How air pollution makes people unhappy and irrational, and why in China it is likely to keep getting worse
- Three new scientific studies of air pollution in China make for grim reading, predicting it will continue growing, cause more deaths and take an emotional toll
- Air pollution has a broad impact on the social lives and behaviour of people in China, and can make them impulsive on polluted days, study from MIT shows
Scientists have warned of 20,000 additional deaths per year and rising levels of unhappiness in China due to rapid growth in air pollution.
Three separate studies indicate that the country has been unsuccessful in curbing methane emissions and continues to pump climate changing gases into the atmosphere despite tough new regulations.
Researchers from Tsinghua University in Beijing predict climate change will worsen air pollution in mainland China, and affect more than 85 per cent of the current population by 2050.
The study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, warns: “For Chinese policymakers working to improve current air quality and protect public health, our finding is a daunting conclusion, and one that underscores the need to tackle the challenges of both climate change mitigation and air quality at the same time.”