Air pollution is responsible for shortening global life expectancy by more than two years—making it the world’s leading threat to human health, ahead of HIV/AIDS, malaria, and even smoking. Yet it receives only a fraction of the funding and policy attention.
In this episode, Dr. Christa Hasenkopf breaks down why air pollution is such a silent but devastating force—especially in the Global South—and what can be done to fight it. From real-time data sharing in Mongolia to clean air markets in India, she explains how small interventions can catalyze big change.
Dr. Christa Hasenkopf is the Director of the Clean Air Program at the Energy Policy Institute (EPIC) at the University of Chicago.
We discuss:
- Why PM2.5 (fine particulate matter) is so harmful—and so under-recognized
- How Christa went from studying other planets to helping reduce pollution here on Earth
- The story behind founding OpenAQ, the world’s largest open air quality database
- How publicly accessible data changed the political narrative in places like Beijing and Ulaanbaatar
- EPIC’s Air Quality Life Index (AQLI) and how it connects pollution to life expectancy
- Why countries like Gambia are seeing rapid progress from low-cost, high-impact initiatives
- How philanthropy and global investment are often misaligned in this area with where the need is greatest
- The surprising success of India’s clean air market experiment—and its potential to scale
We also touch on the relationship between air pollution and climate change, how policy can bridge that gap, and why building local trust and capacity is key to long-term success.
This is a wide-ranging, hopeful, and data-driven conversation about one of the most overlooked issues in global health and climate.
🔗 Learn more about EPIC’s Clean Air Program:
https://epic.uchicago.edu/area-of-focus/clean-air-program/
https://aqfund.energyandpolicy.org
For questions, comments or suggestions, you can contact me at arvid.viaene.ce@gmail.com
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