In 1981, less than a month after the first front page evidence of global warming, the New York Times asked BF Skinner about the fate of mankind. A famous psychologist had recently asserted that a certain aspect of the human mind is guaranteeing a global environmental disaster. “Why don’t we act to save our world?” Skinner asked, citing the many threats to the world.
His answer: Human behavior is governed almost entirely by what we have experienced—in particular, actions for which we have been rewarded or punished in the past. The future, not yet realized, will never have the same influence on what we do; we will seek ordinary rewards today—money, comfort, security, happiness, power—even when doing so threatens everyone on earth tomorrow.
Skinner was one of the most influential intellectuals of the 20th century, yet he rarely gets credit for the conviction of this warning, which predicted the behavior of mineral managers and politicians for the next four decades. I have struggled with it many times. I am a pediatrician in Reno, Nevada, the hottest city in the US. I look into the eyes of babies, children, and teenagers every day. Skinner argued that only when the effects of environmental degradation move from “tomorrow” to “today” will our choices change. I believe that by 2025, the harm to children will be so clear and immediate that parents – the sleeping giant in the climate war – will wake up to what the fossil fuel industry has done.
During the last ten years, for example, my city has been blackened for long periods of time by wildfire smoke from California; 65 million Americans, mostly in Western countries, now face such “smoke problems”. Everyone understands that smoke causes respiratory problems; we all cough and wheeze when the air becomes dangerous for weeks at a time. Few understand that children are at great risk from these events for many reasons, especially related to their different physiology, small size, and immature organs-which, because they are still growing, are more vulnerable to environmental damage. Children’s lungs, for example, are literally shaped by the quality of air they breathe. Children who regularly inhale particulate pollution—such as those who live in the most polluted areas of Los Angeles—tend to have smaller, tighter lungs.
By 2025, the media will realize that the damage from this small pollution is very deep. That’s because a growing body of science shows that fine and shiny particles, often tied to toxic chemicals and heavy metals in wildfire emissions and emissions, cause brain damage in children. Alarmingly, they appear to be contributing to epidemic-like increases in autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), as well as increasing the likelihood of learning disabilities, behavioral problems, and later dementia.
Why? Because these small pollutants do not end up in the lungs; they invade the bloodstream and enter other organs, including the brain—such as the lungs, which are still growing and developing in a child, and thus vulnerable to injury.
Evidence for neurologic effects of particles comes from brain imaging, histology, and epidemiology. We know that even before birth, particles inhaled by pregnant women can cross the placenta and harm the fetus; MRI studies in several countries have shown altered brain structure in prenatally exposed children, many of whom had cognitive and behavioral problems. After birth, particles can also enter the prefrontal cortex—the part of the brain behind the forehead—after sniffing through the nose. When scientists examined the brains of children and young adults in Mexico City, notorious for its bad air, they found fossil fuel particles, coated in Alzheimer’s-like plaques, embedded in the prefrontal cortex.
Evidence of a link between autism and ADHD has emerged from more than a decade of epidemiological studies from around the world. In a multi-year study of nearly 300,000 children from Southern California, for example, prenatal exposure to PM2.5 (the smallest fraction regulated by law) was found to significantly increase rates of autism. And a recent study of more than 164,000 children in China found that long-term exposure to fine particles increases the likelihood of ADHD. Although autism and ADHD are complex disorders with multiple causes both genetic and environmental, it is increasingly clear that air pollution—caused by fossil fuels and exacerbated by climate change—is a major risk factor.
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