this post was submitted on 19 Nov 2023
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More than 20 million people woke last week to a thick, acrid, and noxious smog that settled densely across the Indian capital.

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[–] [email protected] 54 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

That’s clearly not invisible.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago

Tbh it’s not clearly anything, it’s not clear at all. In fact it’s pretty opaque.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago

Gotta love the ironic use of 'clearly'. Nice.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

Having four times the population density (~~5900 people per square km vs 1300~~ numbers are chosen poorly, see exchange with zershuffle in the replies) and way less money to throw at the problem can't help. Not to say that it's hopeless or that India shouldn't try to clean up its air, of course, but the problem at a glance definitely looks tougher to solve for New Delhi than for Beijing

[–] [email protected] 14 points 11 months ago

A huge amount of the pollution comes from farmers burning stubble. The solution to that isn’t complex.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Comparing New Delhi (an area of 43km2) to the Beijing metropolitan area (16400km2)... Nice.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

That was actually a mistake on my part, thank you for catching that. It looks like the National Capital Territory of Delhi with a population of 16.8 million would be the better comparison? And that has an even higher density

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

It's a different definition of metropolitan area, I think. A lot of Beijing's area is extremely sparsely populated, moreso than Delhi's.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago

They should've used another picture of Beijing from the same perspective to demonstrate the difference in smog. Honestly... that picture of the building looks smoggy to me.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:


Primary schools were forced to shut, vehicles restricted from traveling on roads and construction brought to a halt as a hazy gray enveloped New Delhi, blocking buildings from view and prompting residents to panic buy air purifiers.

New Delhi’s current toxic skies are reminiscent of another major Asian capital that about a decade ago was famous for a smog so thick that it could shroud entire skyscrapers from view: Beijing.

What followed was a rollout of new regulations, including restricting the number of vehicles on the roads in major cities, tightening environmental oversight and controls on emissions, building a nationwide system of air monitoring stations, and reining in coal and other heavy-polluting industries.

Traditionally, toward the end of the year after the winter harvest, millions of farmers clear their leftover rice stubble by setting fields alight to prepare for the incoming wheat crop.

At a nationwide level, India launched its Clean Air Programme in 2019, ushering in strategies across 24 states and union territories to reduce particulate matter concentration by 40% by 2025-26.

To tackle the problem the city this year plans to induce rain to wash away the dust – a method adopted by other Asian countries, including China, Indonesia and Malaysia.


The original article contains 1,565 words, the summary contains 192 words. Saved 88%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

You see, a history of lying helps.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago (2 children)

As far as I understamd they just moved the factories and cole power plants further away from Bejing.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

So the smoke isn't where most people live? Seems like a good idea.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

Emissions standards were enforced on coal power plants, cars were tightly regulated, and home energy was pushed towards gas (which burns with less particulate emissions) or electricity.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago
[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

Catalytic converters and basically all modern industrial post processing of byproduct are expensive in the eyes of any 3rd world country.

Pakistan has the same issues right next door.

Pakistan won't do it until bribe money can be invovled in it. India won't do it until it's practically free.

Doesn't excuse them from not trying at all, but it is unlikely nothing besides maybe some traffic limiters will ever be implemented.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (7 children)

China is a dictatorship, the government decides to do something, no choice but to do it.

India is a democracy, government's got to convince everyone, including the powerful and moneyed that the thing they want to do is worth it.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 11 months ago

India is a democracy, government's got to convince everyone …

India is a federation of ~30 states, with wildly varying levels of democracy. Now this is usually a good thing; it has allowed us to accomodate a great deal of cultural and economic diversity without breaking up. But a major cause of the pollution in Delhi is stubble burning in neighbouring, which the government of Delhi has no power over. And the union (i.e. federal) government is led by a different party, so they don't co-operate with the Delhi government.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Sounds like democracy doesn't benefit the people idk

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Sounds like the people have no say otherwise, idk

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

A democracy where people have a voice that the ruling class can choose to ignore. Hmm.

Democracy runs opposed to capitalism.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 11 months ago

Whatever commie

[–] [email protected] -2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Sounds like neither benefits the people.

It should've never been bad to begin with. That smog didn't just magically disappear. It's in their soil, their water, their body.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

Why?

Oh, right, because they are building and growing goods being sold halfway around the world

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Because corporate profit means more than people. Now that China isn't 'the economy the world is based on' - their production is down AND their pollution is down.