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Norwegian delegation discusses sustainable waste management practices with Gurugram MC officials

A delegation from Norway, led by Andreas Schei, Counsellor for Climate and Environment at the Embassy of Norway, met officials from the Gurugram Municipal Corporation (MCG) on Friday to review the city’s progress towards achieving ‘zero waste’ status. The initiative focuses on sustainable waste management practices by bulk waste generators. India and Norway had earlier signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collaborate on ocean cleanup and the blue economy. This partnership also supports India’s efforts to prevent marine pollution and eliminate single-use plastic. As part of the MoU, the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) is implementing the “Mainstreaming Circular Economy in the Waste Management Sector in India” project. Gurugram has been designated a ‘mission city’, where CSE provides expertise, capacity building and research to guide the civic body in sustainable waste management practices. Advertisement PauseUnmute Fullscreen During the meeting, Schei, along with CSE delegates Atin Biswas and Mau Sengupta, discussed these efforts with Additional Commissioner Balpreet Singh. Singh highlighted initiatives such as forming a dedicated monitoring cell for bulk waste generators (BWG) and creating a sanitation security force (SSF) to prevent unauthorised dumping of waste. To date, 1,472 BWGs have registered on the MCG portal. In the past month, the SSF seized 25 vehicles, lodged 21 FIRs, issued 54 challans and imposed fines totalling Rs 7.5 lakh for unauthorised dumping. The civic body is also conducting awareness campaigns on solid waste management and the ban on single-use plastics.

