[Sorry ... posted in the wrong forum... meant this as a watercooler thing]
rcThis article was "ho hum, more bad news about the world" until I read two things
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:
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.