Author Topic: Delhi has the worst air in the world... unless you're rich  (Read 1171 times)

ergophobe

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Delhi has the worst air in the world... unless you're rich
« on: January 30, 2018, 04:48:22 PM »
[Sorry ... posted in the wrong forum... meant this as a watercooler thing] rc

This article was "ho hum, more bad news about the world" until I read two things

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The latest U.S. Embassy measurement shows almost six hundred parts per million of the deadly particulate matter 2.5, which is tiny enough to enter the bloodstream through the lungs.

Most ofyou probably have no clue how bad this is. During the fires in California it felt like the Apocalypse, with dark skies, no visibility and at noon the sun was weak and I cancelled all exercise and stayed indoors and felt like I had a headache... it peaked at 300ppm in our area. For one hour.

We were schedule to go to Montana on vacation and there it was 600ppm, same as Delhi. There, public health officials were telling Montanans to leave the state if they could and, if they couldn't, to huddle indoors near an air purifier. School was cancelled as it was in our area.

600ppm is beyond insane. To have that as a regular thing is boggling.

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Then section#2 where she says that people say "air quality is the social leveller" in Delhi, she goes on to ruminate on how that isn't true. Effectively, on how those who benefit from the products of this pollution do not pay the price:

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But it’s simply not true. This is the dirtiest secret about dirty air: the wealthy buy their way around it. Slowly, I’ve acclimated to the idea that a small handful of residents can breathe safely, and the rest cannot.

This segregated reality is woven through our family life. State-of-the-art Swedish purifiers churn around the clock in our rooms; a portable purifier cleans the air in our car. Air-filtering masks protect our lungs as we pass from building to car to building. A Tae Kwon Do instructor visits our living room so our children and their friends get some exercise without braving the outdoors.
« Last Edit: January 30, 2018, 09:04:11 PM by rcjordan »

rcjordan

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Re: Delhi has the worst air in the world... unless you're rich
« Reply #1 on: January 30, 2018, 09:02:52 PM »
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/datablog/2017/feb/13/most-polluted-cities-world-listed-region

I had just read about Skopje last week

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The capital of the Republic of Macedonia is one of the most polluted cities in the world. Macedonian authorities have taken emergency measures to fight high air pollution levels in Skopje - with little to no effect.

http://www.dw.com/en/skopje-welcome-to-europes-most-polluted-city/g-42083092

ergophobe

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Re: Delhi has the worst air in the world... unless you're rich
« Reply #2 on: January 30, 2018, 09:14:46 PM »
Schwarzenegger has said over and over that trying to sell people on stopping global warming is too hard, but when he pushed ad campaigns pointing out the loss of life and healthcare costs caused by burning fossil fuels, they were much more successful.

He keeps telling the Sierra Club to focus on health effects that are happening now, not climate effects that will happen in the future. That's the strategy he used to fight back the big fossil fuel money that was trying to roll back California's clean energy