Ever since the Camp fire occurred I’ve been conscious of my local air quality and I recently discovered a handy little app that helps me track readings.
Air is a Mac menu bar app created by a fellow named Gabriel Lewis. The application displays the local air quality index (AQI) reading for my location and automatically refreshes this reading periodically.
The application does not automatically track my location. Rather, it provides me with a field to enter the ZIP code where I am located and uses that information to grab my local air quality reading.
Something I’ve noticed since installing Air is that humans release an enormous amount of pollution, even in the environmentally conscious Bay Area. Nearly every morning the AQI reading rises above 50, which is going from the ‘good’ pollution category into the ‘moderate’ pollution category, and then falls back below 50 in the late evening. This cycle clearly shows that the increase in human activity during the day is noticeably degrading our air quality.
Making this cycle even more impressive is the fact that wind speeds increase during the day. Wind blows away pollution replacing it with clean, unpolluted air, so the fact that pollution readings still rise during the day shows just how much pollution we produce. Seeing this behavior, it comes as no surprise that around 1/3 of all Americans will be diagnosed with cancer at some point in their lives. We’re like fish swimming in an ocean of polluted air. But hey, if it makes a few people rich it’s all worth it, right?