Asthmatic Attunement, Pollen Forecasting, and the Time of Climatic Epistemologies

• In Event: Time of Predictions

Abstract

Asthma is a chronic breathing disorder produced by environmental conditions such as air pollution, pollen, temperature and dramatic shifts in air pressure, animal dander, and mold. Many asthma sufferers use emplaced knowledge to care for their disease, attuning to seasonal weather trends, allergy symptoms, indoor building smells, and respiratory rhythms to judge when to use medication or leave a space, for example. In addition to these embodied engagements, their care practices also involve checking weather and pollen forecasts, and changing medication regimes accordingly. The local impacts of climate change, however, may be disrupting these tried-and-true care practices, which are based on, and in, emplaced rhythms that have been developed over time. In response, health professionals in cities with high asthma prevalence and morbidity rates are quickly mobilizing early warning systems and preparedness tools that can stave off flash epidemics. This paper draws on three examples of atmospheric prediction to highlight emerging climate temporalities that have been developed to help asthma sufferers navigate an increasingly unbreathable world: Interviews with more than eighty asthma sufferers; an emerging public health program for asthma management; and the uneven configuration of pollen forecasting in the United States. Using these cases, the paper describes an tenuous climatic epistemology, emerging to replace what is experienced in the body, interpreted through numbers, or relayed by doctors.

Author

• Alison Kenner, Drexel University