14 DAY TRIAL // Scientists working with NASA have pieced together a map showing which regions of our planet are the ones most affected by air pollution.
The map is made available in the picture above. In case anyone was wondering, the areas colored in brown are the ones where air concentrations of fine particulate matter and other pollutants are fairly high.
The darker the shade of brown, the worse air quality is, Daily Mail explains. Besides, it appears that it is in these areas, i.e. Asia, India, Europe and parts of Africa, that air pollution causes thousands of premature deaths on a yearly basis.
“Dark brown areas have more premature deaths than light brown areas,” NASA reportedly explained in a statement.
Furthermore, “Fine particulate matter takes an especially large toll in eastern China, northern India, and Europe - all areas where urbanisation has added considerable quantities of PM2.5 to the atmosphere since the start of the Industrial Revolution.”
The good news is that there are also some blue spots on this map. These represent areas where air quality has significantly improved over the past few years.