Yale Environment 360: Air pollution from fine particulate matter has decreased significantly in North America and western Europe over the past two decades, but increases in East and South Asia have more than made up for those improvements, as these maps based on NASA satellite data show. Fine particulate pollution (PM 2.5) is released into the atmosphere through fossil fuel combustion and the burning of forests and agricultural land, and it can easily infiltrate human respiratory and circulatory systems, contributing...