For those who live in London, you can now tweet @PigeonAir to have a pigeon task force dispatched to your neighborhood to fly through the sky and test the quality of the air. Plume Labs has teamed up with a local owner of racing pigeons, whose birds are outfitted with tiny sensors that take readings of ozone, volatile compounds, and nitrogen dioxide.
The birds love to fly around and there is a vet on hand to make sure the birds are kept healthy and happy. The pigeon air quality campaign is meant to bring awareness to London air pollution crisis. Hopefully, an added bonus will be some good PR for these often-maligned birds.
According to the Guardian, representatives from the project state:
is a scandal. It is a health and environmental scandal for humans – and pigeons. We’re making the invisible visible,” said Pierre Duquesnoy, who won a London Design Festival award for the idea last year. “Most of the time when we talk about pollution people think about Beijing or other places, but there are some days in the year when pollution was higher and more toxic in London than Beijing, that’s the reality.
They took their first flight on Monday and the campaign will last for three days before they go back to birdness as usual.
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@Nichelia Moderate pollution in #Waterloo. Avoid toxic smog: https://t.co/0QmKwBjRVc #PigeonAir pic.twitter.com/suTwfJGGDG
— Pigeon Air Patrol (@PigeonAir) March 14, 2016
