A Moment of Silence For The 7 Million Souls We Lost to Air Pollution in 2019

Reflections on the blind eyes turned towards this annual humanitarian catastrophe

As we gather here in the opening lines of this short essay to pay our tributes to the fallen: let us pause in remembrance, in reflection, and once again in unity, and share this moment of silence*.

The success of the Montreal Protocol is often attributed in part to the rhetorical ingenuity of framing the seasonal reductions in ozone concentration, measured above Antarctica through the 1980’s, as an “ozone hole”. This metaphorical “expanding hole”, the argument goes, captured the publics imagination in a way that reams of data from monitoring stations never could have done.

Air pollution, by contrast, is primarily discussed in the sterile languages of facts and statistics. These may at best scratch the rational surface layers of our brains, but will never penetrate into the primal depths of our old ape minds, which knows its surroundings in terms of narratives and sense perceptions. Against this backdrop, this essay will begin by metaphorizing air pollution into a language more suitable for grappling with its havoc.

Let’s take this metaphor for a spin

Tumbling into the industrial era, dazzled and disoriented, mankind soon found itself stalked by an unfamiliar, new predator. One its evolutionary history had not prepared it to fend against. This vaporous angel of death, it dubbed Air Pollution. Wrapping itself around modern cities, like infected bandages around open wounds — its death toll soon eclipsed those of war, murder, terrorism, and traffic accidents, combined.

The vaporous angel of death, known as Air Pollution, prying on mankind

Like any predator, Air Pollution singles out the weakest, most vulnerable prey from our herd: children, seniors, and the poor. 300 million kids currently breath air that is contaminated by pollution levels that exceeds six times the maximum set by WHO guidelines. Their underdeveloped lungs and weak immune systems renders them easy prey: according to a 2017 report by the WHO, Air Pollution’s annual holocaust includes 600 000 children under the age of five.

Air Pollution furthermore wrecks havoc on their fragile developing brains. In response to meta studies by The Lancet Commission and UNICEF — linking exposure to Air Pollution during infancy to the development of «autism, ADHD and conduct disorders» as well as «future developmental delays, lower verbal IQ, and increased signs of anxiety, depression, and problems with attention» — UNICEF has singled out emission reductions as «One of the most important things we can do for children».

Mother trying to shield her daughter from the havoc of Air Pollution

The deepest mass-graves from Air Pollution’s killing spree, can be found throughout the developing world, where it regularly contributes to as much as a quarter of all deaths. This club is chaired by India, home to ten of the world’s eleven most polluted cities. Growing up in these infernos of septic smog entails a 50 % chance of developing asthma, and having to get by with 30 % lower lung capacity than your European peers. Delhi, the undisputed heavyweight champion of polluted cities, was recently described by India’s chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal, as a “gas chamber”.

Perhaps the single most terrifying specimen of Air Pollution is the «Asian Brown Cloud»: A three kilometer thick monstrosity of brownish haze that haunts the South Asian sky during its annual winter monsoon. Engulfing great swaths of the subcontinent in its shadow, like a hellish demon, it singlehandedly reaps nearly two million souls every winter.

Artistic rendition of the “Asian Brown Cloud”: The deadliest entity on our planet

Poor and marginalized groups in developed nations are also singled out for slaughter. Numerous studies have documented the disproportionate location of point pollution sources — including hazardous waste sites, industrial facilities and sewage treatment plants — in communities of ethnic minorities and socially disadvantaged. This could plausibly be a piece to the puzzle of explaining why the life expectancy of poor American men is 15 years lower than those of their wealthier peers — resembling those of Sudan and Pakistan.

Marginalized neighborhoods tend to lack the resources and political clout to take on industrialists and city planners, who are thus disincentivized from taking their interest into account. Kids born into these gas chambers become scarred for life due to the damage inflicted on their fragile bodies and brains.

Why can’t we get our sh*t together and find a solution?

Well, the solutions are self-evident. Wave the magic wands of regulations and public spending, and this demon will be cast away forever: The equivalent of an annual Holocaust is averted, global average lifespan increases by two years, and trillions of dollars are added to the global economy.

Unfortunately, the solutions have long been blocked by the trifecta of public apathy, political inertia, and special interests. For decades, they have kept serious environmental legislation locked away, deep down in the murky dungeons of the political agenda. Only occasionally is it dragged to the surface and paraded for public spectacle, only to be swiftly returned to its cell, once the festivities fades out.

Pedestrians, desperately fending of attacks by Air Pollution

The hands of mainstream media are drenched in blood from its failure to give this catastrophe the attention it deserves. «If it bleeds, it leads», as their proverb goes: The seven million annual victims of Air Pollution are a bloodless pile of statistics. Their suffering and death doesn’t lead. Media, disincentivized from covering ‘non-leading’ issues, systematically ignore Air Pollution in favor of more sexy and sensational events. The public is kept in the dark, while the pile of dead bodies keeps growing.

The business and politics of polluting

While abating pollution might be ethically good, it is not necessarily good business. If a buisness fails to cut costs by any means necessary, there will always be someone less scrupulous out there, eager to out-compete them. This is Capitalism 101.

The most audacious case study of recent years might be “Dieselgate”: Volkswagen’s notorious scheme for gaming emission tests. As usual, George Monbiot said it best:

«The air that should have been filtered by its engines is filtered by our lungs instead. We have become the scrubbing devices [Volkswagen] failed to install.»

Sadly, Volkswagen’s scam was unique only in scale and sophistication. Independent testers regularly finds emission levels to be 3–5 times higher than suggested by official test results. This holds true across brands. John Vidal gives an excellent overview of how car manufacturers game these emission tests.

The untold millions Big Energy invests in lobbyists, politicians and organizations, have been massively successful in strangling environmental legislation in its cradle. By abstaining from covering the issue, media essentially handed lobbyists free reigns to twist public discourse.

Even The Dark One, incarnated in the avatar of Charles Koch (currently gathering his armies along with Gog and Magog to wage war against the righteous), have splashed his crocodile tears all over the public discourse about how environmental legislation “is going to disproportionately hurt the poor.” This is the message put out there. Environmental legislation will harm you, your family and your community.

Any government that dares to defy multinational investors by implementing serious environmental legislations puts its nation at risk of disinvestments. This, in turn, means recession, unemployment and falling tax revenues — a timetested recipe for loosing next years election. Thomas Friedman crystallized the issue in his essay The Power of Green. «Coughing workers”, he laments, “are much less politically dangerous than unemployed workers.»

Despite the numerous surveys depicting widespread environmental conserns, environmental legislations remains unpopular. The ‘yellow-west’ protests of 2017 makes for an excellent case study. A 2015 Pew Research Center poll found that 56 % of French voters agreed with the statement “Climate change is a very serious problem” — more than any other western nation. A GlobeScan survey went on to rank France among just four countries whose majorities wanted their government to show leadership on climate policy. Against this backdrop, the violent reactions to a minor carbon tax proposition— one far short of IPCC recommendations — is striking. The public seems to endorse environmental policy as an abstract concept, but oppose its real-life manifestations.

Welcome to Paris: The most overrated shit-hole in Europe

And so, before we close this tab and go on with our days, let us pause and share a moment of reflective silence; as a tribute to the victims of this annual Holocaust, and in solidarity with those left behind.

*Adopted from Obama’s speech at the 13th anniversary of 9/11