“Water and air, the two essential fluids on which all life depends, have become global garbage cans.”
Jacques-Yves Cousteau
Hello everyone! I thought that it would be a good idea to give a self-introduction and an overview of my thought process behind choosing air pollution as my topic of interest, as I would be maintaining this blog throughout this semester.
I am Yuin Chi, a second-year Geography undergraduate from the National University of Singapore. I am currently enrolled in the Environmental Pollution module, and the content of this blog would make up a proportion of my final grade.
Speaking of environmental pollution, it didn’t take long for me to decide on air pollution. Although I spent most of my life here in Singapore, I have also stayed in Malaysia for a good 5 years during my childhood years (one thing that I love most about Malaysia is the food!). I grew up in Kuala Lumpur (otherwise be known by many Singaporeans as KL), and my house is located within a 15 minutes’ drive away from KL’s City Centre, as shown in the image above.
By now, I think some of you could guess my intention behind choosing this particular photo, out of all the photos available on the Internet. This view is still deeply etched in my memory today, as this blurry and foggy-looking view was the view that I see from my window on a daily basis – for 5 years.
In 2019, KL was ranked as the 7th most polluted city in the world by Air Visual, a Switzerland-based pollution mapping service (Radhi & Jay, 2019). Having stayed there for some time, I can attest to this. KL has become a ‘breeding ground’ for respiratory diseases like bronchitis and asthma particularly in young children, all thanks to the negative impacts of air pollution. Most of my classmates and relatives – including myself, have fallen victims to some of these respiratory diseases, and you would certainly be regarded as an ‘alien’ if you do not suffer from any variations of these.
Because of this first-hand encounter with the impacts of air pollution, I would love to learn more about air pollution in greater depth through different case studies and academic journals. Although this is an academic blog, I hope that I can use this as a platform in a more engaging way to raise awareness about the causes, impacts and some possible suggestions to combat air pollution. I also aim to include some of my insights and reviews to air pollution related content on news articles and videos with content occasionally to keep things interesting.
Thanks for dropping by and I am really excited to share this learning journey with you!
Disappearing into thin air,
Yuin Chi
References:
Radhi, N. A. M., Jay, B. N., 2019. ‘AirVisual ranks KL seventh most polluted city in the world’. New Straits Times. Retrieved from: https://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2019/09/520933/airvisual-ranks-kl-seventh-most-polluted-city-world
Image Credits:
Adreenah, I., 2019. ‘Haze, Haze Go Away: Kuala Lumpur Is Now the FOURTH Most Polluted City In The World’. Rojak Daily. Retrieved from: https://d3avoj45mekucs.cloudfront.net/rojakdaily/media/iylia/news/hazetop5.jpg?ext=.jpg
Air Pollution 
