Visceral and interactive, the Pollution Pods art installation gets policymakers and influencers discussing the links among air pollution, health and climate change.
Air quality is difficult to visualize, making it easy to forget and thus a challenge to keep at the top of people’s minds– but one artist has given it a whirl, and his exhibition, brought to the UN Headquarters this week by the World Health Organization, is generating lively discussions by its influential visitors on the links among air pollution, climate change, health and subnational action.
Michael Pinsky’s Pollution Pods, which replicate (with harmless specially-crafted scents and climate control) the very different air quality conditions in five different cities, are giving attendees to the Climate Action Summit a firsthand smell experience of wandering through Beijing, New Delhi, Sao Paulo, London and a pristine Norwegian island.
Delegates to the first WHO Global Air Pollution and Health Conference in October last year would be familiar with the pods, which added a public, interactive and visceral dimension to the intense discussions in Geneva on what the WHO has long called a public health emergency— and one with direct links to climate change mitigation.
Among the Pods’ visitors were climate activist Greta Thunberg, UN Human Rights chief Michelle Bachelet, the former Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Christiana Figueres, the EU’s Commissioner for Environment Maritime Affairs & Fisheries Karmenu Vella, Italy’s Minister of Environment Sergio Costa, Spain’s Minster of Environment Teresa Ribera, Mayor of Accra Mohammed Adjei Sowah, COP25 High-Level Climate Champion Gonzalo Muñoz Abogabir, and Managing Director of the newly-minted and launched Clean Air Fund Jane Burston.
“This whole sustainability crisis, in a way, all these problems, the climate crisis, loss of biodiversity, air pollution… these are all linked and we need to change our mindset when it comes to that. It is unacceptable, because these are human lives and it’s affecting our health. These are not just numbers, we need to see them as people.” - Climate activist Greta Thunberg
"If we actually move beyond fossil fuels, which is what we have to do urgently, then we’re improving and reducing global pollution but we’re also markedly reducing local air pollution. This is such a win-win. In most cities, we know that the cost of the climate change measures would be more than overcome by the savings in public health costs." - Former UNFCCC chief, Christiana Figueres.
Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations Amina Mohammed and Director-General of the World Health Organization Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus open the Pollution Pods art installation at the Climate Action Summit.