Air pollution affects nearly every person on this planet. Yet global efforts to combat the scourge – which is associated with about 8 million premature deaths worldwide every year, can damage nearly every part of our body and is linked to everything from miscarriages to dementia – lag decades behind our knowledge of its impacts.Tens of millions of people in Indonesia are now suffering in swathes of thick smoke caused by “slash and burn” agriculture and exacerbated by the hot conditions. In India, ground-level ozone from vehicle fumes and industry has emerged as the key summer threat, while outside its megacities there have been protests in areas affected by toxic coal dust. Across the northern hemisphere this summer, wildfires driven by the climate crisis have spread poor air across continents – already, 1.5 million people globally die every year from the impacts of wildfire smoke.It would be easy, in the face of such an intractable problem, to give up. But some cities have shown the way to a brighter and cleaner future. More on this, after this week’s most important reads.Essential reads
Nearly 1,400 missing, mostly tourists, after Nepal-Tibet flash flood kills at least 270
Two planned datacentres will have higher UK carbon emissions than ExxonMobil, analysis finds
