This Is Your Brain on Pollution (Update)

As the Trump administration rolls back environmental regulations, we revisit a 2022 episode that explored the hidden cost of an invisible threat: air pollution.

 

• SOURCES:
  • Angela Duckworth, psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania.
  • Michael Greenstone, economist at the University of Chicago, director of the Energy Policy Institute, co-director of the Climate Impact Lab.
  • Stephan Heblich, economist at the University of Toronto.
  • Andrea La Nauze, economist at Deakin University.
  • Steve Levitt, professor emeritus of economics at the University of Chicago.
  • Edson Severnini, economist at Boston College.

 

• RESOURCES:
  • "Most Polluted Cities," (American Lung Association, 2026).
  • "Air Pollution and Adult Cognition: Evidence from Brain Training," by Andrea La Nauze and Edson Severnini (Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, 2025).
  • "Air Pollution and Student Performance in the U.S.," by Michael Gilraine and Angela Zheng (NBER Working Papers, 2022).
  • "Billions of people still breathe unhealthy air: new WHO data," (World Health Organization, 2022).
  • "Evolution of the Clean Air Act," by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (2020).
  • "The Death of U.K. Coal in Five Charts," by Hannah Ritchie (Our World in Data, 2019).
  • "The Colour of Pollution," (The Economist, 2014).

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