This is why fighting greenwashing is so important. Companies like Exxon, Peabody, Ameren - those who fight climate science, fight the EPA, and use phrases like 'clean coal' – are conspiring to delay real action on the climate. The affect of these delays is more pollution, and in turn, more premature mortality as well as other public health impacts. Hence, criminal.
For more on how Washington University distorts the public trust with phrases like 'clean coal', see these notes.
Volkswagen’s Emissions Fraud May Affect Mortality Rate in Europe
From 2008 to 2015, Volkswagen sold 11 million diesel cars worldwide rigged with software that cheated emissions tests by running the full emissions-control system only if the car sensed a test was underway.
Otherwise, the cars operated without emissions control, releasing more than four times the levels of nitrogen oxides, a class of harmful air pollutants, permitted by European regulation.
Now, scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology estimate that 1,200 people in Europe will die prematurely, each losing as much as a decade of life, because of excess emissions from 2.6 million affected cars sold just in Germany. Full story here.
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Traffic during August, in Lyon, France. Scientists estimate that because Volkswagen sold 11 million diesel cars worldwide rigged with software that cheated emissions tests, 1,200 people in Europe will die prematurely.
Credit
Sipa, via Associated Pres
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