On Thin Ice: How Cutting Pollution Can Slow Warming and Save Lives, 2013.
A Joint Report of The World Bank and The International Cryosphere Climate Initiative
Excerpts – This report is about how climate change is affecting the cryosphere—those snow-capped mountain ranges, brilliant glaciers, and vast permafrost regions on which all of us depend. It lays out 14 specific measures we could take by 2030 to reduce short-lived climate pollutants and slow the melting of ice and snow that must stay frozen to keep oceans and global temperatures from rising even faster. Action to stabilize the cryosphere will also save lives now. By mitigating short-lived climate pollutants such as black carbon and methane, we will improve health in thousands of communities, many of them in the developing world.
If we quickly scale up just four cleaner cooking solutions, for example, we could save one million human lives every year. That is one-quarter of the mostly women and children who die from exposure from indoor and outdoor cooking smoke annually. The benefits would multiply because, with cleaner air, cities become more productive, child health improves, and more food can be grown. All the while, we would reduce the warming impact that black carbon from these cookstoves has on polar and mountain regions, especially in the Himalayas.
The modeling in this report shows a special need to focus more urgently on cookstove pollution.