World’s record heat is worsening air pollution and health in Global South

2024 was the hottest year on record, producing intense, long-lasting heat waves. Climate change-intensified extreme events last year included the formation of vast heat domes — areas of high pressure that stalled and persisted above continental land masses in Asia, Africa, South and North America, and Europe. Heat domes intensify unhealthy air pollution from vehicles, industry, wildfires and dust storms. When a heat wave gripped New Delhi, India, last summer, temperatures soared, resulting in unhealthy concentrations of ground-level ozone — pollutants especially unhealthy for outdoor workers. When climate change-driven heat, drought and record wildfires occurred in the Brazilian Amazon last year, the fires produced massive amounts of wood smoke containing dangerous levels of toxic particulates that cause respiratory disease. Indigenous people living in remote areas had little defense against the smoke. Intense heat also impacted Nigeria in 2024, where major dust storms and rising temperatures created conditions that helped increased cases of meningitis — a sometimes deadly disease, especially in poor areas. Escalating climate change is expected to exacerbate pollution and worsen public health in the future. Humanity achieved a fateful milestone last year. The European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service has officially declared 2024 the hottest year on record, and the first year in history with an average global temperature rising 1.5° Celsius (2.7° Fahrenheit) above the pre-industrial period — significantly increasing dangerous climate risks. In fact, 2023 and 2024 may well be the hottest years in 100,000 years, with all indicators pointing to it getting hotter, bringing ever-worsening global impacts. “The temperature-related extreme events witnessed [last Norther Hemisphere] summer will only become more intense,” warned Samantha Burgess, deputy director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service. In 2024, extreme heat enveloped whole regions of the world for weeks on end, with severe unprecedented consequences. A deadly heat wave killed at least 1,300 people during the annual Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia, while the worst drought in a century gripped Southern Africa, leaving 21 million children malnourished. Record drought also devastated South America, reducing Amazon rivers to their lowest levels ever recorded. North America wasn’t spared either. Heat domes — stalled high pressure systems that retain and intensify temperatures — blanketed vast parts of the U.S. and killed more than 100 people in Mexico. But less noticed, and harder to track, is the way in which oppressive heat helps degrade air quality, making people sick. While air pollution sources are typically local or regional, the invisible hand of climate change is further deteriorating air quality around the planet. Stubbornly persistent heat waves, record wildfires, and drastically changing wind and precipitation patterns all “alter the formation, duration and dispersion of air pollution,” notes a World Meteorological Organization bulletin, highlighting the synergistic health effects of global warming. The Global South, an epicenter of poor air quality, is being especially hard hit. A toxic soup of air pollutants — automotive exhaust fumes over urban India, choking dust clouds blowing across Nigeria, and suffocating wildfire smoke blanketing Brazil — are being made even deadlier by a rapidly destabilizing climate. Ozone over New Delhi The summer of 2024 in India’s capital, New Delhi, was more brutal than any Kunal Kumar can remember. The city was trapped under the longest heat wave in 13 years. Things were so bad that Kumar, a gig worker who makes food deliveries, was forced some days to give up his outdoor income. “Better to lose my wages and stay at home than die of a heatstroke,” he told Mongabay. Delhi, a sprawling city in northern India, is nestled in the country’s Indo-Gangetic Plain where summer daytime temperatures average 32°C (90°F). But a series of persistent anticyclonic wind circulation events over the northern Indian Ocean, coupled with the fading El Niño, caused clockwise wind gusts to sink over the city, creating a persistent high-pressure heat dome that pushed 2024 temperatures to relentless highs. For weeks, brutal daytime temperatures stayed above 40°C (104°F), with little respite by night. The city’s solar heat-absorbing built environment made conditions even more miserable and dangerous. For Kumar, who spends 12 to 15 hours a day on the road making deliveries, the heat was life-threatening — as it was for the rest of the city’s 33.8 million people, many of whom work outside or lack air-conditioning. In Kumar’s cramped South Delhi neighborhood, heat radiated off the walls and street day and night in a textbook example of the urban heat island effect. He was dehydrated and irritable most days. “Everywhere you look there’s a traffic jam in this city. Stuck in jams, under the hot sun with hot air blowing on your body; it was unbearable,” Kumar remembers. Normally, air pollution is perceived as a winter problem in Delhi, when a thick blanket of low-altitude smog gets trapped by cool air hanging above the metropolis. That smog is mostly composed of toxic PM2.5 particulates — very tiny particles that lodge in the lungs and can cause cardiovascular and respiratory disease. Every winter, PM2.5 levels peak due to seasonal crop burning and the exploding of fireworks during the Diwali festival, turning Delhi into one of the world’s most polluted places. But now, as global warming and urban development bring higher temperatures over the city in summer, the co-occurring impacts of intense heat and air pollution compound in less obvious but seriously unhealthful ways. Traffic in Delhi. Traffic in Delhi. Transportation emissions are driving dangerous ground level ozone levels. Image by NOMAD via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0). In hot summer months, the traffic jams Kumar and thousands of gig workers are stalled in every day become hotspots for toxins that include PM2.5 particulates and ground-level ozone. High up in the stratosphere, ozone plays a vital beneficial role, absorbing the sun’s harmful ultraviolet rays. But close to Earth’s surface, it’s a potent air pollutant whose insidious health impacts accrue in the body. Ground-level ozone is formed when nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds (VOCs), emitted from vehicle exhausts and other combustion sources such as factories, react with sunlight. A recent analysis by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), a Delhi-based think tank, found that new hotspots for ground-level ozone emerged across the city over the summer. Between April and July 2024, Delhi recorded ground-level ozone readings in excess of safe limits on 102 days, often for more than 13 hours at a stretch, the analysis said. Annual PM2.5 background levels have also risen steadily, driven predominantly by an increase in transportation emissions — traffic that now worsens air pollution in winter and drives ground-level ozone in summer. Epidemiologist Poornima Prabhakaran, director of the Centre for Health Analytics Research and Trends at Ashoka University, calls the increasing ground-level ozone trend worrying. India has the highest death burden of any nation from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, attributable to ground-level ozone levels, according to the “State of Global Air” report published annually by U.S.-based Health Effects Institute in partnership with UNICEF; ozone killed 238,000 people in India in 2019. People also continue breathing other toxic contaminants released from tailpipes and smokestacks. But “The impacts of [these] secondary pollutants have not been given as much attention compared to the impacts of smog and PM2.5, probably because of lack of awareness,” Prabhakaran said. Prabhakaran is working with scientists internationally, developing databases to track the impacts of air pollution (including PM2.5 and ozone) on a variety of outcomes, such as respiratory and cognitive health functions. “We’re trying to analyze, with data, every health outcome that we can get our hands on,” Prabhakaran said, adding, “Intermediate risk factors like hypertension, high blood pressure, fasting glucose, high lipid levels — all of those cardiovascular outcomes — are known to worsen with even chronic, low-dose [air pollution] exposure.”

