The air quality in New Delhi has reached alarming levels, with December and January registering an average Air Quality Index (AQI) of 349 and 307 respectively. These figures are classified as hazardous by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The prolonged smog season, which affects over 30 million residents and leads to respiratory illnesses, has this year ignited public discontent and protests. Demonstrations demanding government intervention have taken place, with some resulting in detentions and even violence, highlighting the growing frustration.
Despite the severity of the situation, the government's response has been largely superficial. Initiatives such as truck-mounted 'smog guns' and 'smog towers', widely dismissed by scientists as ineffective, have been deployed. Even a cloud seeding trial proved unsuccessful. Furthermore, a contradictory statement from a senior environment minister to Parliament in December claimed no definitive link between pollution and lung disease, a position sharply contested by medical professionals. Compounding these issues, government spending on pollution control has seen a 16% reduction in the recent federal budget. The devastating impact of this crisis is starkly illustrated by the fact that nearly 1.7 million deaths in India were attributed to air pollution in 2019, as per The Lancet. A 2023 World Bank report also estimated that this crisis is hindering annual GDP growth by approximately 0.56 percentage points, underscoring the significant economic as well as hea lth implications.
Fuente Original: https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/02/16/1745219/indias-toxic-air-crisis-is-reaching-a-breaking-point?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed
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