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The Bookless Club: What are you doing about the quality of air you breathe?

What do you think of when you think of Iceland?

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Waterfalls? Geothermal springs? But how about air quality?

I’ve recently returned from Iceland and I have come away hugely impressed with the island nation’s air quality. Several times a day I found myself breathing like some sort of respiratory sommelier then making ecstatic pronouncements. Given how stupefying Iceland’s scenery is, this is saying a great deal.

Iceland has some of the cleanest air in the entire world. It exceeds the World Health Organization’s air quality guidelines. WHO doesn’t come right out and say it, but the air in Iceland could even be considered therapeutic. That’s distinctly different from what they’re breathing in Kuching, Malaysia, which has some of the worst air in the world. Kuching’s air quality index reading is often over 280, which is at the top end of the unhealthy zone — a rating of 300 is considered hazardous. Vancouver’s rating is generally in the safe zone, but wildfire smoke causes our numbers to bounce around.

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