Revealed: This place has the cleanest air in the world

The peninsula witnesses strong winds and waves that make it hard for people to reach there

Trends Desk

Published: Mon 25 Sep 2023, 5:04 PM

Last updated: Mon 25 Sep 2023, 5:50 PM

While it seems that humankind has polluted every corner of the planet, one place stands out with its exceptionally clean air.

Located near the north-western tip of Tasmania, Australia, Cape Grim offers the cleanest air on Earth, according to an international media outlet.

The remote peninsula witnesses strong winds and waves that make it hard for people to reach there. It has an air pollution station, the Cape Grim Baseline Atmospheric Pollution Station (CGBAPS), which was built in 1976 to collect and analyse the composition of the air, the report said.

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“The strong westerly winds that buffet the Kennaook/Cape Grim air monitoring station have travelled thousands of kilometres over the icy Southern Ocean, making air measured here some of the cleanest in the world,” Dr Ann Stavert, senior research scientist at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) told the BBC.

Tasmania is the point where winds crash into the coastline after travelling long distances across the ocean without any interruption. This is the reason that the air measured on the peninsula turns out to be the cleanest, the report added.

Stavert said that wind speed and wind direction data suggest that 30 per cent of the wind reaching Cape Grim can be considered “baseline” or the air that is “not influenced by local atmospheric sources and sinks”.

Describing the landscape of Cape Grim, photographer Olivia Sattler said she was “blown away with how remote and rugged the Cape Grim area is – it's so beautiful and wild”, quoted the media outlet.

“The mist hovers over the waves and when the sun sets over the water you see amazing vibrant colours setting above the deep blues of the ocean,” she added.

The unpolluted air of Cape Grim has also inspired some businesses with people selling everything from bottled rainwater to bottled Tasmanian air.

As per the official page of Tasmania.com, Cape Grim Baseline Air Pollution Station “focuses on long-term measurements of climate change and ozone depletion gases.” The measurements are taken “6 times per year and are kept in large canisters about the size of a barbecue propane tank. The air samples are pressurized so there is plenty to analyse.”

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