India and Pakistan are losing ground to a common deadly enemy. Huge clouds of thick, toxic smog have once again blanketed the metropolises of South Asia. Air pollution regularly spikes in November in the subcontinent, but this year’s dirty air is still breathtaking in its scale and intensity. Gray, smoky Pollution is also visible from satellitesAnd it’s fueling a public health crisis.
Last week, officials in Pakistan’s Punjab province imposed a lockdown in the city of Multan. Population 2.1 millionand Lahore, Population 13.7 millionAfter arriving Record-high pollution levels. Punjab’s senior provincial minister Maryam Aurangzeb said smog is currently a national disaster. Press conference last week. Schools are closed, restaurants are closed, construction is halted, highways are empty, and medical personnel are sent back to hospitals and clinics.
Across the border in India, 33 million residents of Delhi are breathing in air pollution this week 50 times more than the safe limit set by the World Health Organization (WHO). A suffocating fog has formed 15 aircraft to divert Nearby airports and caused hundreds of delays. Students and workers Asked to stay at home.
Despite all the obstacles, air pollution continues to increase year after year.
Why? Dirty air arises from the confluence of human and natural causes. Construction, cooking fires, brick kilns, burning of vehicles and crop residues are all pouring out toxic clouds. The Himalayas and the Hindu Kush mountains hold the smog north of low-lying areas like Lahore and Delhi. In winter, the region experiences Thermal disasterWhere a layer of warm air pushes over cooler winter air, trapping pollution closer to the ground.
As the population in South Asia grows, so will the need for food, energy, housing and transportation. Without a course correction, this will mean more pollution. Yet history shows that air pollution is a solvable problem. Cities like Los Angeles and Beijing that were once notorious for dirty air have managed to clean it up. This process takes years to draw on economic development and new technologies. But reducing pollution also required good governance and incentives, which local officials in India and Pakistan have already shown can clean the air. The task now is to scale it up at higher levels of government.
We are still not getting the full picture of the dangers of air pollution
There is no shortage of science showing how Terrible air pollution for you. It increases asthma, worsens heart disease, triggers inflammation and increases the risk of infection. It prevents Children’s brain development and can contribute Dementia in adults.
On average, there is air pollution Worldwide life expectancy has decreased by 2.3 yearsMore than tobacco. It is contribution About 7 million deaths per yearAccording to WHO, approx One in nine annually. It sucks trillion dollars Out of the world economy.
The toll is particularly severe in South Asia. Air pollution drain 3.9 years of life in Pakistan. In India, it Steals 5.3 years. for Workers who spend their days outdoors — delivery drivers, construction crews, farm workers — the damage is even greater. Many residents report persistent fevers, coughs and headaches.
Despite the well-known dangers and growing threats, it remains a persistent problem.
Part of the challenge of improving air quality is that air pollution is not just one thing; It is a combination of dangerous chemicals and particles that originate in metropolises of developing countries.
One of the most popular metrics around the world for tracking pollution is the Air Quality Index, developed by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The index is not a measure of a single pollutant, but rather the risk of a combination of pollutants based on US air quality standards. The main villains are ground-level ozone, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter. Particles smaller than 10 microns (PM10) and smaller than 2.5 microns (PM2.5) are subcategorized. (Earlier this year, EPA has changed the way it calculates the AQI(So this year’s numbers aren’t apples-to-apples compared to previous years.) The tiny particles are harmful because they get deep into the lungs and cause breathing problems.
A AQI below 50 Inhalation is considered safe. Above 200, air is considered a health threat to everyone. At 300, it is an emergency. In Delhi, AQI this week reached 1,185. Lahore reached 1,900 this month. If a person breathes this air for more than 24 hours, the exposure is roughly equivalent to smoking. 90 cigarettes a day.
However, air pollution poses a threat long before it is visible. “Your eyes aren’t a good detector of air pollution in general,” says Christy Chester Schroeder, manager of air quality science at IQAir, a company that makes air quality monitoring devices and collects pollution data. “The one pollutant that you can’t see but feel you really have to be careful about is ozone. Ozone levels can be very high on sunny days.”
