Tip 188: Yearn to breathe clean air

I have lived in different cities and begin to cherish clean air as I compare the different cities. Before working in Tokyo, I was told that Tokyo is a cramped, busy and polluted city. Of course, no one can deny that if witnessing for the first time the crowd at Shibuya crossing in Tokyo. Yet, I find Tokyo to be pleasantly green and offering quite a lot of sights of clear blue skies, as well as personal space. It is of course no where near the perfect blue skies of Hawaii where I was staying for 1 year when undertaking my MBA. Then, one level down is Ishigaki, Okinawa where I make my yearly pilgrimage to meet my in laws. So, when my family came to Hong Kong, we did find the air quality quite a shock. It made us appreciate clean air more.

I probably haven't seen the worst of air pollution. Wikipedia lists Cairo, Delhi, Calcutta, Tianjin, Chongqing and Jakarta to be the most air polluted cities in the world in 2004. I could only imagine as I have experienced the haze in Kuala Lumpur originating from the forest fires in Indonesia and the daily smog in Hong Kong coming from the factories of Shenzen and Guangzhou. It just feels unhealthy when your throat is dry after walking in the open air and your mood is affected by the cloud of smoke in the skies.

A BBC article in 2006, wrote,"In London and Tokyo, air quality has improved over the last 50 years. In Shanghai and Kuala Lumpur, it has gone down, though there are signs of improvement elsewhere in the developing world. It has happened in Delhi, for example, where there has been a huge improvement in air quality by substituting liquefied petroleum gas [LPG] for diesel in vehicles. Partly it is just that as cities become richer they can clean their act up, but it's also how vocal the middle classes become, which in India counts in a way it doesn't yet in China". So, we all can do something indeed and not just let city mayors breathe down our necks with polluted air! As I prayerfully consider where my family would settle down for good (for the next few years at least), I yearn to breath clean air again.

(Photos show more of our outdoor family portrait in clean air. In the BBC report, Tokyo ranks 57th most polluted city despite having the highest population among the other cities, while London and New York sits at 91st and 96th place, respectively.)