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Indian Capital Declares Emergency as Toxic Smog Thickens By the Hour (reuters.com)
New Delhi, the Indian capital declared a pollution emergency on Thursday as toxic smog hung over the city for a third day and air quality worsened by the hour. From a report: Illegal crop burning in the farm states surrounding New Delhi, vehicle exhaust emissions in a city with limited public transport and swirling construction dust have caused the crisis, which arises every year. The problem has been compounded this year by still conditions, the weather office said. A U.S. embassy measure of tiny particulate matter PM 2.5 showed a reading of 608 at 10 a.m. when the safe limit is 25. An hour before it was 591.
And the worst part is that it didn't even smell like samosas.
Wrong logic -- if India were cleaner and safer, maybe its residents wouldn't be seeking as many opportunities abroad.
Downtown Los Angeles air quality (PM2.5) is only 54 currently. 600 is practically thick enough to stand on.
Good people go to bed earlier.
Trump administration EPA adviser believes the air in the US is "too clean for optimal health".
https://www.independent.co.uk/...
https://www.visaliatimesdelta....
You are welcome on my lawn.
India definitely needs to invest more in cleaner energy. Population densities mean that the masses owning a combustion powered vehicle like in Europe & the US will have a greater impact. China realised this (better late than never) and are at least taking steps to clean up their cities. India needs to follow. I find it amusing that JLR (owned by an Indian company) are making their first electric car an SUV. If it were me, I'd also have been making an electric mini-car and electric motorcycle targeted at developing economies.
If it were cleaner and safer, it wouldn't be as cheap. That's why it costs a lot to do business in the U.S.
Ever think of lowering your population, say down to a BILLION ?
Genocide much?
Surely there is an AI-Based app that will let them escape the Smog. AI and Apps are the answer to everything now.
The tech jobs are in Bangalore and Mumbai, not Delhi.
Anyway, tech jobs provide national wealth, which in the long run gives you the means to fix the problem of filth.
Ever think of lowering your population
The path to lower birthrates is well-understood. Reducing poverty, empowering women, and delivering education (particularly to girls) - Alongside sex education and birth control - All reduce birthrates. India is working hard on that, but it's a long road.
You even see it in the USA, where the birthrate in Massachusetts is lower than the birth rate in Mississippi - For exactly those reasons.
You have no sympathy for the rapists, that's fine, but what about sympathy for their victims? Not to mention the kids, who may shit in the street, but they're still kids.
They should introduce designated smogging streets.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
But is it warm there? It's not warm here. I like warm
What % of the new wealth gets sucked up by the corruption?
It's not zero anywhere, but I doubt it's much higher than India anywhere on Earth.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
Wait...what? Isn't India in the Paris Climate Agreement? How does this happen?
No, I'm serious.
Replace all parking lanes on arterials with barrier-separated bicycle and transit lanes.
Destroy all vehicles other than public transit and bicycles using those lanes.
Problem solved.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Maybe the excess can immigrate to whatever country you live in.
la la la can't hear you from inside my bubble and hand-drawn worldview
Yeah but the Left likes it more when it's communal even though it's always worse for everybody.
Either do it yourself or let nature do it. Either way it will happen. When nature does it, it will do it in a very inhumane way. With no local nature predators, we now need to kill dear every year to keep them from over-population, which causes famine, disease, and eventually mass death.
Well that and large amounts of estrogens, xenoestrogens, phytoestrogens... introduced into the environment.
... those H1B "innovators" home to "do the needful" and solve this problem. The homeland needs you!
The problem isn't smog. It's that the Indian system of government + their citizens' learned behavior in such a system makes the country ungovernable, and so it's impossible to get people to follow rules.
It's a societal problem, and note I didn't say that Indian people are the problem. Take Indian people out of India and here in the US, they follow rules.
The problem is when enough people don't follow rules in a country, the otherwise-willing rest give up and say, "why should I follow the rules?"
Sometimes, democracy isn't great, and you need a little bit of authoritarianism...
or the lack of it.. nothing of any great quality ever came from India, due to their cultural lack of foresight and the willingness to do anything more than the bare minimum. Even the air is unusable!
That makes no sense. Costs should be dropping a lot now that the states is moving backwards towards mined fuels.
