Today marks World Environment Day and this year, China took over the task, choosing 'Beat Air Pollution' as the theme.
Organisations, activists and campaigners have taken to their various platforms to raise awareness and highlight the need for action on air pollution and climate change.
Scientists at University College Cork (UCC) have selected five iconic images which will catch your eye and show just how severe air pollution has become in recent years.
1. New Delhi
Photography and smog
This photograph was taken in January 2019 at a time when the chief minister of the region called New Delhi a “gas chamber”. Gases like ozone and the nitrogen oxides are only part of the story. A large part is made of very small solid particles and droplets floating in the atmosphere. They are often called particulate matter (PM).
Can you imagine it if you were on the bike?
2. The Ozone hole
Satellite imaging
Credit: NASA.
This satellite image was obtained by the NASA Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS).
3. The Leshan great Buddha and acid rain
This statue is located in China’s Sichuan Province where construction started in 713 AD. It is being renovated at great expense after many years of damage from acid rain.
The continuing economic growth in China has led to increasing amounts of air pollution from transport and coal-burning. As a result, their emissions of sulfuric and nitric acids have continued to attack the calcite (calcium carbonate) mineral of the natural cliff stone that the monument is carved from. The cracks and visual degradation appear because the acids and related acidic ions dissolve the carbonate content.
4. Banksy’s famous Season’s Greetings mural
Industrial Pollution
Credit: Ben Birchall/PA Wire/PA Images.
Revealed during Christmas 2018, Banksy’s famous Season’s Greetings mural in Port Talbot, Wales, uses the corner of the garage to convey a chilling message. When seen from just one side of the building, the art appears to show a boy catching snowflakes on his tongue. But, on turning the corner, it becomes clear that the snow is actually ash produced from a fire in a skip. This painting is a strong statement on the industrial town's steelworks and the pollution it creates.
Steel plants are known to emit acidic gases (nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide), as well as the fine particulate matter which, like the ash shown in the picture, can contain toxic chemicals such as heavy metals and dioxins
5. Red Sky and Crescent Moon
Volcanic Aerosols
Image released under Creative Commons.
JMW Turner’s ‘Red Sky and Crescent Moon’, housed at the Tate, was painted in about 1818 just three years after the largest volcanic explosion in human history (Mount Tambora on the Island of Sumbawa, Indonesia).
The eruption released many small sulfate particles into the atmosphere that gradually spread around the planet over the next year. In fact, there were so many particles that much of the sun’s light and heat was prevented from reaching the Earth’s surface because of reflection and global dimming in the atmosphere. This phenomenon led to 1816 becoming known as the year without a summer.
