By Val Dodge

How far would you have to walk up Yonge Street before passing 1,700 light poles? And would you count out 1,700 light poles if you didn’t have good reason? Participants in the Toronto Environmental Alliance and David Suzuki Foundation‘s Smog Hike on Sunday, September 23 certainly have a good cause—raising awareness of the human cost of pollution—and will find out just how far they’re willing to go.
Starting at the waterfront, the hikers will carry 1,700 posters—one for each person estimated to die prematurely of smog-related illnesses each year in Toronto—up Yonge Street, attaching one to each pole along the way until they run out of both. Organizers aren’t sure how far they’ll need to go or how long it’ll take, but they fully expect to finish somewhere north of the city, and perhaps not until the following day.
TEA is encouraging people to join the hike for as long as they’re able, whether a few minutes or a few hours. Anyone who’d rather not walk at all may participate by submitting a short message online to be included on one of the posters. Let’s hope that the Smog Hike isn’t spoiled by a smog day.
Photo by ayndroid from the Torontoist Flickr Pool.