The world has probably passed "peak air pollution"

We've probably hit peak emissions for CO2 as well.

https://www.weforum.org/stories/2024/11/peak-energy-emission...

Hitting peak emissions is a significant step in the fight against CO2, but CO2 in the atmosphere is still increasing annually because CO2 stays in the atmosphere for ~1000 years.

> most deadly

Smog is estimated to kill ~7 million people annually. Climate change is predicted to kill 250,000 people annually.

It's a much different story for non-human species who are less impacted by local pollution (aka smog) vs global pollution (aka CO2).

Why should they be unsustainable? Lots of people do not have the energy (ie. heat in Western Europe, for example), food, goods and transportation options they desire.

And we certainly can have 10x the current energy usage on earth without destroying the planet. Just because we haven't historically doesn't mean it can't be done, or that we won't (in fact we will, since we will run out of fossil fuels a lot sooner than we'll run out of people). It will take some technological advancement, and finding something else for the middle east and Russia to do, but surely we can do better than reducing the human population?

I feel like taking a "just outlaw it" approach is definitely going to make many people suffer, and it's not necessary. We should discuss other options, and research them.

Yup. Traditionally, there was a lot of political resistance to classifying CO2 as a pollutant, but outside the context of politics in oil-producing countries, it seems faintly absurd _not_ to consider it one.

I thought that Musk, the electric vehicle guy, is in charge now, which would be positive for the environment.

The first article you posted doesn’t say the new admin will push combustion vehicles over electric vehicles. It says that Trump wants consumers to buy the kind of vehicle of their choice.