Recently at a conference in Cape Town we met an industry expert, Paul. He worked for the company Yellow Tree, as experts in the air consulting specialist. His insight into his country’s air pollution was astounding – we couldn’t believe how far they had come in such a short space of time (the company has only been operating for five years, and are booming!).
We chatted for a long time over lunch, and after the end of the conference realised that both us in Florida and abroad there is much room to do to clean up our collective industry’s act. Air pollution abounds in likely every country with a population of more than 200,000 (one can surely assume a little state like Nauru surely doesn’t emit much) and urgent action is needed. It feels like the oceans are given a lot of attention about their sea level and their temperature – and well they should! – but when do we start looking up and seeing the “dirt” in the sky? We know that in cities air pollution is a major problem, but only when it directly affects those in the street do we seem to take notice. What about when it enters the atmosphere and harms the ozone layer, or other affects we are yet to learn about?
I’d for one venture a guess that it’s another ticking time bomb among our many global environmental issues. One that we also cannot afford to let go off.