Smog

A friend of mine recently returned home after a 2 week work-assignment in Beijing. I've always thought about visiting China, with images of the Great Wall, the countryside, and the friendly Chinese people. But my friend painted a much less inviting picture of Beijing. He complained of the heavy smog and air pollution. Sure, the industries that create this smog, fuelled by workers working 12 hour days, have turned China into an economic powerhouse, but at what cost to the environment and to humanity?
I recently read a short story written in 1958 by Italo Calvino called "Smog"; the original Italian title is "La Nuvola di Smog", and it deals with (you guessed it) smog. I'd like to write a little about this remarkable short story.

The main character is a journalist - the narrator of the story, whose name is never disclosed to the reader. He arrives in a big city (the name of which we are never told), and rents a room from a deaf elderly lady. The city is covered by a big cloud of smog which really makes its presence felt; there is dust everywhere. He is hired by a magazine called Purification in its editorial department. Purification is the organ of an institute which aims to fight air-pollution in the city. The Editor-in-Chief of Purification is Mr. Cordà, who also happens to be the president of a corporation which is responsible for most of the city's air-pollution. The press-officer at Purification is Mr. Avandero. Occasionally, the narrator receives phone calls from his girlfriend Claudia - a beautiful and successful woman who lives in another city, and who visits the narrator. The narrator also makes the acquaintance of a young worker and unionist named Omar Basaluzzi, who organises meetings against the smog problem.

Each of the main characters in the story reacts differently to the air-pollution: Mr. Cordà pretends to fight the problem, but in reality he's the biggest contributor. In fact, he is almost proud of the city's smog. Cordà says: "We are a great foggy industrial city, you realise; therefore smog exists here, too, we have no less smog than anywhere else. ... We are one of the cities where the problem of air pollution is most serious, but at the same time we are the city where most is being done to counteract the situation! At the same time, you understand?" The narrator comments about Cordà: "... Everything that was, for me, the substance of a general wretchedness, for men like him was surely the sign of wealth, supremacy and power ...".
The beautiful Claudia chooses to ignore the problem; she sees the world through rose coloured glasses. There is the unionist Omar Basaluzzi, who dreams of a world with ideologies completely different from those of Western societies. And there is the office manager at the magazine (Mr. Avandero), who washes his hands of the whole thing and goes on vacation whenever he can: "What's the city for, then, except to get out on a Saturday and Sunday".

At one point in the story, a new problem becomes evident, which threatens to overshadow the problem of the smog. No, it's not the threat of global terrorism and Al Qaeda - the story was written in 1958. The new threat is air pollution due to radiation. The problem of smog is reduced to a mere trifle compared to the nuclear threat of world destruction.

In the closing stages of the story, we find our main character in the countryside - in a place where linen from the city is taken to be washed and hung to dry. He looks around at his surroundings - the green meadows, the colours, the clean air, the merry laughter and the water in the stream flowing with bluish bubbles - and then he turns back and heads towards the city. There is no moralistic message - just a suggestion that there is a way forward: to face the problems of the city but with a heart warmed by the images of the countryside. In a way, the ending is a mixture of hope - as the narrator witnesses the countryside - and despair at the thought of a world which cannot be saved. Hope or despair? It's up to us to act and to decide how it ends.‎