Considering Urban Air Anthropogenic air · 'Humans increasingly manufacture their own air' Stephen Graham (2005) - we are dependent on air to survive so is significance in keeping it clean and is often ignored · Air is so insubstantial that it is often missed out of academic scholarship and debates e.g. current air pollution debates still treating air as allusive or secondary to other areas of environmental concern · Air is mobile, fluid and excessive, refusing governance · Air in contingent so causality is difficult to identify and predict · Hong Kong air quality arranged by class - richer living higher up out of polluted streets · Atmospheric temperature and composition is different throughout the centuries mostly due to urban-industrial growth since Anthropocene · 80% of greenhouse gases come from urban areas of the world (Hodson and Marvin 2010) Historical imaginings of urban air · John Evelin 1661 book Fumifugium issues warning of unwholesome air threating the health of Londoners - impure and thick mist corrupting lungs . Doctor Tryon in 1668 backed this up stating filthy city air filled up the body - historical imagination of the city . Great stink of 1850 in London and 1880 in Paris, bad smells and terror in the cities due to poor sanitation that pose a threat to public health . First urban hospitals therefore designed with ventilation in mind to the architect . Early representations of air as a killer, causing asthma/bronchitis, something that will hurt you and can cause death 'fog demon' Urban atmospheres: heat and toxicity Heat wave deaths · Air conditioning inequality is a rising problem as those without air conditioning or not opening windows often experience greater depths in heat waves as cities become heat islands · Higher concentrations of greenhouse gases in densely built up environments with more concrete and asphalt to absorb the sun heat · Chicago 1995, 739 people died (mostly from low standard housing) during heatwave due to not having air conditioning funds to afford electricity to turn it on or ability to open windows through fear of crime or poor infrastructure and heightened pollution · Paris heatwave 2003 and across Europe 70,000 people died in this year from heatwave, this is about legacy of housing and types socio-economic inequalities, overly effected older, ill, isolated communities 'the forgotten', hot air rises so a lot of victims lived high up under hot bitumen roofs Air toxicity · Air pollution, great smogs from increased coal burning and greenhouse gases leading to more 'natural' disasters and states of emergency · Legislative shifts such as the clean air act · Urban air linked to disease which is linked to close proximity and sanitation - aware of disease spreading more in built up areas both in coronavirus pandemic and historically · Diseases such as: asthma, chickenpox, anthrax, measles, influenza, cholera, tuberculosis etc all have thrived in urban areas · Ella Kissi-Debrah died aged 9 died from dangerous levels of air pollution close to her home which contributed to