Would you wear an air-quality sensor on your body?

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Hi, it's Anand. I think about air quality a lot since the pandemic and our seemingly yearly bouts with wildfire smoke. But how do you get more people thinking about dangers you can't always see?

Grace Grothaus, postdoctoral researcher at York University, puts on her AtmoSpheres 01 prototype. (Anand Ram/CBC News)If it weren't for the pillowy white blobs and clear tubing, I'd say Grace Grothaus was putting on a kind of lead apron. 

But as it lights up, bright green in the shape of a pair of lungs, it tells me my real lungs, here in her small office in Toronto, are safe from invisible but harmful air pollutants. 

"The illumination of the lungs sort of brings the atmosphere that we can't see into the body and makes it something that is suddenly visible," explains Grothaus, an artist and scientist with York University. 

Powered by a battery, a small sensor draws in air to detect its quality, sending that to the lights in the front. (Anand Ram/CBC News)This prototype, Grothaus says, was developed while she was doing her master's degree at the University of California San Diego. It uses a small sensor at the back to draw in air and check for two forms of pollution, PM2.5 and black carbon (microscopic soot, essentially). Both can be hazardous to human health. 

The sensor information is then translated to the front lighting, following the colour scheme of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's air quality index (AQI). 

"So you have green, the level where the air is safe to breathe," Grothaus said.

It then progresses through yellow, orange, red, purple and brown. 

A demonstration of what air quality at "red", or unhealthy, levels would look like. (Anand Ram/CBC News)"We rarely see those later-stage colours, such as red and purple, except during wildfire season." 

But wildfire smoke — even for Canadians who now find themselves having to deal with it almost every year — isn't the only kind of danger in the air. Experts have said for years that there's no safe level of any particulate matter, and the risk is present even as a result of such things as traffic congestion. 

But the challenge is that the pollutants are often invisible — a gap that some artists are trying to fill. 

"All of them get forgotten," said Michael Pinsky, a visual artist based in London. Pinsky has been using the environment and climate change as messages in his installations for two decades. 

His work ranges from dredging bikes and shopping carts out of a Parisian canal to his latest, Your Shit Smells Like Roses, a project highlighting how black water (toilet waste) can be beneficial when it's separated from the grey water that contains the soaps and detergents we also flush down the drain.

Michael Pinsky's Pollution Pods seen at the Somerset House in London, England, in 2018. (Michael Pinsky)His Pollution Pods tackled pollution through a series of connected geodesic domes recreating the air of different cities. He worked with a fragrance company to recreate smells such as sulphur, but also adjusted the temperature and humidity to mimic the experience he wanted: the shock of getting off a plane into a different city. 

"In many ways, we have habituated to pollution," Pinsky said, recalling how some people had their senses shocked after going through it. "It's that lack of being able to habituate to it that makes it a kind of powerful, visceral experience." 

"There's scientific reasoning showing why climate change is happening, but the reason why it's happening is cultural," Pinsky told me via video call from London, suggesting the climate message needs a different tactic. 

"You have to move beyond, ‘Oh wow, the whole world's going to blow up.' You have to make it unfashionable to do certain things." 

This cloud-shaped air quality sensor is the product of consulting community members. (Anand Ram/CBC News)Back in Toronto, Grothaus is now working on a portable air quality sensor called AirWear, which serves as a more of a community-focused everyday device. 

Part of its development involved design workshops with people living between Toronto's downtown Billy Bishop airport and its busy Gardiner Expressway. Participants said that they wanted something light and with a positive message, leading Grothaus to redesign the AirWear as a friendlier-looking cloud shape. 

She hopes to recruit some more participants from the community for a two-week real-world pilot of these devices before the year's end. 

"Art can make things felt or seen," Grothaus said. "But community research can make it useful." 

Old issues of What on Earth? are here. The CBC News climate page is here. 

Check out our podcast and radio show.   In our latest episode: As Parliament gets back in session, there's a lot going on: a trade war, talk of Alberta separation and international alliances being redrawn. Prime Minister Mark Carney has been clear: he doesn't think the old climate plan he inherited from the Trudeau government holds up to Canada's new reality.

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The Big Picture: Killer El Niño (Climate Impact Lab)We've been warned of a "super" El Niño for months. Now, after smashing its previous temperature record months before its expected peak, we're getting a forecast of the potential human toll. Researchers at the Climate Impact Lab at the University of Chicago say that between June 2026 and February 2027, the world will see 451,000 more deaths than expected from heat-related causes, because of El Niño. The map above shows how many more deaths are expected in countries compared to the last two decades. 

The worst impacts will be felt in the global South, such as Nigeria and Indonesia. The experts say the time to act is now, using "heat warnings, health outreach to vulnerable populations, cooling centres and hydration stations, worker protections, and expanded health system capacity" to help people cope with extreme heat. 

Ikayuut solar and energy storage project now complete in NaujaatThe Ikayuut solar and energy storage project is expected to reduce Naujaat's reliance on diesel consumption by 30 per cent or 400,000 litres per year. (Photo by Stewart Burnett)In a reclaimed scrapyard in Naujaat, Nunavut, the Ikayuut solar and energy storage project has flipped the switch to renewable energy. 

The project is the first to reach operation from Qulliq Energy Corporation's (QEC) independent power producer program (IPP), which allows communities to sell renewable energy to QEC's power grid.

Now that the project is operational, QEC CEO Ernest Douglas said it will help the community reduce its diesel consumption by 30 per cent or 400,000 litres per year. 

In a statement, Sakku Investments Corporation said the project is a powerful example of turning a challenge into an opportunity.

"A piece of land that was previously contaminated and not readily usable has been transformed into something productive that can provide value to the community," the statement said.

"Our goal is not simply to introduce new energy technologies into our communities but to build Inuit capacity and create opportunities for Kivalliqmiut to have a greater role in the energy sector."

The project started supplying energy to Naujaat's power grid on Aug. 20 and is a collaboration between Kivalliq Alternative Energy, Sakku Investments Corporation, Northern Energy Capital, QEC and the hamlet of Naujaat. 

"It's just a testament of what can happen when QEC works with communities, renewable energy developers and Inuit organizations so that we can reduce our diesel consumption," Douglas said. 

James Griffiths, the director of development at Northern Energy Capital, said what's unique about this project is that on a bright sunny day when the battery storage is charged, there is the possibility to turn off the diesel generators. 

"At that point in time, they could shut the diesel generator off and rely on the sun that's shining," Griffiths said. "This would be a momentous first moment, when QEC first turns its diesel off." 

Douglas said turning off the diesel generators could potentially happen next summer. 

"[We still] need for the diesel generators to provide the backbone that they will always serve in our communities for reliable electricity. But the goal here is to continue to reduce our reliance on imported diesel fuel," Douglas said. 

Construction took two years to complete, and Griffiths said though the project is new, the technology itself is tried and tested. 

"Solar panels are operating in all kinds of climates today and they're very reliable," he said. 

"Solar panels actually operate more efficiently when they're cold. There are some technologies that deliberately cool solar panels for that reason."

In the winter, Griffiths said the project is winterized so that the solar panels can withstand the cold climate. 

Both Douglas and Griffiths said there are many opportunities for renewable energy projects in Nunavut in the future, including with the IPP program.

"Ultimately, the vision is to consume local energy at the place where it's derived," Douglas said. "We still need to have the diesel generation as a backup, but the potential to unlock renewable energy to continue to reduce that diesel consumption — it's exciting in Nunavut."

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