Pigeons with backpacks to detect Air Pollution

March 17, 2016 2:33 PM | Skymet Weather Team

It seems like the modern man is quite inspired by the old ways of delivering letters. While pigeons served as effective messengers in the ancient times, now they are helping out in detecting air quality.

China and India are not the only two air countries battling Air Pollution; London is also on the list. Diesel vehicles in London are responsible for about 9500 premature deaths every year.

Taking a look at such alarming figures, the Government was asked to come up with a plan to keep these pollution levels in check.

On Monday morning, ten pigeons were seen flying in the air with small backpacks comprising of GPS trackers and pollution sensors. The moment they started tweeting with their beaks, their Twitter account is known as @pigeonair also began tweeting information about pollution levels in that particular area. Not only are users getting live information regarding pollution levels in their area, but they also can view a live map of the location of these pigeons online.

This initiative is a publicity stunt to make people aware of the quality of the air they are breathing every day. This is not the first time that a bird is being used for an environmental cause. Peru has also used vultures with GoPro Cameras and GPS Trackers to hunt garbage dumping sites that happened to be illegal.

Image Credit: @pigeonair

 

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