Boffins say ‘Alzheimer’s linked to air pollution’
[was] recouped in respect of claims received from 12 impacted local authorities.”
“It’s not an insignificant sum,” added Prof Thorne.
The 2023 European State of the Climate report highlighted how greenhouse gases were at their highest ever level last year.
Prof Thorne says: “They are going to continue rising until we reach net-zero emissions... but we’re not going to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions for at least a decade and a half or two decades at the very best case.
“The trouble is that politicians...in liberal democracies care about getting re-elected and many of the things we need to do will not be inherently popular, they do not fundamentally improve people’s lives and livelihoods.
“Although very many of the actions do, and in the long term there will be benefits.
“But the transition will be challenging... and politicians love to shy away from challenging things.
“It’s someone else’s problem... the next government’s problem, not our problem – which sadly doesn’t play ball with [the climate crisis].”
Professor Thorne says the State needs to “remove fossil fuel subsidies which, crazily, we still have” and also “crack” socially desirable alternatives to “things that use fossil fuels”.
If we do nothing, Prof Thorne warns, 2023’s storms, rainfall and heatwaves “will look like a cool and relatively non-extreme year in our rearview mirror”.
PEOPLE exposed to higher levels of air pollution are more likely to show signs of Alzheimer’s disease in their brain, according to a new study.
Scientists examined the brains of 224 people who agreed to donate their bodies to furthering dementia research.
The team from Emory University in the US studied measures of Alzheimer’s in brains the number of amyloid plaques and tau tangles - and compared this to traffic-related air pollution exposure.
They discovered that those who had higher levels of air pollution exposure before death - which for this group, happened at an average age of 76 - had higher levels of amyloid plaques in their brains.
Plaque
Results showed that people who had 1 g/m3 higher PM2.5 exposure in the year before death were nearly twice as likely to have higher levels of plaques.
Those with 1 g/m3 higher PM2.5 exposure in the three years before death were nearly nine times (87 per cent) more likely to have higher levels of plaques.
Study author Dr Anke Huels said: “These results add to the evidence that fine particulate matter from traffic-related air pollution affects the amount of amyloid plaque in the brain.”