Fresh Air for Sale!

The air in China's major cities is extremely bad. Perhaps there is nowhere on Earth with as much air pollution as Beijing. As 2016 gave way to 2017, residents of Beijing suffered through the longest time of air pollution ever recorded in the country. They choked through eight continuous days of thick, light-blocking haze. The smog was so thick that it reached "doomsday" levels. Authorities issued a "red alert" to warn against dangerous smog in the city.

The Chinese are worried about the terrible health effects of living in such an environment. And some of them are turning to a very unusual tactic: buying cans of clean air! This is where Canada comes in to save the day. Vitality Air, a Canadian company, bottles the cool mountain air of the scenic Rocky Mountains in Canada. No joke… People in China are buying cans of fresh air from Canada. Vitality Air has a large consumer market for its product here. Since last year, it has sold 12,000 bottles to Chinese customers including athletes, business executives and families with small children. And, as you guess, the air doesn't come cheap. The company charges between $20 and $32 for a canister that lasts between 150 and 200 breaths.

Air pollution may be a huge market opportunity for this Canadian company, but we have to understand this: One bottle of air doesn't help! This obviously isn’t the solution to the air pollution in our world. How about we improve air quality and reduce greenhouse gas emissions a bit so we don’t have to buy clean air like some sort of dystopian future movie?