11 schools of Solan district certified in green category

Eleven schools of Solan district have received certification in the green category for the year 2024-25 by the Centre for Science and Environment, Delhi. This comprises eight government and three private schools. Deputy Director Elementary Education Solan Mohinder Chand Pirta informed that details of 101 schools from Solan district were uploaded on the website of the Green Schools Programme highlighting their environmental conservation related endeavour. Out of this, 11 schools of district Solan have been certified in Green category on the basis of environmental audit conducted by the Center for Science and Environment. The Green Schools Programme is an ‘inspection’ or ‘survey’ on its environmental practices which is also referred to as environmental auditing. It encompasses various aspects like use of water, energy, land, air and waste in the school and how they are managed. Advertisement Pirta said that Government Senior Secondary School (GSSS) Nalagarh, GSSS Manjholi , GSSS Bagheri, GSSS Bhatia, GSSS Bohli, Government High School Kanah, Kendriya Vidyalaya Air Force Station Kasauli, Pinegrove School Dharampur, International School Kasauli, Shivalik Valley School Nalagarh and Government Primary School Jalana have been included in the Green category. PlayUnmute Fullscreen Principal, headmaster, teacher and two school children of the 11 schools included in the Green category will be honoured on February 4 at India Habitat Centre, Delhi.

दिल्ली वालों को राहत की सांस, प्रदूषण कम होते ही हटाई गई GRAP-3 की पाबंदियां

दिल्ली में लोगों को प्रदूषण से लगातार राहत मिल रही है। जिसके चलते शुक्रवार को GRAP 4 के बाद GRAP 3 की पाबंदियों को भी हटा दिया गया है। दिल्ली-NCR में प्रदूषण के स्तर में गिरावट के चलते वायु गुणवत्ता प्रबंधन आयोग (CAQM) ने GRAP-3 के प्रतिबंधों को हटाने का फैसला लिया है। इस हफ्ते की शुरुआत में मंद हवाओं, कम तापमान और कोहरे के कारण दिल्ली में प्रदूषण बढ़ गया था, जिसके बाद CAQM ने GRAP के तीसरे और चौथे चरण के तहत कड़े प्रतिबंध लागू कर दिए थे। बारिश के बाद प्रदूषण के स्तर में गिरावट के बीच आयोग ने गुरुवार को चरण-4 के तहत प्रतिबंधों को हटा दिया था। शुक्रवार को तेज हवाओं के कारण प्रदूषण के स्तर में और कमी आई, जिसके बाद तीसरे चरण की पाबंदियों को भी वापस ले लिया गया है। सर्दियों के दौरान दिल्ली-NCR में प्रदूषण का स्तर बढ़ने पर ग्रैप के तहत प्रतिबंध लागू किए जाते हैं। जो वायु गुणवत्ता को चार चरणों में बांटते हैं। चरण एक (खराब, AQI 201-300) चरण दो (बहुत खराब, AQI 301-400) चरण तीन (गंभीर, AQI 401-450) चरण चार (बहुत गंभीर, AQI 450 से ऊपर) GRAP-3 की पाबंदियां GRAP-3 में अनावश्यक निर्माण कार्यों पर पाबंदी होती है। ग्रैप के तीसरे चरण के लागू रहने पर स्कूलों में पांचवीं कक्षा तक की पढ़ाई हाइब्रिड मोड में करना अनिवार्य होता है, जिसमें अभिभावकों और बच्चों के पास ऑनलाइन कक्षाएं करने का विकल्प होता है। GRAP-3 में दिल्ली और NCR के आसपास के जिलों में बीएस-3 पेट्रोल और बीएस-4 डीजल कारों का उपयोग प्रतिबंधित है। दिव्यांग व्यक्तियों को इससे छूट दी गई है। तीसरे