Air

There are other days when you experience something else entirely at Mount Coot-tha: the wind brings smoke from nearby bushfires, and you start to cough and have difficulty breathing. Sometimes the smoke is from distant fires. You watch the smoke plumes tumble, turn around and surge with ever-changing shapes and forms. Sometimes you are in the midst of a dense veil of gases and particles that obscures the view of the city. Fire is natural to the Australian environment, caused mainly by lightning and often helping nature to regenerate. There is a particular beauty to be found in the new shoots of gum trees, their bright, light green contrasting with the charred blackness of burnt bark. But now, fires are more and more frequent in Australia, and more and more severe. It is not nature causing this increased activity; rather, it is human-induced climate change, which makes the atmosphere generally warmer, creating drier conditions and enhancing conditions for fires. 4 These are the emissions of pollutants in the air that have changed the atmosphere and are causing significant perturbations to the world as we know it. The bright red rays of light scattered by smog particles in the air over the River Thames as documented by Turner were a warning of the change that was happening. While the health effects of this ‘beauty’ were realised then, atmospheric scientists were scarcely able to imagine the full scope of the catastrophe that was unfolding for our planet. We now experience it firsthand, and scientists understand only too clearly the devastating effects of pollution on our air. And this is only the beginning. As I admire the view from Mount Coot-tha, a group of children oblivious to the vista is playing tag, their happy voices and laughter carried on the air. I close my eyes and dream, imagining these children, as adults, watching their children or grandchildren playing the same game. I imagine those little ones of the future knowing the word ‘smog’ only from history books. I imagine them filling their lungs with air full of the sweet scent of gum trees and other native trees, just as the ancient people who lived here for thousands of years did. I imagine them taking photos of the islands, the mountains, the air — as nature created them. I have devoted my career to studying air, so I know that we have the power to make this vision a reality. But do we have the will? 4 Lidia Morawska and others, ‘The state of science on severe air pollution episodes: Quantitative and qualitative analysis’, Environment International , vol.156, November 2021; <sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412021003573 >, viewed July 2022. View of Brisbane from Mount Coot-tha 2022 68 Our air