And why are there no local predators? Because humans wiped them out, not nature. But hey... let's not re-introduce the predators and try to fix the damage we did to the ecosystem. Let's leave everything fucked up and hope that we can shoot enough deer to keep their populations in check!
Mississippi is at the ass end of half the country's watershed and continually has toxic chemicals in the water. If chemicals were the deciding factor on birth rate, Mississippi's would be among the lowest in the country.
This is fake news. Trump has committed to using 100% solar energy within 5 years. This will create new jobs in the US as we build massive quantities of new solar panels.
The only downside is that his proposal is to burn the new solar panels instead of burning coal.
You sound fun
die in a fucking fire
Great idea, lets introduce wolves back into highly human populated Eastern USA forests. I'm sure those wolves will avoid eating our slow fat pets and go for the lean fast deer.
India definitely needs to invest more in cleaner energy.
I agree, but I will point out that the pollution in question comes from burning fields, not from energy production or transportation.
http://indianexpress.com/article/india/stubble-burning-punjab-farmers-amarinder-singh-ngt-air-pollution-4897240/
http://www.dw.com/en/burning-fields-in-punjab/av-41233497
http://www.geoffreylandis.com
Does this have anything to do with those new crop farming apps put out by Microsoft? It seems we have a real world farmville incident of someone playing sim overlord.
As I snack on my venison jerky, I say it is working out ok. The options are manage the deer population or wipe them all out. I'd vote for managing, then the government can pay for silly things like deer birth control or let hunters pay license fees and do it.
No, I'm serious. Replace all parking lanes on arterials with barrier-separated bicycle and transit lanes. Destroy all vehicles other than public transit and bicycles using those lanes. Problem solved.
And that will solve the problem of pollution caused by burning agricultural waste in the fields how, exactly?
see: "Farmers’ Unchecked Crop Burning Fuels India’s Air Pollution"
http://www.geoffreylandis.com
Your sources are wrong. What I heard is that the USA is going to start mining its own solar panels. It's a new coal-based coating to make 83% efficient solar panels.
#DeleteFacebook
Did they call tech support? Did they try turning it off and on again?
Non just buses, which billow voluminous black smoke, but also diesel cars. Diesel cars are preferred by many Indians as diesel is cheaper than petrol by about 15%. Delhi: petrol = $4/gallon; diesel = $3.40/gallon.
There's a slightly more practical reason as well. You can simply ask the question: Are children a financial benefit or a financial burden to the family?
In most first world countries, for most of its population, rearing a child is terribly expensive, with very little financial benefit for the parents in return. In parts of the world where you can benefit from the labor of your family (subsistence farming, for example), you tend to see large families.
Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
This is the one country that should avail itself of it. They keep packing more and more people into this limited area.
When public transportation = diesel busses we all lose
Agreed.
Subsidized taxi, er, "ride sharing" is a lot more efficient and environmentally friendly compared to a bunch of empty busses on fixed routes with really expensive drivers.
Ehh, not so agreed here. The fixed routes and predictable schedules are good things. Ride sharing, when it is often just single riders, is no better than everyone simply having a car of their own--except that it reduces parking congestion. If the cars are all super efficient, sure fine, but most of the ride share vehicles are diesel or petrol... not many are even hybrid in areas because the cost is too difficult to offset as driver. Maybe if Uber/Lyft started offering premiums to electric and hybrid drivers?
What we need are more electric transportation options. Ideally more electric buses and trams. It's the most efficient way to move large volumes of people during commute times and during off-peak times they are the least environmentally offensive of the large scale transit options. You can also run single-car versions at off peak instead of 2-4 car trains.
There's a slightly more practical reason as well. You can simply ask the question: Are children a financial benefit or a financial burden to the family?In most first world countries, for most of its population, rearing a child is terribly expensive, with very little financial benefit for the parents in return. In parts of the world where you can benefit from the labor of your family (subsistence farming, for example), you tend to see large families.
For years demographers assumed this: that people in poor countries had more children than people in rich countries because children were a benefit, and therefore merely giving poor people access to birth control wouldn't help population growth.
Actual numbers showed, however, that giving poor people access to birth control does result in smaller family size. It turns out that-- surprise-- not all women living in rural poverty actually wanted to have a family of eight children.
This apparently came as quite a surprise to demographers.
And why are there no local predators?
