Warning: you might want to finish anything you are eating before you read the opening paragraph of this article.
Spend a day walking around any major city in the world. London is a good example. Visit museums, grab a bite to eat, travel on the Tube. Do nothing out of the ordinary. Except, when you get back to your house or hotel at the end of the day, take a look at your fingernails. Most likely you will see a thick collection of dirt under each nail. Now grab a tissue and blow your nose. You might see the same thing.
Sounds disgusting, right? Well, that same dirt and grime, at least in part, is making its way into your lungs as you breathe in on the Underground, or any of the main streets of London. Ditto for any heavily populated, heavily trafficked area. A breath of fresh air is a rare thing in any urbanised populace. In fact, due to the emission of particulates and various gases into the atmosphere, wind currents are making it ever harder to find somewhere with genuinely clean air.
The answer to this question is, naturally, relative. Lets begin with the very cleanest air in the world, located a few hundred metres from the South Pole. Being the bureacratic species we are, this special area has been designated the Clean Air Sector. The CAS is kept clear of almost all human activity save for a few qualified individuals who are allowed to step into the area to measure the baseline rates. Aircraft are discouraged from flying overhead and no vehicles of any kind are allowed into the area. In essence, these few men and women are giving planet Earth a breathalyzer test.
However, measuring pollution levels in air can be a tricky business. Most official measurements analyze for a cocktail of over 250 environmentally harmful substances. The problem is, the Earth is not a static ecosystem. What can look like a dreadful, smoggy haze can actually turn out to be harmless fog, while a picturesque, crisp sky can actually yield all sorts of unwelcome chemicals when studied in a lab. Changing weather conditions and even the location of the measurement stations in relation to sea level can all have an effect on accuracy.
Nevertheless, the measurements can be considered accurate enough for the holidaygoer with a lungful of clean air in mind. There are two golden rules for finding clean air: if you are looking to head to a city, find somewhere in the northern hemisphere. If you are looking for a rural location, head to the southern hemisphere.
The cleanest cities are located in areas considered most ‘civilised’ - or, in other words, areas with the best economies and most advanced urban maintenance schemes. To clean up its air, a city first has to clean up its waste. Cities with recycling policies and solid landfill schemes are more likely to have clean air. Urban transportation must be taken into account too - how does the public transport system work, how efficient is it, what rules and regulations are there on cars driving through the city? Take a look at London’s congestion and low emissions charges for examples of (cough) profitable implementations of supposedly environmentally conscious policies. Again, though, if we are being relative about things, even the cleanest city is likely to be in the top percentage of most polluted places on the planet.
So, moving on, what options are there for someone who wants fresh air without having to head to Antarctica? Below are the five best destinations that marry a degree of comfort with a sweet breeze.
5. Tahiti: oh yes, this is exactly the kind of place fresh air should be. The more remote you go in Tahiti, the better, so steer clear of populated areas like Papeete, where the decrepit, poor quality of vehicles is rapidly diminishing the quality of the air. Anywhere around a lagoon is good, which is the kind of news you get maybe once a year.
4. Cape Peninsula, South Africa: a contentious entry in the list, this is a good example of the location of a measuring station having a marked impact on the results it returns (see below for another example of this). South Africa is not world renowned for its progressive energy policies, what with all the coal burning, but the figures do not lie.
3. Iceland: most of Iceland’s electricity is generated by renewable sources, such as hydroelectric and geothermal power. It is a country which takes advantage of its climate to maintain its near untarnished air quality. Couple this with heavy rain and cloud cover surrounding Iceland, which effectively cleans the air of pollution, and you have yourself one might fine lungful.
2. Big Island, Hawaii: a bit of a cheat this. Hawaii actually receives a lot of polluted air from wind currents borne from China, but the measuring station is based at Mount Loa observatory, nearly 12,000 feet above sea level. Pollution tends to head no higher than the inversion layer, a boundary of warm air below 12,000 feet, so by the time you get to the observatory, you have, in effect, risen above the dirt.
1. Tazmania: the air in Tazmania is the most accessible clean air in the world. Located deep in the southern hemisphere, the likelihood is that wherever you come from the difference in quality of air will actually be noticeable. The difference in air pollutant levels between Tazmania and Antarctica is negligible, so this is the number one place on the planet to get a breath without freezing your unmentionables off.
It could be argued that, for most of us, a good walk in the countryside an hour and a half away from our suburban homes qualifies as a breath of fresh air, and, relatively, you would be right. There is something sad about the fact that such things even have to be measured. Hopefully in the near future, such measurements will rapidly become pointless. Maybe.
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I agree, good stuff.
I’ve been all over the globe and I must say Tahiti was the most picturesque. The ocean and the white sandy beaches were the clearest and cleanest I have seen. A true paradise. I can imagine that in 40-50 years time there will be tourist excursions to CAS. People will want to sample clean air.