Andrew Kenny’s views on fossil fuels and carbon dioxide (CO²) are dangerous (Fossil fuels good for Earth, July 21). Before responding, I declare a vested interest: as a paediatrician and grandfather, I am invested in the health of today’s and future children. Kenny dismisses as unimportant the fact that fossil fuels "pollute the air with smoke, sulphur and nitrogen oxides". In fact, air pollution, overwhelmingly from fossil fuels, kills more than 3-million people every year — more than HIV/AIDS and malaria combined. All the products of combustion — particulates, black carbon, hydrocarbons, mercury, nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide and carbon monoxide — have multiple negative health consequences. Young children are biologically and psychologically the most vulnerable. Consequences include low birth weight, impaired development, reduced lung function, pneumonia and asthma. Kenny asserts — against overwhelming consensus among climate scientists — that increasing atmospheric CO² is "th...
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