There are local predators... But they aren't usually *killing* humans they prey on, so that means they aren't totally effective for the role of lowering the population...
Lul, you are doing something wrong, took me two weeks to get permits and a week to build. Inspectors came out and made sure everything was kosher, signed off. Good to go. Southern PA.
All the empty buses in Indian would be a huge problem if such a thing actually existed. Driver salaries are not high. Taxis are everywhere.
Why are you posting on a subject you clearly know absolutely nothing about?
Slashdot: providing anti-social weirdos a soapbox, since 1997.
More condoms, less samosas. Seriously.
You mean there would be fewer externalized costs.
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
How much of it s squandered due to poor health, early deaths, lost productivity etc?
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
And why are there no local predators?
Homo homini lupus est.
http://www.geoffreylandis.com
Why are you posting on a subject you clearly know absolutely nothing about?
I think the OP is off India specifically and on to problems that cities face in general.
I agree, it's not often you see an empty Indian bus, and labor is relatively cheap, those are non-issues... though moving from diesel to electric or even natural gas, would be better... but you need the infrastructure for those things and it's simply not practical in many parts of India now.
Actual numbers showed, however, that giving poor people access to birth control does result in smaller family size. It turns out that-- surprise-- not all women living in rural poverty actually wanted to have a family of eight children.
This apparently came as quite a surprise to demographers.
Correct, which is why I said "as well". I'm not discounting the effects of access to birth control and better education of women (which tends to give them more life choices, and thus control over reproduction). But I don't think it's been demonstrated that finances are not also a factor (i.e. distributing birth control doesn't lead to negative birth rates, such as in many first-world countries). The reasons are likely more complex and layered, due to a number of factors working in combination.
Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
>eastern Us forests
I dont think youve ever seen a forrest son, because those little clumps of ash & oak in the US sure as fuck arent forrests.
See: Northern Quebec
According to Transparency international's Corruption Perception Index, India is fairly corrupt.
It is at 79th place with a score of 40 (equal with China). By comparison US is 18th - score 74 (just ahead of Ireland).
The least corrupt are New Zealand & Denmark with a score of 90.
Most corrupt is North Korea at 176th and a score of 8.
New Zealanders are well balanced with a chip on each shoulder. One represents Australia, the other the rest of the world
How about open defecation?
Do we really expect them to address abstract pollution when they can't get people to stop shitting in the streets?
Only American children matter, and only until they're old enough to be tried as an adult (12) or forced into military service to avoid jail (16).
Viva la Amerikkka!
You forget "ride sharing" vans can also serve as mobile rape stations, which is great for any society right?
Empowering women destroys your society.
Yeah, I think the American south said the same thing about freeing slaves. If your culture won't survive without denying a large chunk of the population freedom, it's a culture that deserves to die.
Depends on the relationship. If it was a linear or geometric relation then yes you would see that. But those aren't the only ways for things to relate.
I recently saw a documentary about India's energy issues. It turns out that in many of the major cities, the power grid is so unstable that businesses depend upon the almost daily use of backup generators. These backup generators are, of course, fossil-fueled. Imagine several thousand diesel generators running on top of the daily traffic and it is easy to see why air pollution is a significant problem.
I would avoid ride-sharing in India - especially if one does not speak a native language and doubly so if one were a woman. Heck some people wouldn't even let you in their vehicle once they found out your caste (if you're from the area).
"Capital" == assets. "Capitol" == seat of government.
Why are they receiving money from the Paris accord on pollution? Is the Accord just a scam to transfer wealth from Europe and North America to nations like India? How does that help the environment?
Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
Most corrupt is North Korea at 176th and a score of 8.
Can it still be called corruption when that's practically the definition of their political system?
I don't know what your poorly designed public transport system that has empty buses driving around has to do with diesel.
Also have you seen Indian public transport? Not only will the buses not be empty, but there'll likely be 10 people hanging onto the roof.
That which does not kill you makes you stronger.
#DeleteChrome
All jokes aside, a photovoltaic cell with perfect thermal photon upconversion still has an efficiency limit of 73%. Realistic upconversion systems are limited to the mid 40s, with the best real panels in the lab being only a couple percent below that.
But efficiency isn't a great metric. If one panel is cheap and 20-25% efficient, and another is 40% efficient but costs significantly more than twice as much, then the cheaper pannel is economically preferable. At least, until you've exhausted all available space for panels and/or the cost of panels drops so low that installation cost becomes significant.
