Balancing the Ledgers: Pollution and GDP, with Nicholas Z. Muller

Nicholas Z. Muller, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, recently published a paper with coauthors that measures the health damages from air pollution in the United States. The paper looks at how those health damages compare with traditional economic metrics such as gross domestic product (GDP) and describes the harm that some economic activities impose, relative to their contribution to the economy. Raimi talks with Muller about how these trends have changed over time, which parts of the economy account for the most pollution, and what this all means for environmental policy. References and recommendations: "Fine Particulate Matter Damages and Value Added in the US Economy" by Peter Tschofen, Ines L. Azevedo, and Nicholas Z. Muller; https://www.pnas.org/content/116/40/19857 "The Sixth Extinction" by Elizabeth Kolbert; https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/elizabeth-kolbert Impossible Whopper at Burger King; https://impossiblefoods.com/burgerking/