Welcome to the fifth annual celebration of Climate Action Day! We are excited about what’s in store for us this year and we are grateful for your engagement with the day.
All students are required to register for and attend Climate Action Day on Friday, April 26. You must register for the Opening Assembly Keynote Address ANDeither one (1) all day workshopOR two (2) short workshops: one Featured and one Student Choice.
Air pollution is the single most important environmental health risk factor, killing millions of people every year worldwide. But what are the main pollutants to be concerned about, and how do they hurt us? What are the main sources of pollution, and how can we reduce it? Do people breathe the same air across the world, or even across the United States?
This workshop will be a primer on air pollution: sources, effects and controls, and the grand challenge air pollution poses for all of us in the 21st Century. This is a big, exciting, and important problem, affecting human health and environmental justice. In fact, as our recent work has shown, in the United States a major class of pollutants is disproportionately inhaled by black and Hispanic Americans, even though it is disproportionately caused by the white/other racial-ethnic majority. The solutions to air pollution will depend on involvement from those in the physical, social, environmental and health sciences, not to mention engineers, lawyers, policy makers, businesses, and activists. Expect to leave with some surprising facts from the emerging scientific literature about air pollution; some understanding about what laws are in place for cleaning the air in the United States; and some actionable knowledge about how to find out about air quality in your area.