Surprisingly, another metric is murder and other violent crime rates. There is evidence to suggest that the elimination of lead in paint and gasoline caused or contributed to a huge drop in violent crimes in the late 70's and 80's.
I need a wheelchair van for my son. Help me get the word out. https://www.gofundme.com/wheelchair-van-for-jj
Perhaps Kim has 'absolute power' and cannot be corrupt 'by definition'. But that's just him. His underlings have duties & responsibilities - and sometimes he executes those who don't measure up.
So corruption is certainly possible - when some official takes slav^H^H^H^Htax money that was supposed to go to the party^H^H^H^H^Hnational budget.
You really don't have a clue, do you? Perhaps you got your ideas about India from some fictional movie or TV program with an idealized view of the country?
India has lots of "ride sharing": "auto-rickshaws". You may know these as "tuk-tuks". They predominantly use two-stroke engines, which spew out large quantities of particulates.
Finally, taxis (whether traditional or "ride-sharing") are never the answer. They are no better than individual cars, except in one respect: no need to provide parking.
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
Empowering women is kind of a double-whammy to reducing birth rates.
On the one hand, giving women equal social status and self-determinacy naturally results in some women choosing not to have kids, focusing instead on other forms of self-actualization. That reduces birth rates, for very good reasons.
On the other hand, female-empowerment quickly becomes (and has become) male disempowerment. Many men, however, don't react to this by becoming submissive and having families when the women want them. They just opt-out. Some men get really hateful and misogynistic, some become "players" who insist on birth-control and pursue sex without any commitment, and others just do a cost-to-benefit analysis of romance and say "no thanks."
The women who want to have families get kind of burned by the second phenomenon, but there isn't much they can do about it when feminism is politically popular.
As usual, you could have checked. But went with your special snowflake feelings instead. Not to worry,here's a participation trophy for trying. You'll guess right next time.
yeah, it was a bad argument flaw. Clearly the other side of "authoritarianism", here meaning simply having sane laws and enforcement of sane laws, is either not having sane laws, or not having enforcement of sane laws. Democracy as a concept has nothing to do with it, except perhaps the factor that the will of the majority is very often wrong, if not outright evil/racist/sexist/religious-nuttery/etc. Democracy is the solution, if it is a worthwhile democracy with a foundation of Free Speech. The theory (which I was both propagandized with, but which I continued to believe well into late adulthood), is that the worst problems will get voiced via Free Speech, and thus *eventually* turn the scales against an ignorant/evil/whatever democratic majority. But the key word there is *eventually*. It often takes a significant bodycount to override the historical majority's previous stupidity regarding what constitute sane laws or a sane level of enforcement of those laws.
So, you agree with the Islamic Extremest Terrorists then?
and apparently, the only solution is for EVERY OTHER COUNTRY to cut their emissions, while India and China do not!
While there is a lot of air pollution in the National Capital Region, it gets exacerbated in winters due to a couple of factors:
1. Cold air which settles down and does not get circulated around the region
2. Massive amounts of pollution from crop stubble which is burned in the farming areas surrounding the region during this time
I'm not sure why this is a troll. All I did was point out a failure in progressing counties to learn from the past.
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
Not quite all there is to it. The US would have a net drop in population if it wasn't for immigrants.
I may have to go to India this year for work. While I have worked with Indian people here as well as in India for many years, I simply do not want to go. I have no desire to see dead bodies rotting in a river, or public feces. These are things that should not happen at this scale in this day and age. It's their society, but I don't understand their caste system or why they can't solve sanitation issues that cause
569 million people poop outside.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
Eyes n teeth.,.
This may sound racially biased, but this applies to any people in the same situation..
In this case well.....
Eyes n teeth kiling themselves..
fucking stoopid..
and they claim they have the right the lie cheat and steal to perpetuate their culture like its their "right"
Well fuckers, look how that mode of thinking has turned out..
even worse, what about the the individuals whom cant get away, like the Animals..
http://www.boston.com/news/glo...
Casteism
So, you agree with the Islamic Extremest Terrorists then?
When it comes to dogma, there's often not a lot of difference between Sharia-loving Islamists and Sharia-loving southern-American Christians.