Why is now that it seems every other country and city comes up with bigger ideas than we see in America?
This big weather balloon in Paris changes color with the air quality. I hope it doesn’t become a fixture as old as the Tour Eiffel, but I love the vision of this other-worldly object floating above the city. Paris, London, K-L, Shanghai…the list goes on and on of cities breaking the horizon with new ideas.
When it comes to air pollution, Paris is not much different from any other European city. It has its good days and its bad.
But unlike elsewhere you don’t need to be a scientist to tell them apart. All you have to do is look up into the air.
Floating 150 meters above the Parc Andre Citroen, in Paris’s 15th arrondissement is the Air de Paris, a giant tethered helium balloon telling Parisians how good or bad the air quality is.
When it’s good the balloon — measuring 22 meters wide and 32 meters high — glows green. When bad, it’s red. And when it’s so so, it glows orange. During the day, banners and LCD screens flash the same shade.
