Would you wear an air-quality sensor on your body?
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you → wear → body
Also: Solar on a scrapyard in the Arctic
Welcome to our weekly newsletter where we highlight environmental trends and solutions that are moving us to a more sustainable world.
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that → welcome → world
I think about air quality a lot since the pandemic and our seemingly yearly bouts with wildfire smoke.
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I → think → smoke
But how do you get more people thinking about dangers you can't always see?
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you → get → dangers
This week:
- Would you wear an air-quality warning on your body?
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you → wear → body
- The Big Picture: Killer El Niño
- Solar power on an Arctic scrapyard
Would you wear an air-quality warning on your body?
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you → wear → body
If it weren't for the pillowy white blobs and clear tubing, I'd say Grace Grothaus was putting on a kind of lead apron.
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Grothaus → say → apron
But as it lights up, bright green in the shape of a pair of lungs, it tells me my real lungs, here in her small office in Toronto, are safe from invisible but harmful air pollutants.
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lungs → light → pollutants
"The illumination of the lungs sort of brings the atmosphere that we can't see into the body and makes it something that is suddenly visible," explains Grothaus, an artist and scientist with York University.
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Grothaus → bring → University
This prototype, Grothaus says, was developed while she was doing her master's degree at the University of California San Diego.
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she → say → California
It uses a small sensor at the back to draw in air and check for two forms of pollution, PM2.5 and black carbon (microscopic soot, essentially).
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It → use → pollution
The sensor information is then translated to the front lighting, following the colour scheme of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's air quality index (AQI).
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information → translate → index
"So you have green, the level where the air is safe to breathe," Grothaus said.
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Grothaus → have → green
It then progresses through yellow, orange, red, purple and brown.
"
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We rarely see those later-stage colours, such as red and purple, except during wildfire season."
But wildfire smoke — even for Canadians who now find themselves having to deal with it almost every year — isn't the only kind of danger in the air.
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themselves → see → air
Experts have said for years that there's no safe level of any particulate matter, and the risk is present even as a result of such things as traffic congestion.
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risk → say → congestion
But the challenge is that the pollutants are often invisible — a gap that some artists are trying to fill.
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artists → try → that
"All of them get forgotten," said Michael Pinsky, a visual artist based in London.
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Pinsky → forget → London
Pinsky has been using the environment and climate change as messages in his installations for two decades.
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Pinsky → use → decades
His work ranges from dredging bikes and shopping carts out of a Parisian canal to his latest, Your Shit Smells Like Roses, a project highlighting how black water (toilet waste) can be beneficial when it's separated from the grey water that contains the soaps and detergents we also flush down the drain.
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we → range → drain
His Pollution Pods tackled pollution through a series of connected geodesic domes recreating the air of different cities.
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Pods → tackle → cities
He worked with a fragrance company to recreate smells such as sulphur, but also adjusted the temperature and humidity to mimic the experience he wanted: the shock of getting off a plane into a different city.
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he → work → city
"In many ways, we have habituated to pollution," Pinsky said, recalling how some people had their senses shocked after going through it.
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senses → habituate → it
"It's that lack of being able to habituate to it that makes it a kind of powerful, visceral experience.
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it → habituate → experience
"There's scientific reasoning showing why climate change is happening, but the reason why it's happening is cultural," Pinsky told me via video call from London, suggesting the climate message needs a different tactic.
"
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message → be → tactic
You have to move beyond, ‘Oh wow, the whole world's going to blow up.'
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world → have → ?
You have to make it unfashionable to do certain things."
Back in Toronto, Grothaus is now working on a portable air quality sensor called AirWear, which serves as a more of a community-focused everyday device.
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which → have → device
Part of its development involved design workshops with people living between Toronto's downtown Billy Bishop airport and its busy Gardiner Expressway.
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Participants said that they wanted something light and with a positive message, leading Grothaus to redesign the AirWear as a friendlier-looking cloud shape.
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they → say → shape
She hopes to recruit some more participants from the community for a two-week real-world pilot of these devices before the year's end.
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"Art can make things felt or seen," Grothaus said.
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"But community research can make it useful."
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In our latest episode: As Parliament gets back in session, there's a lot going on: a trade war, talk of Alberta separation and international alliances being redrawn.
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Parliament → get → separation
Prime Minister Mark Carney has been clear: he doesn't think the old climate plan he inherited from the Trudeau government holds up to Canada's new reality.
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he → think → reality
So, where does climate fit in what Carney calls the next "world order?"
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Carney → fit → what
Two of our political journalists, David Thurton and Aaron Wherry, break down what we know so far and what they're watching for next.
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they → break → what
What On Earth drops new podcast episodes every Wednesday and Saturday.
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What → drop → episodes
You can find them on your favourite podcast app or on demand at CBC Listen.
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You → find → Listen
The radio show airs Sundays at 11 a.m., 11:30 a.m. in Newfoundland and Labrador.
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show → air → Newfoundland
Set your location to find out how today's temperatures compare to historical trends.
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temperatures → set → trends
…and 35 more, not listed.
The Aporia
