pollution

The number one advantage of solar (and batteries, and wind) over fossil fuels, especially in 2026, is the reduction in greenhouse gasses. That’s probably advantage number two, and three, four, and five, to be honest. Climate change is a catastrophe, and it’s happening right now. The sooner we stop adding CO2 (and methane, etc.) to the atmosphere, the better.

But that huge imperative can overshadow other vital improvements to our lives that will come via the clean energy transition. A big one is eliminating the plain ol' air pollution caused by burning the fuels of the past. Particulates, soot, toxic who-knows-what; all that shit. All the electricity that comes from coal plants, all the road miles powered by internal combustion engines, and all the buildings heated by gas furnaces - they’re literally killing us.

According to the latest State of Global Air report, nearly 8 million deaths in 2023 were attributed to air pollution. Eight million people! And that’s per year!

The report goes on:

More than 90% of air pollution deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries. Countries in South Asia and most of Africa see the double burden from both outdoor and household air pollution. Death rates in these regions are often 8-10 times higher than high-income countries.

When considering diseases, the differences are similarly large. Globally, air pollution contributes to 25% of deaths due to ischemic heart disease. In most of Africa and South Asia, this number can be as high as 35% while in high-income countries, only about 7% of heart disease deaths are due to air pollution.

So congratulations to me, and probably you, for being lucky enough to live in a “high-income country” like the US. But don’t take too much comfort from that “only” number; seven percent is still a lot! It could be less than that! It could be zero! All we have to do is stop unnecessarily burning shit to power our lives.

It’s not just heart disease, either.

Exposure to air pollution has been linked with neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia. In 2023, more than 600,000 dementia deaths and 11.6 million healthy years of life lost were attributable to air pollution, with 92% of deaths occurring amongst older people (70+ years).

To repeat that: more than half a million people died of dementia in 2023 because of air pollution. Next time the monster in the White House includes the phrase “beautiful clean coal” in one of his own demented rants, think of the people in your life suffering from or already lost to afflictions like these.

So, as with climate change, there’s a clear moral distinction here. Species shouldn’t be driven to extinction, and millions of people shouldn’t be displaced due to the rapidly changing climate; likewise, people shouldn’t have to die of heart disease or dementia so that we can run our heat and A/C, drive around, and simply live our lives. That’s just wrong.

Yet there’s another argument we can use, when we must: the old, dirty ways of powering our lives are also more expensive. Relocating people displaced from flooded coastal areas will be hella expensive. Property insurance is already hella expensive (where you can still get coverage, that is) and getting more so. And we all know how expensive medical care is, with prices that will only continue to balloon.

Which brings me to this study that shows that, in the big picture, replacing dirty fuels with solar power actually saves real money in areas apart from direct power generation (emphasis mine):

The research team analyzed data from between 2014 and 2022, focusing on community health, air quality levels, the climate, and economic impact. They found that solar panels prevented 595 premature deaths that would typically be caused by poor air quality that stems from fossil fuels. When looking at 2020 in particular , the research team found that the monetary benefits were worth about half the cost of the solar panels themselves.

Put that in your payback-period pipe and smoke it! (Don’t, actually; it would only create more air pollution.)

The research team went a step further in evaluating the impact of solar panels on adjoining states, not just the states within the U.S. that imported the panels. There was a spread in the benefits, meaning that the entire region benefitted from the cleaner air because of the way air travels across the country. In the same way air pollution from wildfire smoke or power plants can move across state and country lines, so can cleaner air.

A key point of this study is that importing solar panels – even from big bad scary China – is even more worthwhile than it looks at first, but trade restrictions and a domestic solar industry are topics for another post.

That aside, the sad reality is that many of the organizations making decisions about clean power won’t even think about these impacts. Pollution is the textbook example of an “externality”, after all. The board of BigPowerCo, deciding between yet another dirty, old-fashioned gas-powered “peaker” plant, versus meeting the same demand with solar (and batteries, and wind), won’t weigh how many grandmas and grandpas will or won’t live to meet all their grandkids.

But they should consider that. Companies killing people (and the climate) by burning fossil fuels have gotten away without accounting for their externalities for a really, really long time. There are better choices, now. They’ve even become less expensive! There’s no excuse anymore.