Pre-dawn Contamination, 2126
Vijaya Gopal
Artwork for ‘Pollution‘ (Issue 25)
The Science
Ambient pollution determined by the air quality index (AQI) is driven by airborne impurities from fossil fuels, industries, and unmanaged waste. Key pollutants include particulate matter, ground-level ozone, nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide, and carbon monoxide. This is compounded by deforestation, photochemical smog, a near-ground haze from intense solar ultraviolet radiation reacting with hydrocarbons, oxides of nitrogen, and microplastics, underscoring poor health and climate change in the global south. 'Pre-dawn Contamination, 2126 CE' is inspired by this pollution as we might see it in the night sky a hundred years from now if global cooperation has invoked innovative solutions.
Further information: https://darksky.org/resources/what-is-light-pollution/
The Medium
'Pre-dawn Contamination, 2126 CE' is a watercolour painting on 140 GSM, heavyweight, acid-free, paper (size A5: 5.8” x 8.3”). This was scanned using a Canon MF3010 printer.
The Artist
Vijaya Gopal’s aim through making poetry and art is to evoke concepts from her lived experiences as a life scientist. She also enjoys reading, and revelling in nature. Based in Hyderabad in Southern India, she is an Independent Science Consultant on RNAi therapeutics, and engages in scientific outreach. Her blog can be found at https://gunrockmusings.wordpress.com
Associated Poem
The paradox of pollution
has no solution
for anthropic eyes
for telescopic vision
for being error prone
while slipping into a slow death
merely copying designs
what nature subtly does
create, elongate, extend to no end
just as contamination finds its source
meets its course
if that’s not fundamentally love, then what is?
Copyright statement. This work is published under the CC BY-NC-SA license