Icky Sticky

by Sam
(Concord)

Its all icky and sticky

Barry's Response - Let me see if I can help, Sam. We use humidity to refer to the quantity of water vapour in the air. Relative humidity, the fraction of partial pressure for water vapour relative to saturated vapour pressure at that temperature, is what we usually mean when we just say humidity. Meteorologists use technical terms like absolute or specific humidity as well.

We care about humidity because of the icky sticky feel it gives to an otherwise pleasant day, and the lack of wind compounds the situation. And no matter how much you sweat, you just can't get any cooler. Forecasters care about it because of its importance in weather changes: precipitation, fog, dew for instance.

Search this site for more information now.

Maybe Everything's Icky Sticky

How does my skin feel like a half-used glue stick have anything to do with the sludge pictures I was looking at? Will we sweat our way to the end?

Atmospheric Sweat and Aquatic Slime

Sam, you nailed it. It's just the air saying, "I'm full."

That's what meteorologists call high relative humidity. It's not just water vapor; it's the percentage of water vapor compared to what can be in the air at that temperature. When that ratio climbs-especially when the wind quits-your sweat can't evaporate. As your body struggles to shed heat, you stew in your own misery. The process betrays the limits of thermodynamics, not just your deodorant.

Now let's get to the point. Here's the real Icky Sticky connection. It's the environmental interface, or the Air-Water Exchange as we call it in air quality consulting.

From sludge to smog: The Contested Interface

According to the mainstream consensus, human industry is the main culprit, and frankly, the data may support that. But we have to keep our intellectual freedom to challenge simplistic narratives. In some cases, natural processes like volcanic plumes, wildfire smoke, or biological efflux from the oceans outweigh human emissions. To keep our science honest, we have to acknowledge this.

But to answer your question: Volatilization and Aerosolization is the Icky Sticky link.

1. Volatilization of VOCs: Think of it as an aquatic escape plan. Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), which are often derived from industrial wastes or runoff, evaporate from contaminated water bodies (lakes, wastewater facilities, or even oily ocean surfaces) and enter the atmosphere. These VOCs become precursors for ground-level ozone and smog, turning water sludge into NO2 haze. It's the aquatic environment vomiting its problems.
   
   Skeptical Consideration: Some argue that too much regulation drives production offshore to countries with laxer standards, potentially increasing global emissions. Rather than just complying with national rules, we need to consider a holistic, ethical global accountability standard (as in, universal stewardship).
   
   
2. Whenever contaminated water bodies experience turbulence (waves, fountains, industrial agitation), tiny droplets are aerosolized. Microdroplets of Icky Sticky water carry pollutants, which dry and become airborne particulate matter PM2.5 or PM10, often carrying toxins. The process pollutes localized air and catalyzes cloud formation (acting as Cloud Condensation Nuclei or CCN, which links aquatic pollution directly to regional meteorology and the albedo (reflectivity) of the planet.

Let's invent a new scientific field we need:

Real-Time Predictive Environmental Consulting.

It uses high-frequency remote sensing (like drone-based LiDAR and satellite data) to model localized VOC and PM volatilization before it becomes a problem. While most air quality consulting focuses on smokestack emissions, the future lies in diffuse sources - quantifying the invisible Icky Sticky that rises from wastewater lagoons, tailings ponds, and storm drains. It means designing industrial sites (like the surface water runoff management mentioned above) that actively suppress air-water exchange through advanced physical and chemical barriers.

It's time to champion proactive design. It's a non-negotiable ethical imperative to plan for reclamation and remediation before construction. There's a moral high ground here that reconfigures the industry's public perception from polluter to steward.

Next time you feel that Icky Sticky humidity, don't just complain; transmute it. You can use it to demand better environmental engineering that respects the fluid boundary between air and water.

Here's why this should matter to you

You just learned about the cutting-edge connection between atmospheric physics and aquatic pollution, a topic search engines love for its depth (scientific data on VOCs and PMs) and emotional hooks (Icky Sticky). We've not only defined humidity, but also shown how water pollution chokes our air. Find out how environmental consultants are challenging conventional wisdom and asserting intellectual freedom in our content.