The cleanest place on earth - and the dirtiest

[kurth]

The cleanest place on earth - and the dirtiest
The air quality at Cape Grim in Tasmania is officially the best on the planet - a world away from the grime and filth of Linfen in China. Photographer Angela Palmer set out to capture the essence of both places
Monday July 9, 2007
The Guardian

... Research into the world's most polluted place pointed to Linfen, a city 485 miles (780km) south-west of Beijing, lying in a bowl in Shanxi province's coal-mining region. Linfen was named by the World Bank last year as having the worst air quality on earth. It features alongside Chernobyl in the Blacksmith Institute's list of the 10 most polluted places in the world and tops the list of most polluted cities compiled by China's own state environmental protection authority. In contrast, Cape Grim, at the north-western tip of Tasmania, lays claim to both the cleanest air and water in the planet, largely due to the Roaring Forties, the winds that sweep in over the Southern Ocean. It is home to the Australian government's baseline air pollution station, whose unique "Air Library" collects samples as a "pure air" yardstick for scientists worldwide. I wanted to bring back this clean air - as well as the filthy air - and quickly these plans began to preoccupy me.

Fresh air must surely be the most precious commodity of the future. Unlike the world's land and water, air cannot be owned - there are no borders to confine it. Yet we knowingly infect it and in doing so infect our neighbours across continents. To try to gauge the difference between the two places, I left on my adventure with two pre-evacuated glass flasks donated by the Australian government to collect the air, a personal air pump to amass particulates on filters, and canisters to bring back water samples. In addition, there were two white linen shirts, white jeans and white cotton shoes, from Zara and Marks & Spencer, outfits which would act as blank manuscripts on which the air of each place would inscribe itself.

I reached Linfen to find the sun shining - darkness hadn't descended at noon as was claimed in some reports. No one was even wearing a mask. Were they oblivious to the poisons they were ingesting? Despite the many citizens suffering from respiratory diseases, lead poisoning and disorders caused by high levels of arsenic in more than half of the city's well water, there was no discernible sign of crisis or discontent. When I asked about pollution, people simply shrugged their shoulders, as if the question were pointless.

In the streets, men were playing Go at makeshift tables, young and old shop staff were throwing themselves into a highly skilled game of shuttlecock football, children were skipping and men and women were busily kneading great wads of dough. The place throbbed with life. The streets, the walls and the oil drum "cookers" were caked in layers of filth and grime, and from time to time, great wafts of odour, like rotten eggs, would roll over everything. At night I left my hotel window propped open in order to run my air pump filter to collect the particulates. As I lay in bed, I thought of the chemicals, the unseen enemy, filling my room...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,,2121972,00.html

[eppur_se_muova]

1. Nice picture with the article.

'Like a Constable painting' ... the countryside near Cape Grim, Tasmania (left) and the main road leading into Linfen, China. Photographs: Angela Palmer