Spare the Air

The incredibly destructive wild-fires in California (almost four million acres in 2020 and still burning, compared to five year average of about 700K) has all humans here monitoring air quality. Indoor air-purifiers are sold out.

The question bothering me is what might be the right air-quality for the birds and bees? And other life forms? Surely a humming bird needs clean air too and is likely unsafe at a lower particulate size and count of pollution than a human. Even when the bees start to disappear (cellphone towers?) and our crops are not pollinated, we notice and respond by putting our best minds towards creating robotic bee-drones, without showing much concern about extinction of a species, let alone trying to save it even though we like their honey. That’s how human-centric we are. The wealthy are already using air purifiers as routinely as filters in our car’s ventilation and the air-conditioning and fans in several homes, unless we take radical actions to reverse the climate crisis we are living through globally. Seeing birds on my walk by the bay brings me great joy, and it never gets old. Can we spare the air for all life-forms?