Picture this: a post-apocalyptic world, with humans now living on one of Jupiter’s moons. A young female scientist goes back to Earth to regenerate oxygen into the atmosphere using bees. As a sci-fi buff, it was only a matter of time before I’d see the movie “The IO” — a flopped Netflix Hollywood production. Critics have been harsh, but the movie spoke to me in light of recent climate change events. It certainly wasn’t the first time a film or book would predict our future, such as President Trump in the Simpsons, Airpods in Star Trek, and Black Mirror’s episode “Nosedive” in which people have to rate each other to gain access to services - insert China’s social credit system.

I thought of The IO again last week when I was on a call with environmental technologists and I discovered that there’s an abundance of scientific research exploring how CO2 — carbon dioxide — makes us stupid. One of the participants — Chris Adams, a director of the green web foundation, and environmental-focused tech generalist — told me he started focusing on the issue after reading James Bridle's book New Dark Age. “It's the existential problem of our time, and this is backed up by the science.”

A study by the Yale School of Public Health found that air pollution caused a drop in intelligence levels, while a University College London study found that “higher amounts of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere could affect our memory, concentration and decision-making abilities.” 

In response to the research, tech makers have been working on nifty little devices to track how “stupid” you get — wherever you are — from CO2.