Clearing the Air by Tim Smedley

Being Friday, there were more climate protests today and new books related to environmental issues continue to appear. One is CLEARING THE AIR by Tim Smedley which was shortlisted for the 2019 Royal Society Science Book Prize. In the prologue, Smedley notes his initial surprise when he started to learn more about “the most immediate environmental issue of all: the air we breathe.” He certainly does cite disturbing statistics: “In late 2016, the World Health Organisation (WHO) announced that outdoor air pollution caused over 3 million deaths worldwide; by 2018, the WHO revised this up to 4.2 million.” Smedley’s work tends to be rather UK-centric, although he adds graphic examples from around the world, like describing half-marathoners running in Delhi, India while wearing face masks or Beijing, China citizens complaining of persistent coughs. Smedley argues that air pollution is gradual, persistent and largely invisible so humans are less inclined to take drastic action. Hoping this will change, he notes that “modern science is starting to reveal what our eyes cannot see: an anonymous killer born from the cars in our driveway and the industrial processes used to make the products in our cupboards."  Offering chapters split between Origins (e.g., The Dash for Diesel) and the Fightback (e.g., Electric Dreams), Smedley concludes with an epilogue containing a Clean Air Blueprint for cities and for his individual readers. CLEARING THE AIR includes an index and provides details for a limited set of references.

The Language of Solitude by Jan-Philipp Sendker

THE LANGUAGE OF SOLITUDE is the latest from Jan-Philipp Sendker who may be most well-known for his excellent international best seller, The Art of Hearing Heartbeats. I highly recommend both books. THE LANGUAGE OF SOLITUDE features characters, Paul and Christine, whom Sendker had introduced previously in Whispering Shadows. Paul is an ex-pat who has lived in China and Hong Kong for decades and Christine, who fled mainland China, is his partner. Together they are drawn into a mysterious and dangerous situation involving Christine’s family on the mainland.

Like Sendker’s other works, THE LANGUAGE OF SOLITUDE is a beautiful commentary on the human spirit, a reflection on impact of the Cultural Revolution, and an attempt to educate about the influence of Chinese culture such as I Ching and astrology.  As I read, I always find much to highlight:

“He who knows others is clever; He who knows himself is enlightened.” 

“Are our lives the most precious possessions we have? Or is it the way our lives are lived?”

“I’m not cynical,” Xiao Hu objected. “I’m pragmatic. That’s a big difference. At least in China.”

That last quote refers to a debate about whether or not to try to seek justice for industrial pollution. In his fiction, Sendker attempts to contrast the natural reaction from a Western versus a Chinese perspective as his characters grapple with a potentially corrupt and nascent system of regulations.  This tension was recently illustrated in the real world, too, in “The Most Neglected Threat to Public Health in China is Toxic Soil” published this week in The Economist.  It quotes the government’s 2014 national soil survey which indicated that 16.1% of all soil and 19.4% of China’s farmland was contaminated by pollutants and metals such as lead, cadmium and arsenic; see accompanying map for a visual representation of that story.  

I continue to look forward to more from Sendker; other titles I have previously reviewed include: Whispering Shadows and A Well-Tempered Heart.  THE LANGUAGE OF SOLITUDE received a starred review from Library Journal.