Route change

Confirming how much pollution is becoming more and more a "cult" theme when it comes to well-being, the latest World Happiness Report, published last May 20, dedicates an entire chapter to the relationship between pollution and happiness.
This chapter first of all emphasizes how the importance of the environment is now a global awareness. From a survey conducted on a representative sample in 160 countries, it emerges that 62% of people would prefer environmental protection to economic growth.
Only half of them say they are satisfied with the efforts made so far to preserve the environment in their country. 74% perceive global warming as a serious threat, while 65% believe that climate change will make their lives more difficult. The authors of the chapter then analyze in a comparative perspective how the differences in terms of natural endowments between countries can also explain the differences in the levels of happiness declared by their citizens.

Nature has a direct impact on happiness due to evolutionary motivations . Exposure to naturalistic environments improves psychological well-being by reducing stress, increasing positive emotions and beneficial effects on self-regulation. The other explanation lies in the indirect effects of the surrounding natural environment, that is, through the stimulus that open public spaces can give to behaviors that are beneficial for the well-being and health of individuals, such as physical activity and social interactions. The third explanation is that in natural environments there is less air and noise pollution.

To test the relationship between pollution and happiness , the authors use a representative sample of citizens in OECD countries, who are asked to give a subjective assessment of their well-being. The answers are then related to objective indicators of the quality of the environment in the countries where the respondents reside. The results show that microparticulate has negative effects on how people view their lives. In particular, lower levels of subjective well-being are associated with high levels of PM10 and PM2.5.
Here is a further example of how the environment and its protection are increasingly assuming a central role throughout the world. Together with the results that trace an inverse relationship between air quality and Covid-19, this study further highlights the need for a change of course for a "clean" restart.
It is necessary to imagine no longer the environment and growth as incompatible factors: since both are important elements for well-being and that microparticulate is mostly caused by human activities, giving up one in the name of the other would imply settling for a lower level of well-being compared to the maximum achievable. Environment and growth, on the other hand, suitably combined with a farsighted mix of public policies, can be complementary assets to individual happiness. Some examples?

Stimulating “green” economic growth through tax bonuses to companies that invest in clean technologies, financing crucial sectors for maintaining environmental standards, such as sustainable mobility, encouraging energy efficiency measures, etc. Such interventions would lead to environmentally virtuous companies and push those that are not to reconvert, at the same time reducing pollution and increasing the quality of life in contexts where it is most severely tested.


Pierluigi Conzo
NP June / July 2020