The Encyclopedia of Pollution
In this section of my exhaust gas website, I try to write down and cross-reference every facet of my quirky penchants. The idea is to create some kind of a mind map, because even I have often asked myself how my various, seemingly far-fetched interests are connected after all.
Discovery and evolution of my interests
It all started with exhaust fumes. These omnipresent, disease-causing, environmentally harmful waste products have bothered me a lot ever since I was a little boy. I was a very environmentally-conscious child, and that us humans pollute and poison our air with them so profusely and indifferently made me terribly sad. However, apart from overwhelming feelings of outrage, sadness, and helplessness, I soon noticed that exhaust fumes also started to have some strange, macabre appeal with me. First, I paid keen attention to polluters in my neighbourhood, then I started to actively look for occasions where I could watch exhaust gas being produced. My pained environmental conscience wanted me to bear witness to every moment of appalling, needless air pollution – perhaps so that the memory of all the harrowing pollution I'd seen would give me the willpower to become an even more fervent environmental activist when I grew up. But I also noticed that other side growing, which somehow found exhaust fumes, in all their nastiness and reprehensibility, also somehow captivating and alluring. A side which meant that seeing exhaust fumes being spewn out into nature didn't just make me feel anger and disgust, but also excitement and arousal. This, in turn, led to crushing feelings of guilt on my ecologically-minded side – I write some more on that in the introduction to my backstory and the entry on exhaust gas.
But as I hinted at, exhaust fumes were only the beginning. I was appalled that humans didn't pollute the air just out of indifference, but also wilfully for sports and amusement. That's when I found out that exhaust fumes offended me the most – and always also thrilled me the most – when they were produced in motorsports. The protective gear worn by motorsports athletes is very distinctive, and indisputable proof that the person wearing it has no qualms about wasting gasoline for fun. That's how for me, racesuits or motorcycle helmets became another tantalising symbol for mankind's alienation from nature, and how recklessly we treat it. From there, I also developed a fondness for other types of "unnatural" protective gear, sometimes worn by people to protect themselves against the very pollution humanity itself caused. At some point, I even discovered a soft spot for more general, everyday clothing made of synthetic fibres, such as wintersports gear or rain wear. They, too, could be symbols for how humans distance themselves from nature and try to protect themselves from it. In addition, they're made of non-natural materials, often based on mineral oil, and will stay in the environment for an excessively long time before they decompose.
Similarly to this example, my penchants have changed, expanded, and developed in many different directions. An unusual kink for exhaust fumes grew into a fondness for motorsports, gasoline-powered hobbies and pastimes, tree fellings and forest destruction. My childish observations of polluting cars in the neighbourhood gave way to an interest in the much more environmentally harmful two-stroke engines, and from that, a fascination for mopeds, motor scooters, enduro motorcycles, or go-karts. During beach holidays, my alertness for exhaust fumes led me to find out how much jetskis polluted the water, and how a single motor can cause an entire area to reek of exhaust gas for a long time. During ski holidays, I noticed how snow was blackened by soot and oil residue from exhaust fumes. Some of my triggers also narrowed down over time. While the environmentalist within me continued to be dismayed at exhaust fumes whatever the context, I noticed that my other side was only really excited by them anymore if I felt that they were produced unnecessarily, whether the people responsible for them were oblivious, indifferent, unconsiderate, or even deliberately teasing or spiting somebody.
Structure of the encyclopedia of aspects
My goal on these pages is to describe and cross-correlate all elements and facets of my predilections. For that, every page I create will be linked to any existing ones that it relates to. Generally, pages will contain the following sections:
- Description: An objective explanation of the thing or concept.
- Aspects: The concrete things I find alluring about it, which sometimes includes:
- Constraints: if it only excites me under certain conditions.
- Development: Thinking back to my early memories, I try to explain, also to myself, how this fondness developed.
- Experiences: Key moments which made me discover this fondness, or other experiences that got stuck in my memory.
- Prevalence: An estimate of how wide-spread this fondness may be among others.
- Connections: Links to other entries which are related to this topic.
- Gallery: Some of my favourite related pictures, to illustrate what it is that I like so much.
Entries are assigned to topic areas. These range from rather abstract aspects, such as certain attitudes of the people producing exhaust fumes, to more concrete elements such as different motorsports disciplines, or different kinds of internal combustion engines. The connections only link to pages in other topical groups. That two-stroke engines are somewhat related to four-stroke engines should be obvious enough. Here is a possibly incomplete list with a few examples of potential future pages:
- Kinds of pollution: Exhaust gas, tree fellings, deforestation, water pollution, oil spills, …
- Omnipresence: Smog, noise pollution, wandering exhaust plumes, number of motors, women, youth, world oil consumption, microplastics, sooty snow, …
- Impacts: Climate change, acid rain, dying woods, destruction of rainforests, health risks, …
- Mindsets: Indifference, comfort, recklessness, independence, rebelliousness, deliberate provocation, …
- Behaviours: Idling engines, warming up engines, negligible saving of effort, …
- All-purpose: Transportation, power generation, yardwork, toys, …
- Combustion engines: Two-stroke, four-stroke, diesel, ship engines, nitro, …
- Vehicles: Motorcycles, motor scooters, mopeds, cars, trucks, snowmobiles, motor boats, jetskis, Aquascooter, helicopters, airplanes, go-karts, …
- Tools: Chainsaws, brush cutters, power generators, construction machines, …
- Sports: Motocross, enduro, karting, truck trials, pocketbike, tractor pulling, jetski racing, snowmobile racing, hillclimbing, moto trials, Motoball …
- Racing gear: Racesuits, motorcycle helmets, motocross gear, motorcycle boots, chest protrectors, snowmobile suits, …
- Protective gear: Chemical protection suits, high-visibility gear, gas masks, respiratory protective equipment …
- Synthetic clothing: Wetsuits, drysuits, life vests, wintersports jackets, skisuits, rainwear, …