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NASA Data Shows Toxic Air Threat Choking Indian Subcontinent

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Re: NASA Data Shows Toxic Air Threat Choking Indian Subcontinent

#151

Post by internaut »

_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 ?

I hear good things about HEPA filters.

http://www.achooallergy.com/3m-6291-hepa-masks/

I'd recommend getting cheap disposable surgical masks as a backup strategy. They won't prevent the air being polluted but they will still filter the tiny particulates in the air that cause so many problems.

Re: NASA Data Shows Toxic Air Threat Choking Indian Subcontinent

#152

Post by venomsnake »

ptaipale wrote: post #148
oldmanjay wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For additional selfish reasons: there's only one atmosphere. ruining it anywhere ruins it everywhere i'm sort of surprised that would need to be pointed out, though

This was specifically about other pollutants than CO2. Those have local impact, so bad air in China doesn't show up in America or Europe.

It does. Diluted but it does. I think that 20% of the LA smog could be traced to be of Chinese origin. Sources - probably a guardian article an year ago.

Re: NASA Data Shows Toxic Air Threat Choking Indian Subcontinent

#153

Post by dxbydt »

Retric wrote: post #150
dxbydt wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is such an interesting idea! Lots of potential. Given n (city,population, area) tuples for country C, find 2 cities, the line thru which slices C into two land masses M and N. M would then have k tuples and N would have n-k, such that the ratio of aggregate population of k tuples to the aggregate population of n-k would be 90+delta:10-delta, for delta in interval [1,9], whilst simultaneously you have the ratio o…

There are not that many city's in any given country so N^2 is probably not a big deal. However, you can get approximate results by drawing a line at every angle through a country and then moving that line up and down. Then just look for city's near any good candidate lines.

> drawing a line at every angle through a country and then moving that line up and down.

This part is quite messy. For every given (c1,c2) city pair, you'd get 1 straight line that connects c1 to c2. Then for every city ck, you need info on whether ck is above that line or below - you can compute that by point-slope geometry with the lat-long coordinates ( given point p(x,y) & line l with some slope, is p above l or below ).

If you want to poke around, the dataset is here: http://seer.cancer.gov/popdata/

Re: NASA Data Shows Toxic Air Threat Choking Indian Subcontinent

#155

Post by 1_2__3 »

at-fates-hands wrote: post #52
HenryTheHorse wrote: post #15

That satellite image of the haze is scary. Scarier still is how the deterioration of air quality in the cities is affecting health. (The WHO estimates ~15 million bronchial asthma patients in India.) You haven't experienced air pollution if you haven't breathed in the evening air in Mumbai or Bangalore during the rush hour.

>> You haven't experienced air pollution if you haven't breathed in the evening air in Mumbai or Bangalore during the rush hour. Economically, it may be a good sign that 1,400 new cars are added to Delhi's vehicle population every day. According to the Centre for Science and Environment, the number of passenger cars in Delhi has gone up from around 75,000 in 2005-06 to more than half a million today. http://timesofin…

Take every car off the road and those satellite images look almost exactly the same.

Re: NASA Data Shows Toxic Air Threat Choking Indian Subcontinent

#156

Post by HillaryBriss »

Retric wrote: post #93
djsumdog wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The grid in India is pretty broken. My dad had dreams of going back to India to retire, but on his last trip he told me housing was now super expensive, the pollution was still terrible, the air not fit to breath and the water still unsafe to drink. In other countries we take a national grid for granted. In Europe, power can be bought and sold from country to country. India may be lacking in capacity, but even if the…

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 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.

America's most populous county, Los Angeles County, is approximately the same. The northeastern part is mostly very hot high desert or national forest land (severe building restrictions). By contrast, the southwestern part is coastal and much more suitable for human habitation.

http://maps.latimes.com/neighborhoods/population/density/nei...

In general, Californians live in the third of the state along the Pacific coast.

Re: NASA Data Shows Toxic Air Threat Choking Indian Subcontinent

#157

Post by vacri »

Retric wrote: post #93
djsumdog wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The grid in India is pretty broken. My dad had dreams of going back to India to retire, but on his last trip he told me housing was now super expensive, the pollution was still terrible, the air not fit to breath and the water still unsafe to drink. In other countries we take a national grid for granted. In Europe, power can be bought and sold from country to country. India may be lacking in capacity, but even if the…

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...

Tibetless China is still a lot bigger than India and doesn't have that 94% property. The spirit of the GP's comment holds, I think.

Re: NASA Data Shows Toxic Air Threat Choking Indian Subcontinent

#158

Post by bthallplz »

jschwartzi wrote: post #87
HenryTheHorse wrote: post #15

That satellite image of the haze is scary. Scarier still is how the deterioration of air quality in the cities is affecting health. (The WHO estimates ~15 million bronchial asthma patients in India.) You haven't experienced air pollution if you haven't breathed in the evening air in Mumbai or Bangalore during the rush hour.

Thank god for the US EPA.

They're useful trailblazers, but I'd love to see more free-market solutions tried and developed.

Re: NASA Data Shows Toxic Air Threat Choking Indian Subcontinent

#159

Post by kamaal »

kartD wrote: post #104
kamaal wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>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?

Fixing tax accountability mandates fixing income accountability. Once that is done corruption will become impossible.

Best bet currently is cashless transactions. The more we have them, the better. If some one has more than explainable income in the bank they will be forced to show that up in tax returns, if its legal they will have to pay taxes, if its illegal then they face action.

Cash transactions are at the core of why everyday corruption is even possible. Liquid cash is easy to exchange without traceability.

Re: NASA Data Shows Toxic Air Threat Choking Indian Subcontinent

#160

Post by ptaipale »

venomsnake wrote: post #152
ptaipale wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was specifically about other pollutants than CO2. Those have local impact, so bad air in China doesn't show up in America or Europe.

It does. Diluted but it does. I think that 20% of the LA smog could be traced to be of Chinese origin. Sources - probably a guardian article an year ago.

That is clearly not feasible. Just think about it:

Right now, air quality index in central San Francisco is 15 [0]. That's "good". In central Los Angeles, it is 84, a "moderate" day [1]. Those figures are on linear scale [2].

The cities are about on an equal distance from China, and the figure for San Francisco is 18 % of that in LA.

If 20 % of Los Angeles pollution would be from China, then 110 % of San Francisco air pollution would be from China. Hey, it could only be 100 %. You took a bait.

Advice: don't believe everything in Guardian.

[0] https://www.airnow.gov/index.cfm?action=airnow.local_city&zi...

[1] https://www.airnow.gov/index.cfm?action=airnow.local_city&ci...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_quality_index#Computing_th...

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