Clean Air Is Good for You -- Who'da Thunk?

The NYTimes reports that decreases in air pollution correlate directly with fewer deaths from a variety of causes. I think this article helps to make a point I like to hammer on. Cleaning up our environment isn't just the right thing to do for moral reasons. It's also good for our economy. Fewer deaths from cardiovascular disease, for example, means lower health care costs for employers and the government. It means increased productivity from those who would have, but didn't, get sick. The nonsense that you hear claiming that we can't afford to clean up pollution is simply not true. Would it be bad for certain sectors of our economy coughoil/coal/Detroitcough? Probably. But it would be good for our overall economy.