as bad today is just incorrect. Up until the early 1900s wood was burned, lots of ash. Then coal took over and anybody who was alive during the 1950s will remember the black snow. Coal dust was and is a killer. Natural Gas has been the biggest change, but so many more cars are on the road today, that natural gas can't compensate for the ever-growing fleet of vehicles. EVs are great if the source energy isn't produced with coal.

So what are you going to do about it. The only logical way is to keep natural gas during as long as possible, get rid of coal and slowly convert to new energy sources. Are solar and wind the answers? I'm not yet convinced, although there are communities is Australia that make it work. But that part of the world gets like 300 days of sunshine a year, not many places do that. The other option is nuclear.