The air we breath.
The urban corridor loosely connected from Beijing to Tokyo, through Seoul, is home to more than 85 million people residing in dense urban centers. Prevailing winds link these cities to the dismay of many. Desert sands of the Gobi Steppe and industrial pollutants combine and drift across the eastern edge of China, over ocean gulfs, mountain ranges, spanning several nations. Some of the highest and smallest particulates now carry along the jet stream over North America and beyond. Proof of this having settled high in Canadian glacial ice packs in layers of ice containing tints of dust.
Summers in Seoul remain a relatively clear time, statistically speaking, of dust free skies. Dusty air persists during seasonal transitions of spring and autumn with shifting atmospheric winds. The frequency of dusty and poor air quality days are rising as they have been over the past 50 years. Increased industrial activity, changing weather patterns, and warming global temperatures (which tend to intensify wind patterns) all contribute to this menace from the sky.
And so the air has become our forsaken frontier; integrally part of dense cities and the lives of millions, yet an elusive repository apart.
Still, we must breath.
Still, we must breath.
