The toxic air conditions that have become the norm in New Delhi, India have been recreated at the COP25 Climate Conference in Madrid, Spain, through an immersive art installation.
Guests and leaders from around the world who are attending the climate talks were made to experience, through a visit to the Pollution Pods, the hazardous smoggy air that millions of people breathe in the Indian capital every single day, especially during the winter season.
Spending merely a minute or two in the New Delhi Pollution Pod led the visitors to experience shortness of breath and irritated eyes.
Pollutions Pods are artistic installations made of geodesic domes that are connected in a ring. Within each dome, the air quality of a global city is recreated using safe perfume blends and fog machines.
The immersive experience at the COP25 was made possible by Michael Pinsky, a London-based artist who simulates atmospheric conditions of various cities from across the globe.
At the event in Madrid, Pinsky's Pollution Pods recreated the atmosphere conditions of five global cities—the pristine air from Tautra, Norway as well as the polluted conditions from London, Beijing, São Paulo and New Delhi. As people went from one pod to another, they were able to witness the varying air quality levels between different cities.
Pinsky's project was brought to the COP25 in the Spanish capital by the World Health Organisation (WHO), with the aim of launching a creative drive to create awareness as well as encourage urgent action against air pollution and climate change.
Meanwhile, New Delhi and several other regions from the northern half of India have continued to remain engulfed in highly polluted air in December as well. On Wednesday, the air quality across Delhi-NCR dropped to 'severe' levels yet again.
Only last month, Henrietta Fore, the Executive Director of UNICEF, called for urgent action against the pollution crisis gripping India and other countries in South Asia.
"I saw first-hand how children continue to suffer from the dire consequences of air pollution," said Fore after her visit to India. "The air quality was at a crisis level. You could smell the toxic fog even from behind an air filtration mask."
