Not Worth Noticing?

We were given thirty minutes to find a story on air pollution during our safahawa workshop.

My first instinct along with most of the participants was to climb to the rooftop as if hoping to discover something unexpected. Instead, we found an expected sight of the city fading into a grey horizon.

The story was obvious to most of us.

In fact, so obvious that I decided not to feature it in my story that day. The reason was that air pollution and hazy cities had become such a common part of our lives that it no longer felt surprising.

Perhaps, the haze over the city was not unusual enough to attract attention. Standing there, I realized that air pollution had become so apparent that it now had to compete for our attention each day. Ironically enough, we see it every day, we photograph it and we write about it.

Yet somehow, it continues to grow into the background of our lives. If polluted skies no longer surprise us, how bad will they have to become before we decide they deserve our full attention?