Read my latest flash, Venison, at 52|250.

I had to go into the city again today, despite being buried under an avalanche of student papers and outside work. You see, all that work simply isn’t about to get done without coffee. Once in the city, however, I was quickly disabused of my notion that Longhu had been especially smoggy of late: the air in Zhengzhou quickly dried out my eyes to the point of tears.

Another thing I noticed, this on my way back, was when a man on a moped pulled up to a traffic light pole (one that also held a surveillance camera, as is typical here, opened up a panel, and connected a laptop to it. After a few moments of typing, he closed everything up on his way. It’s easy to imagine that he was downloading camera data or uploading alterations to the timing of the lights. However, he wasn’t wearing a uniform which makes that seem a bit unlikely.

Today should’ve been a beautiful day.  Warm enough to wear a thin shirt or even short sleeves but with just that hint of autumn crispness that makes you appreciate the warmth while you still have it.  Or perhaps that hint of cool is a hallucination brought on by the sights and sounds of dried-out leaves.  It should have been a beautiful day.

But it wasn’t.  The air was full of smoke and smog thick as any but the thickest fogs I’ve passed through (and I’ve known some serious fog).  It’s not entirely unusual here in Zhengzhou.  Throat lozenges occupy prominent locations near grocery store cash registers year round because of it.

This is what happens when pollution goes largely unchecked in the name of economic growth, and it’s an important reminder that protecting the environment isn’t so much about ‘saving the Earth’ (barring its physical destruction, it will go on in some form or another regardless of human interventions) but about improving our lives on Earth.  It’s something economic indicators don’t account for, but really what’s the point of these ‘indicators’ if they can’t point to the fluctuations of our happiness?