चरण में दिल्ली में बीएस-4 या पुराने मानकों वाले गैर-जरूरी डीजल चालित मध्यम माल वाहनों की आवाजाही पर भी प्रतिबंध है। पराली जलाने में 37.5 प्रतिशत गिरावट थिंक टैंक सेंटर फॉर साइंस एंड एनवायरनमेंट (CSE) की रिपोर्ट में कहा गया कि दिल्ली, पंजाब और हरियाणा में 2024 में पराली जलाने की कुल वार्षिक घटनाओं में 37.5 प्रतिशत की गिरावट आई है। पराली जलाने के मामलों में पंजाब में 75 प्रतिशत और हरियाणा में 37 प्रतिशत की गिरावट दर्ज की गई। अक्टूबर-दिसंबर 2024 के दौरान पराली जलाने की घटनाओं में 71.2 प्रतिशत की गिरावट के बावजूद, सर्दियों में प्रदूषण उच्च स्तर पर बना हुआ था। लगातार दूसरे साल बढ़ा PM-2.5 पंजाब, हरियाणा और राष्ट्रीय राजधानी में पराली जलाने की घटनाओं में 37 प्रतिशत से अधिक की गिरावट के बावजूद, दिल्ली का सालाना PM 2.5 स्तर 2024 में लगातार दूसरे साल बढ़ा है। थिंक टैंक CSE की रिपोर्ट के मुताबिक दिल्ली की वार्षिक PM 2.5 सांद्रता 2024 में बढ़कर 104.7 माइक्रोग्राम प्रति क्यूबिक मीटर हो गई जो 2023 के स्तर से 3.4 प्रतिशत अधिक है। यह राष्ट्रीय स्तर पर वायु गुणवत्ता मानक 40 माइक्रोग्राम प्रति क्यूबिक मीटर से भी दोगुना है। इसमें कहा गया कि 2024 का औसत अभी भी 2018 में दर्ज सबसे अधिक 115.8 माइक्रोग्राम प्रति घन मीटर से 9.6 प्रतिशत कम है, लेकिन यह 2021-2023 के तीन साल के औसत से तीन प्रतिशत अधिक है, जो 2018 और 2022 के बीच मिली सफलता के निष्प्रभावी होने का संकेत देता है।

गुरुग्राम: नॉर्वे के प्रतिनिधिमंडल ने देखा नगर निगम का कामकाज

अतिरिक्त निगमायुक्त डा. बलप्रीत सिंह के साथ प्रतिनिधिमंडल की हुई की मुलाकात गुरुग्राम, 17 जनवरी (हि.स.)। नॉर्वे का एक प्रतिनिधिमंडल शुक्रवार को नगर निगम गुरुग्राम कार्यालय पहुंचा। यहां अतिरिक्त निगमायुक्त डा.

PIL Annual Gas Forum

India's energy transition is increasingly turning to natural gas as a pivotal component in its strategy to reduce carbon emissions and diversify its energy mix. As the country seeks to balance economic growth with environmental sustainability, natural gas emerges as a cleaner alternative to coal and oil. By investing in gas infrastructure and technology, India aims to enhance energy security, reduce air pollution, and support its long-term climate goals while fostering economic development. The theme “Fueling India’s Future: The Power of Gas in Energy Transition” highlights the critical role of natural gas in India's aim for net-zero emissions by 2070. Developing robust gas infrastructure is essential for energy security, regional connectivity, and economic growth, creating jobs and fostering innovation. Thus, natural gas serves as a vital bridge to a cleaner energy future and supports socio-economic development. The conference aims to explore how natural gas can act as a bridge in this transition, discussing technological innovations, policy frameworks, and investment strategies essential for a successful energy shift. This exclusive forum presented by Pipeline Infrastructure Limited and ETEnergyworld with S&P Global as the Knowledge Partner will bring together industry leaders to tackle crucial challenges and articulate a dynamic vision for the future!

