Photo Exhibition Exposes London Air Pollution

A photo exhibition turns pollution into art to raise awareness about London's persistent air-quality problem Ben STANSALL AFP/File
A photo exhibition turns pollution into art to raise awareness about London's persistent air-quality problem Ben STANSALL AFP/File
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Photo Exhibition Exposes London Air Pollution

A photo exhibition turns pollution into art to raise awareness about London's persistent air-quality problem Ben STANSALL AFP/File
A photo exhibition turns pollution into art to raise awareness about London's persistent air-quality problem Ben STANSALL AFP/File

An unconventional photography exhibition in London has turned toxic pollution into art to raise awareness about the British capital's persistent air-quality problems.

Visual artists and scientists have teamed up for the exhibition, entitled What On Earth, which explores the climate crisis through 26 artworks, running until July 24.

Exhibits include ethereal images on delicate dark blue paper with splashes of white that evoke pristine oceans but actually show the contamination of London's air.

They were produced using air samples provided by scientists at Imperial College London.

The samples were then captured and printed using cyanotype, a traditional method of producing images from light that enables sunlight to reveal toxic particles.

The Crown Estate, which manages property owned by Queen Elizabeth II, gave The Koppel Project, the arts charity behind the show, a disused retail unit rent-free for a year in sought-after central London.

The deal was in exchange for establishing an artistic community and getting a discussion under way, said curator Ellen Taylor.

"The goal was to address social and political issues we see in the news to create a conversation," she said.

"I'm hoping this show can demonstrate how nature can be the subject of photography, using air pollution and sound to document how our environment is changing."

Pollution levels plummeted across the world last year as people stayed at home during coronavirus lockdowns but have picked up as restrictions ease and more people avoid public transport.

Air pollution can create and exacerbate cardiovascular diseases and asthma and has been linked with cognitive diseases like dementia.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates it is responsible for seven million premature deaths annually worldwide.

A June report found that more than 25 percent of UK schools were located in areas above the WHO's recommended air pollution levels.

- 'Pea soup' -
One of the showcased artists Alice Cazenave used a glass plate to collect pollution in central London for weeks.

The city has a long history of poor air quality, with its thick "pea soup" smog leading to major clean air legislation in the 1950s.

It introduced a congestion charge in 2003, billing motorists entering the city centre £15 ($21, 18 euros) every day.

The owners of vehicles exceeding emissions thresholds will pay additional fees of up to £100 in an expanded low-emission zone from October, as Sadiq Khan seeks to become the city's "greenest mayor".

Air pollution caused around 1,000 annual hospital admissions for asthma and serious lung conditions in London between 2014 and 2016, according to a 2019 report.

In December, a coroner ruled that air pollution made a "material contribution" to the death of a nine-year-old London girl in 2013 -- the first time in Britain that air pollution was officially listed as a cause of death.

It is against this backdrop that the exhibition wants to put the issue at the forefront of people's minds and encourage action.

"The processes and subject matter is a great way to show the ever-changing environment we see today," added Taylor.



Beloved Zurich Zoo Gorilla Euthanized after Years of Declining Health

FILE - N'Gola, the silverback male of the gorilla group at Zurich Zoo celebrates his 40th birthday on Wednesday, June 21, 2017, in Zurich. (Siggi Bucher/Keystone via AP, file)
FILE - N'Gola, the silverback male of the gorilla group at Zurich Zoo celebrates his 40th birthday on Wednesday, June 21, 2017, in Zurich. (Siggi Bucher/Keystone via AP, file)
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Beloved Zurich Zoo Gorilla Euthanized after Years of Declining Health

FILE - N'Gola, the silverback male of the gorilla group at Zurich Zoo celebrates his 40th birthday on Wednesday, June 21, 2017, in Zurich. (Siggi Bucher/Keystone via AP, file)
FILE - N'Gola, the silverback male of the gorilla group at Zurich Zoo celebrates his 40th birthday on Wednesday, June 21, 2017, in Zurich. (Siggi Bucher/Keystone via AP, file)

The Zurich Zoo’s beloved gorilla of more than 40 years has been put down after a long struggle with declining health, a zoo official in the Swiss city said this week.
N’Gola was 47 and one of the oldest male gorillas in European zoos, said Zurich Zoo director Severin Dressen.
He was a Western lowland gorilla — a subspecies of the great apes found in Africa and listed as critically endangered — and because of his mature age he was a silverback, after the gray hair on his back, The Associated Press reported.
N'Gola had suffered a host of health ailments, including arthritis, a heart condition and a tapeworm infection. He had been on painkillers for several years, eating less, and losing weight and muscle mass.
“It’s a hard decision to euthanize a silverback,” Dressen said.
"We’ve seen a crash in the wild over the span of three generations of 80% of the population," Dressen said about the decline of gorillas in the wild. Zoos can be helpful for research and public education about species protection, he added.
N'Gola was born in captivity and fathered 34 children. He was known for his sensitive side, taking “care of his harem, his group of females,” Dressen said.
In 2012, the female Nache in his harem suffered a burst appendix during advanced pregnancy, and both she and the unborn baby gorilla died, according to the Swiss newspaper Neue Zuricher Zeitung.
N’Gola spent weeks whimpering through the zoo enclosure looking for her, the report said.
Dressen also recalled a time when N'Gola looked after a baby gorilla in the group. "The mother wasn’t there, and he kind of — which is not a typical silverback behavior — took care of that baby.”
As for humans, N'Gola mostly ignored "other bipedal species on the other side of the glass” of his enclosure, Dressen said.