 | As another smog day dawns in Toronto, I am thinking about the futuristic dystopia, "The Lost Continent" by Norman Spinrad in which the American economy survives solely on tourism, as people fly in from Africa to see the amazing smog. Americans, who must wear filters continually, have lost their technological prowess, their minds dulled by continual exposure to airborn pollutants."As we stepped out onto the cracked and pitted concrete, the spectrum of reality changed, as if we were suddenly on the surface of a planet circling a bluer and grayer sun. The entire grotesque panorama appeared as if through a blue gray filter. But we were inside the filter; the filter was the open American smog and it shone in drab sparkles all around us." |
| Sound depressing? It is! But at least its just a story, not like the real smog that has been literally deppressing the systems of Torontonians for weeks. Friends are tired and cranky, eyes are scratchy, lungs are tight. Some people are getting sick, others are moving much too slowly to get a full day's work in. On days like these the mere fact that someone is driving a car is enough to make me deeply dislike and distrust them. I am misanthropic cause I'm crabby cause I and my loved ones are oxygen depleted, but also because the days of driving cars in cities must, surely, be nearly coming to an end. Need cheering up, like me? Tino's photoblog, Bike Lane Diary and Darren Stehr's critical mass pictures at Toronto Cranks are very pleasing. | |
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