Written by Aaraon Reuben and Gabriel Isaacman for The Atlantic
Oakland's Caldecott Tunnel (allaboutgeorge/Flickr)
In the flat lands of California's Central Valley, oil pumps obscured by waving lines of fuel-richened air dip and rise on the horizon. Two hundred miles to the north and west, aging eighteen-wheelers pound through an urban bypass tunnel, staining the walls black with diesel fumes. Farther to the north, High Sierra pines scent the mountain air with notes of cinnamon and nutmeg, sending blue wisps of haze trailing gently upward.
Air is not the same everywhere. Across the extremes of the human environment, in both urban areas and wild, powerful natural and human forces combine to create intricate mixtures of chemicals that compose the air we breathe, seek for pleasure, or avoid. And now that air is made audible.