Smog Alert

[sabotabby]

Those of you who live in Toronto are quite familiar with smog alerts (I'm not sure if they have them in other cities). That's when, as VICE recently put it, the good citizens of Toronto are warned to "take it easy on the whole inhale/exhale thing."

They are increasingly common. We are expected to treat is as routine. It's just another unfortunate consequence of modernity that one is expected to absorb, to treat as normal. You can't breathe? Oh well. Maybe you'll be allowed to breathe tomorrow. It's not like you have a right to air or anything. Besides, we're all going to die of cancer, and that's perfectly routine as well.


The first smog alert day in Toronto this year was two days ago.

Interestingly, we—pedestrians, that is, and cyclists too—are warned to stay inside on smog alert days. Drivers, the cause of much of this smog, are never warned to stop driving. I felt that this discrepancy deserved to be commented upon.