked: life and breath in the age of air pollution” said, “we know that air pollution is contributing to greatly increased rates of a whole long list of health problems from heart attacks and strokes to all kinds of respiratory problems, many types of cancer, dementia, alzheimer’s, parkinson’s disease, diabetes, the list just goes on and on.”

the harvard paper estimated if manhattan lowered its average particulate matter levels by only one microgram per cubic meter over the past 20 years, the area would likely have had 248 fewer outbreak deaths by early april. the researchers of the study wrote, “results underscore the importance of continuing to enforce existing air pollution regulations to protect human health both during and after the covid-19 crisis.”

a later study published in the journal science of the total environment examined the relationship between long-term exposure to nitrogen dioxide, a chemical found in pm 2.5, and coronavirus fatalities. mapping the distribution of nitrogen dioxide across regions in italy, spain, france, and germany, scientist yaron ogden compared pollution levels to regional covid-19 mortalities. ogden’s results indicated that 78% of coronavirus fatalities were located in the five regions with the highest nitrogen dioxide concentrations. 

supporting harvard’s findings, this research stated, “long-term exposure to this pollutant may be one of the most important contributors to fatality caused by the covid-19 virus in these regions and maybe across the whole world.”

the center for disease control and prevention released new data on racial disparities in coronavirus deaths noting much higher mortalities in black communities compared to states as a whole. at local levels, air pollution is often worse in lower-income areas, where industrial facilities or highways serve as point sources, increasing exposure. 

“it’s quite likely that air pollution exposure plays a role,” gardiner said, “because we know that because of structural racism, environmental racism, and the way pollution facilities get cited, and housing systems work, we know that african americans are exposed to much higher levels of air pollution than white americans.”