New Research Finds a Link Between Fires, Children's Health, and a Country's GDP

My guest, Prachi Singh, is an associate fellow at the Brookings Institution, India Center and is a PhD candidate at Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi. Her research analyzed height and weight ratios of children who were exposed, in utero, to air pollution events like crop burning and forest fires. She finds a significant correlation between low weight and low height ratios and exposure to this pollution. 

But her research goes further than that. She demonstrates how low height and weight ratios stemming from this exposure  impacts India's entire economy, including taking a significant toll on India's Gross Domestic Product. The peer reviewed research is cutting edge and has broad global implications. We kick off discussing the impact of what is known as stunting on children's health before having a conversation about her research methods and the significance of her findings. 

Today’s episode is the second installment in a series of episodes that will be published over the next few months that showcase the research and work of the Sustainable Energy Transitions Initiative. SETI is an interdisciplinary global collaborative that aims to foster research on energy access and energy transitions in low and middle-income countries. Currently, SETI is housed at Duke University, where it is led by Professors Subhrendu Pattanayak and Marc Jeuland. To learn more about SETI, follow them on Twitter @SETIenergy.