Air pollution remains America's biggest public health problem. If you want to argue that proposition, please read first a new study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Here is the link:
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2013/study-air-pollution-causes-200000-early-deaths-each-year-in-the-us-0829.html.
The MIT study finds that air pollution causes 200,000 premature deaths per year in the USA. The biggest source of early death is pollution caused by burning diesel. MIT says this diesel pollution causes 53,000 deaths per year.
Power plant pollution from mainly coal-fired power plants causes the second largest amount of early deaths: 52,000.
The MIT study is full of sobering data!
Even if the number was "only" 50,000, the clear takeaway should be that we will be much better off morally and economically to switch away from fossil fuels right now. Electric cars are more efficient than gas cars, they don't pollute. I'm tired of paying the price for pollution. "External cost" is a highly sanitized way to say polluters are getting away with murder. They know their pollution causes the health hazards, and they pay to hide that from the public. It's past time to stop treating them and their products as respectable.
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