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NASA Data Shows Toxic Air Threat Choking Indian Subcontinent

bloomberg.com

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Re: NASA Data Shows Toxic Air Threat Choking Indian Subcontinent

#101

Post by j0e1 »

X86BSD wrote: post #92
j0e1 wrote: post #84

As someone who grew up in New Delhi, I think the government has taken quite a few steps like passing laws that require all public transport to run only on CNG, mandating industries to be positioned outside the city and more recently having policies to curb number of cars on the road. But the problem of pollution never seemed to improve. Optimistically I've told myself that if those measures weren't taken we would hav…

Having been to Delhi that does not seem to be enforced or effective. There are still petrol stations all over. And the pollution is still appalling.

Petrol station are still there and they are legal. Only the public transport like the government run buses and the private taxis/auto rickshaws are those required to run on CNG. And I would venture to say that 100% of them do, mainly because it is less than half the cost of petrol. In fact, a number of car owners are moving to CNG too for the same reason.

Re: NASA Data Shows Toxic Air Threat Choking Indian Subcontinent

#102

Post by wallflower »

mikeash wrote: post #5
exabrial wrote: post #2

We can pass all the air regulations in America, but it won't matter one bit until China and India get their act together. China has 100% 24/7/365 smog cover along their population centers. So sick of people pushing overbearing regulation in the USA without even holding these countries accountable!

As someone living in the US who visits China every couple of years, I would really love to see China clean up their act (the pollution has become by far my #1 dislike), but I would really hate to see the US loosen pollution regulations because of some weird idea that we shouldn't bother cleaning up our air unless everybody else does too. I love the fact that when we have air quality warnings, I can't even tell the di…

> I would really love to see China clean up their act (the pollution has become by far my #1 dislike)

Since no one has mentioned the Kuznets curve yet, the Environmental Kuznets Curve is a bell-shaped curve that posits that before a certain point, the environment is sacrificed for economic growth. After that inflection point where citizens demand better environmental stewardship, the environment improves.

However, in China, the problem is that economic growth is how the ruling party maintains power. The break-even for political stability economic rate in China is said to be around 6-7%. Under that, the economy cannot sustain the migration of rural workers to urban centers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuznets_curve

Re: NASA Data Shows Toxic Air Threat Choking Indian Subcontinent

#103

Post by jonknee »

ismyrnow wrote: post #96

I'm surprised the article doesn't mention density of cattle farming. I know it's a complicated issue, but my understanding is that industrial animal production affects climate more than transportation does. http://www.fao.org/Ag/againfo/resources/en/glw/Density_maps/... https://www3.epa.gov/climatechange/ghgemissions/global.html

Because this article isn't about greenhouse gasses? The article is about particles in the air, mainly from vehicle emissions.

Re: NASA Data Shows Toxic Air Threat Choking Indian Subcontinent

#104

Post by kartD »

kamaal wrote: post #64
kartD wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't think so, India is typically 4 stroke because of pollution norms and 4 strokes are more fuel efficient which we're very sensitive to. Frankly, India's problem can only be fixed by population control. If Sanjay Gandhi hadn't been an idiot and forever poisoned the idea of population control, India would be much better off, especially if we can get the population to around 300M - 500M

>>India's problem can only be fixed by population control. And with tax accountability. >>If Sanjay Gandhi hadn't been an idiot and forever poisoned the idea of population control, India would be much better off, especially if we can get the population to around 300M - 500M Wrong solutions lead to mistakes from which it is hard to recover. The ideal solution was industrialization and planned urbanization. Urban popul…

I hope you're right and I'd really love for it to happen.

Btw, can you explain the tax accountability part, I'm not really sure I understand what you're trying to say there?

Re: NASA Data Shows Toxic Air Threat Choking Indian Subcontinent

#105

Post by tossaway1 »

rapind wrote: post #95
Retric wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A huge chunk of china is basically uninhabitable. http://www.china-mike.com/china-travel-tips/tourist-maps/chi... PS: You can draw a strait line in China with 6% of the population on the larger half, and 94% of the population on the smaller half. http://www.undertheraedar.com/2012/06/population-of-china.ht...

You could probably do the same in Canada fwiw.

Technically you could draw such a straight line in any country.

Re: NASA Data Shows Toxic Air Threat Choking Indian Subcontinent

#106

Post by gajjanag »

_navaneethan wrote: post #100

I am from India. Especially from Bangalore. I commute daily 30kms up and down. I am facing breathing polluted air issues. In fact I was looking for good pollution filter masks. But I am unable to get the good one. Since the reviews of them are unsatisfactory I am trying to come out of this issue at all. At the same time I don't want to leave my lovable tech job. Anybody experienced the same issues? Any advise ?

Per http://hariharan-ramesh.com/sports.html, it seems like your options are sadly limited, though you could give the linked Respro a shot.

Re: NASA Data Shows Toxic Air Threat Choking Indian Subcontinent

#107

Post by Noseshine »

rapind wrote: post #95
Retric wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A huge chunk of china is basically uninhabitable. http://www.china-mike.com/china-travel-tips/tourist-maps/chi... PS: You can draw a strait line in China with 6% of the population on the larger half, and 94% of the population on the smaller half. http://www.undertheraedar.com/2012/06/population-of-china.ht...

You could probably do the same in Canada fwiw.

Is it really uninhabitable? The territories in the north maybe too harsh, but with global warming helping too I think the southern half is quite alright, which is huge. It's all forest, lots of lakes, no lack of water and not too high, and no desert.

Re: NASA Data Shows Toxic Air Threat Choking Indian Subcontinent

#108

Post by 0xffff2 »

tossaway1 wrote: post #105
rapind wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could probably do the same in Canada fwiw.

Technically you could draw such a straight line in any country.

You could draw a straight line across any country that divides the population into 6%/94%, but I doubt there are many countries where the 94% side would be smaller than the 6% side for any line.

Re: NASA Data Shows Toxic Air Threat Choking Indian Subcontinent

#110

Post by Retric »

Noseshine wrote: post #107
rapind wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could probably do the same in Canada fwiw.

Is it really uninhabitable? The territories in the north maybe too harsh, but with global warming helping too I think the southern half is quite alright, which is huge. It's all forest, lots of lakes, no lack of water and not too high, and no desert.

On the western half:

The 'low' areas have minimal rainfall and are 1KM over sea level. http://www.chinamaps.org/china/china-map-of-precipitation-an...

The high areas get a little more rainfall, but are mostly 4-5+km over sea level. http://www.china-food-security.org/data/maps/dem/dem_h.htm

Combine them and you can see why the population map looks the way it does. http://www.china-mike.com/china-travel-tips/tourist-maps/chi...

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