IQAir has a network of air quality sensors across South Asia, including regions like Lahore And Delhi. The company tracks pollution in real time using its own sensors and monitors purchased by schools, businesses and the general public Their professional-grade air monitors can cost upwards of $20,000, but they also sell consumer air quality trackers that Cost is $300. Both sources help paint a pollution picture.
Many schools and businesses across South Asia have installed their own pollution monitors. The United States also maintains its own air quality instruments at its consulates and embassies in India and Pakistan.
Schroeder, however, points out that IQAir’s devices are geared toward monitoring particulate matter like PM2.5 and don’t allow users to easily guess the concentration of other pollutants like sulfur oxides and where they’re coming from. “When you’re looking at places where there’s a really big mix of sources — like you have a mix of transport and fire and climate extremes — it gets much murkier and you can’t really separate it out. way,” Schroeder said.
At the root of the air pollution problem is politics
Air quality monitors in India and Pakistan show that air pollution can vary over short distances — from neighborhood or even street to street — and it can change rapidly during the day. Nearby bus terminals, power plants or cooking fires contribute a lot to local pollution, but without a nearby tracking system, it is difficult to realize how bad the situation has become.
“I think the most amazing, interesting and scary thing, really, is seeing levels of pollution in areas that haven’t been observed before,” Schroeder said.
Another complication is that people feel the pollution from where it originates. “This automatically creates a major administrative challenge because the administrator who is responsible for providing you with clean air in your jurisdiction is not actually the administrator who is controlling the polluting measures,” said Saad GulzarAssistant Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University.
Take the burning of crop straw, which accounts for up to 60 percent of the region’s air pollution this time of year. In late autumn, farmers in northern India and Pakistan harvest paddy and plant wheat. In the short time between harvest and sowing, the quickest and cheapest way for many farmers to clear their field of leftover stalks, leaves and roots is to burn it. The resulting smoke then spread from rural areas to urban centers.
The challenge is that farmers and urbanites are separate political constituencies, and it is difficult to demand concessions from the former to benefit the latter. This has led to bitter political struggles in both countries and between them. Farmers also point to water conservation laws as the reason they have so little time between crops: To combat groundwater depletion, officials in India imposed regulations to limit rice planting until the monsoons hit reservoirs in early summer. Delaying planting means delaying harvest, hence the rush to clear their fields.
Both India and Pakistan have progressed so far Arrest farmers for burning crop strawBut there are millions of farmers spread over vast areas, spread thin. However, local efforts to control smoke from crop burning have proven effective when local officials are motivated to act.
Gulzar co-authored a study published in the journal October the natureLooking at air pollution and its effects across India and Pakistan. Examining satellite data and health records over the past decade, the paper finds that who is in charge of jurisdictions plays a significant role in air pollution — and may be the key to solving it.
When a district is likely to experience pollution from fire within its own boundaries, bureaucrats and local officials take more aggressive steps to mitigate it, whether it’s paying farmers not to burn hay, providing them with equipment to clear fields without fire, or threatens them. including fines and arrests. This resulted in a 14.5 percent reduction in wildfires within a district and a 13 percent reduction in future burns. This reduction in air pollution leads to measurable reductions in childhood mortality. On the other hand, if the wind pushes pollution from burning crops into adjacent districts, the fire increases by 15 percent.
The results show that motivating officials to act at the local, regional and national levels is a key step in reducing air pollution, and that progress can start now.
But further air quality improvements will require a shift toward cleaner energy. Besides crop burning, the other major source of air pollution across India and Pakistan is the burning of fossil fuels, be it coal in furnaces, gas in factories or diesel in trucks. These fuels also contribute to climate change, which is already contributing Devastating heat waves and flood from heavy rain Both countries have done so in the region major investment in Renewable energyBut they are prepared Burn more coal from feeding their growing economy.
At the COP29 climate change conference this week in Baku, Azerbaijan, India Rich countries are being urged to pay more Financing clean energy within its borders and sharing technologies that will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve air quality.
The air pollution crisis in India and Pakistan will take years to resolve and is likely to get worse before it gets better. But both countries can now take measures to save lives.
