Clean air is critical for life.� Every person on the planet breathes, on average, 12,870 liters of air each day.� Even small amounts of pollution can make that air unhealthy to breathe.� Those most vulnerable to air pollution include babies and children, who are particularly susceptible because their respiratory systems are not yet fully developed.� Other sensitive groups include the elderly and people who suffer from heart and respiratory disease.� Air pollution can affect people directly � through breathing unhealthy air � and indirectly � by damaging the environment in which they live.� Polluted air can have a series of direct and indirect effects on the environment, including impacts on vegetation and man-made materials, acidification and eutrophication of ecosystems, degradation of visibility, and important effects on climate.�
In Asia and the western Pacific regions alone, air pollution is estimated to be responsible for a million advanced deaths each year.� The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that one billion people across the globe are exposed to outdoor air pollution that exceeds recommended health-based air quality levels.� Worldwide, air pollution causes tens of millions of respiratory and other illnesses, severely affecting quality of life, and reducing economic activity.� Although air pollution has a significant impact on all people exposed, the poor are particularly at risk, having fewer opportunities to avoid exposure to damaging pollutants.� In this way, air pollution contributes significantly to the downward cycle of poverty around the world.�
Pollutants such as particulate matter (PM) and ozone contribute to rising �background levels� (general level of air quality before adding pollution from local sources) and �atmospheric brown clouds� (haze comprised of many pollutants that can be transported far beyond their source region) in various parts of the globe.� They also contribute to what has been called the �greying� of the northern hemisphere.� They not only increase health damage to crowded urban populations, but damage the ecosystems which help underpin sustainable development.� In rural areas, significant crop damage from the pollutant ozone has been observed in Asia and throughout various parts of the world. Acidification of ecosystems from long-range transboundary air pollution remains a threat in areas with significant emissions from the burning of fossil fuels, particularly in East Asia.�
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Answer:
The main offenders in terms of greenhouse gas emissions are the buildings we live in and the buildings we work in.
Explanation:
Greenhouse emissions are drastically blamed on transportation because the link is obvious and immediate however the main offenders in terms of greenhouse gas emissions are actually the buildings where we live and work. New buildings in major U.S. cities nowadays must be self-sustainable to some degree.
