Cause of Death: Air Pollution

Climate One

News, Social Sciences, News Commentary, Science, Earth Sciences

4.7 • 583 Ratings

🗓️ 15 August 2025

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In 2013, 9-year-old Ella Roberta died from a severe asthma attack. She became the first person in the United Kingdom (and possibly the world) to have “air pollution” listed as the cause of death on her death certificate. Her mother, Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah, founded the Ella Roberta Foundation and has become a global voice for clean air. Globally, the World Health Organization says that air pollution is associated with 6 to 7 million premature deaths every year. Addressing the cause of these deaths would also go a long way to addressing climate disruption. And since talking about climate has become so politically fraught, should we reframe the conversation to focus on taking care of our air? Guests: Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah, Founder, Ella Roberta Foundation Sheila Watson, Deputy Director, FIA Foundation Susan Joy Hassol, Director, Climate Communication Highlights: (00:00) Intro (03:00) Rosamund shares details of Ella’s young life and her early asthma attacks (08:00) Ella becomes first person to have “air pollution” listed as cause of death (13:00) Rosamund’s work sharing Ella’s story and raising awareness about air pollution (20:30) How poisonous transportation emissions are and policy tools to reduce them (26:00) Economic development does not need to sit contrary to healthy air (27:00) Dieselgate and the work of the True Real Urban Emissions initiative (31:00) Extreme heat can make air pollution more deadly (37:00) Why we shouldn’t use the term "climate change” (43:00) Finding ways to connect with people on climate based on their priorities (49:00) How to convey the seriousness of climate threats while also empowering people to feel that they can make a difference (52:30) Climate One More Thing For show notes and related links, visit https://www.climateone.org/watch-and-listen/podcasts Support Climate One by going ad-free! By subscribing to Climate One on Patreon, you’ll receive exclusive access to all future episodes free of ads, opportunities to connect with fellow Climate One listeners, and access to the Climate One Discord. Sign up today. Ad sales by Multitude. Contact them for ad inquiries at multitude.productions/ads Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:28.8	to learn more. I'm Ariana Brocious and I'm Kushan Avidar. And this is Climate One.
0:43.3	Hey, Ariana, could we start today just by taking a deep breath? Sure.
0:44.3	Ready?
0:45.3	In?
0:46.3	It feels good.
0:51.3	Yeah, it does feel good, especially when you stop and think about it.
0:55.0	And what we're really talking about today is breathing. A lot of us do it without really thinking about what might be in the air we pull into our lungs.
1:03.0	It's kind of like climate. We may not think much about it until something significant happens, like flood or a wildfire.
1:10.0	Yeah, I see where you're going here. Both air pollution and climate disrupting emissions can be hard to visualize until the impacts become really apparent.
1:18.6	Exactly. And today we're going to be talking about the connection between air pollution and human-caused climate disruption. I think it's an important connection to make.
1:29.4	Air pollution from burning fossil fuels causes millions of premature deaths every year. So reducing
1:35.9	the amount of fossil fuel use wouldn't just make for a healthier climate. It would really
1:40.7	save millions of lives around the world. Yeah, it's also important to talk about air pollution because talking about climate disruption
1:47.6	has become so politically fraught.
1:50.0	But I think mostly everyone can agree that air pollution is something we should try to prevent.
1:55.1	I mean, we all want clean air.
1:57.3	Absolutely.
	...

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