The answer says, the world’s most polluted air is getting worse here. Though there are concrete ways to fix it, none seems interested.
Pollution Crisis witnesses Delhi-NCR suffocate, not silently but loudly!
As usual, the commuters step out in a rising air pollution mixed with a foggy winter morning a couple of days ago on November 21, 2024. They are seen fearless on the outskirts of our national Capital, Delhi.
Ain’t there correspondents or the writers about climate change or human existence or modern day poisons in air wandering here? When there are regular contributors to the air-poisoning, then why can’t there be a reporter working on some odd beat like Climate Safety or so?
Pakistan and it’s geo-political father India are in the same boat. The boat is sinking since the two neighbors are losing ground to a common deadly enemy.Vast shameless clouds of toxically dense smog have once again ceremented metropolises of South Asia.
In the subcontinent, air poisoning regularly spikes come November. Nevertheless this year’s polluted air is still being breathtaking in its severity and scale. The smoky grayish poison in the air is even visible to satellites, and it’s contributing to a grave public health crisis.
Leave people in general aside, not even many in Indian media are aware of the fact that officials in the Punjab province in Pakistan have last week imposed lockdowns in its two major cities. When Multan with a population of 2.1 million and Lahore with a population of 13.7 million, reached record-high pollution levels, the action has been taken.
“Currently, smog is a national disaster,” says Punjab provincial minister Marriyum Aurangzeb in a press conference a week ago. Schools closed, restaurants shut down, construction sat empty, highways halted, and hospitals and clinics recalled their medical staff.
Across Indian border, around thirty three million residents of the Capital city called Delhi this is happening. The residents this week are breathing air pollution which is fifty times more than the safe limits outlined by the World Health Organization (WHO).
The choking haze has so far become reason for fifteen aircrafts to divert to nearby airports and causing hundreds of further delays. Workers and students have been told to stay home.
In spite of all such disruptions, air poisoning continues to spike year after year after year.
Reason? The polluted air rises from a confluence of natural factors and humans. Be it construction, brick kilns, cooking fires, vehicles, and burning leftovers from crop harvests are all fueling the air-crisis feeding into the toxic clouds.
The Hindukush and Himalayas to the north of lower-lying areas like Lahore as well as Delhi hold the smog in place. During the winters, people in the region experience thermal inversions, when a layer of warm air pushes down on chilling winter air, keeping the pollution closer to the ground.
With growing populations of South Asia, the need for food, energy, housing, and transportation is also growing. Without a wretched correction, that will mean even more air toxicity. Still, history shows aspiring to prove that air pollution is not a non-solvable problem.
Cities like Beijing and Los Angeles that were once upon a time notorious for polluted air, have successfully managed to clean it up. Though, the process takes years, drawing on new technologies and economic development. Nevertheless it needs good governance and incentives to cut pollution, too. This is something local officials in the two south asian neighbors have already demonstrated, that they can clear the air.
The vital task expects us to scale it up to higher levels of government. Unfortunately, we are still not getting the full picture of the perils of air poisoning.
Volumes of science chapters all around us show how terrible air pollution is for us. It does aggravate asthma, worsen heart disease, trigger inflammation, along with increasing infection risk. It does hamper brain development in kids and can also invite dementia in adults.
On an average, air poisoning is reducing life expectancies around the globe by 2.3 years which certainly is more than tobacco. Contributing to approximately seven million deaths per annum, tells the WHO, this is about one in nine deaths yearly. It kills trillions of dollars out of the world economy.
Especially in South Asia the toll is acute. Pollution in the air drains 3.9 years out of Pakistani’s life. For Indian’s life, it snatches 5.3 years. Though everyone who has not stopped breathing is the victim. But are the workers who spend their life outdoors, such as construction crews, delivery drivers, farm laborers, the damage for them is even more fatal and bigger in numbers.
Despite the mounting threat which is a well-known danger, it remains a persistent issue with no solution possible or apparent.
