Breath, which results from breathing in and out, is vital. Lack of air, whether due to lung disease or suffocation, whether intentional or not, can be fatal. While the need to eat can be delayed for several days, that of breathing must be satisfied within a few minutes. Even though it is indispensable for life, breathing was neglected for a long time in Western thought. This is what the philosopher Luce Irigaray recalls in The Forgetting of Air in Martin Heidegger (University of Texas Press, 1999). According to Irigaray, this negligence is paralleled by our lack of concern for the world we live in. Unlike the West, which has relied primarily on perception, Eastern spirituality, including traditional Chinese medicine, recognizes breathing as the principle of life. Just as fish cannot live outside of water, human beings cannot exist without air. That’s why an awareness of breathing is essential to our survival.

In her book titled Respire (Éditions Verdier, 2023), the literary historian and essayist, Marielle Macé, reminds us of the obvious: to breathe you must first have air that is breathable. Along with the philosopher Achille Mbembe, she believes that breathing is a universal right.¹ This right to a breathable life also implies the right to breathe with others. However, this co-breathing is now threatened all over the planet, now that 57% of the world’s population lives in urban areas. A recent study by McGill University’s Department of Epidemiology reports that air pollution kills more than 1,100 people a year

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