Slashdot Mirror
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.
Wrong logic -- if India were cleaner and safer, maybe its residents wouldn't be seeking as many opportunities abroad.
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
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.
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...
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"
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