Dutch artist Daan Roosegaarde plans to use an "electronic vacuum" to combat the smog that regularly inhabits the sky in Beijing, China. This "vacuum" actually consists of copper wires that will be buried under the grass at a park in the city. The wires will create an electrostatic field that will drag pollution particles to the ground.
If the smog-vanishing project works (it will reportedly take a year and approximately $1.6 million to complete), the sun would be able to shine through a 22,500 square-foot hole in the smog that would open up over the park.
Roosegaarde, who developed a dance floor that generated electricity and whose company has a studio in Shanghai, said he got the idea from trips to Beijing.
"I realized that day one I could see the skyscrapers, and day two I couldn't," Roosegaarde said. He was also struck by how air-filtering masks were so common in parts of China that they had become a part of the fashion.
But Roosegaarde understands that the problem goes far beyond aesthetics. Air pollution has prematurely ended the lives of 1.2 million people in China, making it the nation's fourth-leading cause of death.
The artist, who said his project should be ready to go in eight to 10 months, just hopes it draws attention to the need for real solutions.
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Image: Flickr, Proggie
Source: Mashable
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