“The air we share” is this year’s theme for the UN International Day of “Clean Air for Blue Skies”, initiative.

In 2019 the United Nations General Assembly designated 7th September as the date to mark the need to stress the importance of clean air and the urgent efforts required to improve current air quality. This is because air pollution is responsible for many human deaths every year and has been described by the UN as ‘the single greatest environmental risk to human health.’

The air we breathe is not bound by any national borders – and so neither is air pollution. This seems obvious and yet we need constant reminders of this fact.  According to the World Health Organisation 99% of the people of the planet are now breathing polluted air, so the need to raise awareness of the adverse impact of air pollution and look for solutions has never been greater.

As we enter into the Season of Creation 2022, it is good to remind ourselves of this fact, and indeed to celebrate what has been given to us – the air – the atmosphere. When we look at our atmosphere we are, in fact, looking at the greatest gift of existence.

The atmosphere acts as a protective layer enveloping our planet home. Its gift is its semi-permeable nature – its capacity to filter what is required for life to be enhanced. It does this because its basic makeup is reasonably stable — sustaining a small range of temperature and chemical composition in the atmosphere—and has remained so for the past four to five billion years. It is, however, fragile, being just a thin layer, like the shell of an egg or the skin on a human being, around the planet.

We are all obliged then to do what we can to improve and preserve our air quality so let us act to ensure that that which is required for us to live will no longer be the cause of our deaths…

Further resources on air quality and season of creation can be found at these links:
For more information on the collective action needed to improve the quality of air we share, please click here.
To view the Season of Creation Celebration Guide 2022, please click here.

 

Photos by Margaret Twomey

 

Margaret Twomey
Southern Province