Air Pollution

So, what is <...India...> actually doing about it?

Attempts to limit vehicle traffic apparently, which I think appears to be the biggest pollution problem (tons of older motor vehicles, also I cannot remember if they also have fuel quality issues).

I am sure polluting fossil fuel cooking also adds to this but you cannot easily limit this as a stop-gap measure.

Quite a serious issue.

What is interesting is in our country there are plenty of Chinese people wearing masks when walking or commuting in open vehicles along our roads, but I have never seen any Indians do this. This is a behaviour that is common in parts of China and hence has been transferred here by new Chinese arrivals, but we have plenty of Indian immigrants and visitors but have not witnessed the same. Both countries suffer from similar problems with air pollution.

I wonder if the Indian population in general are really that concerned about their air quality (by that I mean less concerned than they really should be).

Can anyone with recent knowledge and experience in India offer any insight for us?

I have a close friend who has traveled [over the years] to the larger cities of India for business on a regular basis; I recently queried him on exactly this issue. He commented that he has noticed substantially increased levels of air pollution over the years so on weekends he heads to the less populated areas and is happy to leave India when he returns home.

Attempts to limit vehicle traffic apparently, which I think appears to be the biggest pollution problem (tons of older motor vehicles, also I cannot remember if they also have fuel quality issues).

I not sure, but are some of the vehicles India has on the road run on a 2 cycle engine also?

Be prepared....

Ever been to India? Try wearing this in a sauna for a while.

I live in Florida, you can't scare me with heat....haha

Sooo, Florida is on Mercury.

A very wet Mercury

My understanding is this is the time of year that farmers are burning the stubble/biomass to prepare their fields for the next crop. Read that it can be ten times higher pollution than Beijing.

"Fields on fire: Burning paddy straw

Every year around this time, farmers in Haryana and Punjab set paddy stubble ablaze to prepare ground for the next crop. In the process, they damage soil quality and cause heavy pollution but they say they have no alternative."...

http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/stubble-farm-fire-slash-burn-agriculturepunjab-haryana-pollution-health-hazards-3074434/

In the North America, we have straw choppers on the combine... and return it to the soil... where is the U.N. and on the Paris Climte change Agreement on this wasteful practice. You'd think India would come up with a mitigate this.

Ahhhh, yes. Reminds me of the good old days, cough, cough. I remember driving into Philadelphia in 1969, sometime near the end of July, in a temperature inversion, and about 30 miles away from center city, I drove into a brownish yellow cloud which made my eyes burn. A real eye opener (actually I wanted to close them) for someone raised in farm country where the largest town for 50 miles around was only 5000 people. I had heard we had a pollution problem, but had never really experienced it. Well India has it a bit easier, as the immediate solution for reduction of this kind of pollution (gasoline engine emissions) has been very well engineered and applied. You won't need to go through cars with so much cobbled emissions attachments that the poor engine can only spit out as much power as a 1961 Volkswagen, while trying to move 4000 pounds of land yacht. Yes, I still remember my 1975 full size Ford, with a 351 cubic inch engine that would only do 0 to 60 in about two minutes or so. You had to be quite brave to venture onto a freeway in rush hour. Unfortunately, this sort of technology will raise the cost of a car to about twice what it is now, but, hey, that will eliminate some pollution as well, when half the current drivers can no longer afford a car.

That is OK, when half the drivers cannot afford transportation to work, they will stop working, and someone else can either watch them starve out, or feed them.

Or watch as they drift away into illicit activities, and create an even more costly drag on society.

Well something's not quite right here

Burning-of-fossil-fuels-hits-record-high-in-2017

India’s emissions are projected to grow by just 2 % (0.2% to 3.8%) – down from over 6% per year during the last decade (GDP up 6.7%).

That doesn't seem to match up with the apparent greater than reported air quality issues which are directly linked and related to CO2 production. Crop burning doesn't appear to be part of the report, so does that mean crop burning has greatly increased in recent years?

<cough <cough>

Well it may be due to weather conditions, it usually plays a role....

watch your language.

There are some countries (yours??) where smoking by children may be all that is standing between them and virulent malaria mosquitoes.

You want to deprive these youths of a healthy life?

Not me...but where are the bandoliers of ammo normally worn by cigar-smoking guerrillas from Manila?

I don't think I ever saw whatever movie that was.

The kid was an indonesian, buddy.

You mean this? This is as crazy as it gets when no one in the film industry is an engineer.

That guy holding up a blade in front of the muzzle of his pistol is about as dumb as the come! He could get lead eye just as easy as be dead eye.

I did laugh though.

Another part that is likely overlooked is the burning of wood and dung for cooking and heating. These aren't necessarily very efficient burns so large amoints of particulate can be produced.

Well and they burn all their garbage.....that can't be good....In the video above the lady is talking about fuel used industrially which I took to mean bunker type fuel as she explained it....If they are using bunker fuel in their boilers, well that can't be good....10 million vehicles, that's seems like a lot for one city.....Actually I'm surprised it ever clears up....

I wonder if completely ignoring lane lines helps or hurts throughput.

Hey you get in the middle of rush hour traffic in any big city I've ever been to, and there are no rules, it's every man for himself...

and you get a small town boy from the Midwest driving there for the first time... if he doesn't adapted quickly to the driving norms... he could really hose things up worse then it is.

Truth be told outside my office block is a three lane road. 7 lanes on a good day, plus motorcycles everywhere and on the pavement, (sidewalk) The road narrows at the traffic lights and still it manages 7 lanes of traffic. On bad days, it has nine lanes of traffic. My driver manages to go from the far left lane, from the office gate, and in less than 100m, gets positioned to make a U turn at the lights. Now believe that or not if you wish.

I have not driven one day since I arrived here in Delhi and I am in South Delhi. You want excitement and seat of the pants passengers, experience a round about and pedestrians and motorcycles in the rush hour traffic.

And the air pollution has improved, The Delhi population has cleaned the air by breathing in the pollution the last few days. It is still bad though.

Sounds like improvements to home cooking fuel supply need to take place as a first priority in such cities.

I thought Manila would be worst ever traffic yet, not.