Suffocating under Santiago Smog

The Copa America is in a Smoggy State of Emergency

The second biggest soccer tournament in South America is taking place in Chile. The Copa América ranks second in importance only to the World Cup.

I am currently spending a week in Chile and a common theme has hung around, Santiago smog. It looks like what I would imagine China to look like in the winter.

Today was such a smoggy day that the city declared a state of emergency. Santiago has suffered from a lack of precipitation this winter (Southern hemisphere winter) and the smog has been especially pungent.

This afternoon I traversed the city from the higher eastern half of Las Condes over to the Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport on the western border. The air quality progressively became worse. It was like a light fog that turned into a putrid brown cloud. The smell was overpowering as I got out of the taxi at the airport and hurriedly went inside.

To help highlight the amount of air pollution, I filmed our ascent out of the smog with my GoPro and I then compared it with the landing during a brief stopover at the Antofagasta Cerro Moreno International Airport.