Carolinas are being swamped by these heavy rains and high winds from Hurricane Florence.

The best scientists in the world are all telling us that our activities are changing the climate.

I don't think it's a hoax. I think there's probably a difference, but I don't know that it's man-made.

Experts say that we have until 2030 to avoid catastrophe.

Today we're concerned about the increasing threat of global warming.

But remember this.

One of the components has long been a global problem all on its own.

Air pollution is still killing people all over the world. And that's still

true in America, even though it's less visible here than it used to be. Today, we'll talk with

Beth Gardner about her new book called Choked. The subtitle, Life and Breath in the Age of Air Pollution.

We'll hear about the discovery of smog in Los Angeles,

and what that's meant for the car capital of the world. We'll discuss the history of trying to make public health more important than private profits, both here and in Germany. But first,

air pollution as a global issue. Beth Gardner, great to have you.

My pleasure. So tell us about the global issue of life and breath in the age of air pollution.

Well, you know, this book covers a lot of territory. I traveled all around the world to China, Poland, India, Europe, the U.S.

To look at sort of different strands and different facets of this air pollution story, which is really a global story.

And being so sort of disparate geographically, I tried to look for the thing that would hold it together. What is a

thread that unites these different parts of the story? And eventually it came to me that it's this

experience of breath and breathing is absolutely as universal as it gets and as fundamental to

human existence as just about anything.

So I use that idea to sort of build the book around to help us or to help readers, I guess,

to try to connect with what this issue means to us.

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