Heat report: Chennai has highest number of ‘danger’ days

A National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration heat index analysis by the Centre for Science and Environment for nine Indian cities over the summer months of 2023 (March-July) showed that out of the 153 days taken under consideration, Chennai had 54 days categorised under the ‘danger’ category, the highest among the nine cities part of the report. The danger category indicates a high risk of heat exhaustion, cramps, and heat stroke with prolonged exposure (to heat) during these days. The city had another 83 days that fell in the ‘extreme caution’ category, second only to Ahmedabad which had 85 days under it. According to the report, warm-humid zones like Chennai see higher heat indices due to increased humidity, resulting in possible thermal discomfort, a concept which is influenced by temperature and high humidity of a particular region. The analysis states that the city most affected by discomfort is Chennai, experiencing discomfort for all 153 days, followed by Ahmedabad with 149 and Kolkata with 147 days. The report states nearly every major city struggles to cope with the warming climate and requires retrofits to its existing infrastructure. It also states that smaller cities stand on the brink of explosive growth and urgently need to pursue ‘heatproof’ development. Urban mini forests, street trees and green spaces play a crucial role in improving microclimatic conditions, it added.

'30 years ago, masks & air purifiers were unheard of'

In the current day we wake up to our air purifiers, smartphones warning us that the air quality is in the ‘very poor’ or ‘hazardous’ category. Whether schools, offices and going out will be physical or online, it all now depends on the quality of the air on a given day. The Air Quality Index, always fluctuating between 300-600, wasn’t a common phenomenon 30 years back. Even the discussion around air or air quality wasn’t a household thing. While Delhi’s air quality is the biggest issue we discuss in our day-to-day lives now – online classes, working from home on account of pollution, people gifting air purifiers to each other on Diwali, kids taking inhalers to schools wasn’t something people in the ’90s thought of. Nebulisers, air purifiers and masks in day-to-day use, were nonexistent 30 years ago’ Dr Arvind Kumar, Chairman, Lung Transplant, Medanta, Gurugram, moved to Delhi in 1976. The 66-year-old says that until 2004-2006, nobody spoke about air quality. “The term AQIcame into our lives in 2014. Nobody in Delhi was talking about air or air quality 30 years back. It wasn’t the best back then, but it wasn’t the way it is today either. Things like nebulisers, air purifiers and masks in day-to-day use, were nonexistent. When my children were growing up in Delhi in 2000, on the AIIMS campus, we needed nebulisers. That was a subtle change. But masks and air purifiers are all a post 2014-2015 phenomenon. The routine monitoring of air started around 1995. The forecasting and reporting on air quality started around 2014 and now we have real-time information on our air purifiers and AQI,” shares the doctor. "The biggest change that we have seen in our practice of respiratory medicine is the awareness about lung diseases that pollution can cause, and nowadays we seemany patients walking to us in the OPD and enquiring about their lung health and the adverse effect pollution is causing,” says Dr Puneet Khanna, HOD and Consultant, Pulmonology, HCMCT Manipal Hospitals, Dwarka. ‘Anyone who breathes - a newborn or an elderly - smokes 15-20 cigarettes in Oct-Nov in Delhi’ “As per a formula 22 microgram of PM2.5 is equal to 1 cigarette. So, when the PM2.5 level is at 400, mostly in Oct-Nov these days, it is equivalent to smoke of 15-20 cigarettes a day. I say that during Oct-Nov when PM2.5 is at 350-400, it is like smoking that number of cigarettes by anyone who breathes. That includes newborns to elderly. When I operate on teenagers, I see black deposits in their lungs, too, which was unheard of 30 years back,” says Dr Arvind Kumar. Air quality in ’97 A 1997 white paper published by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) listed the annual averages of total suspended PM (TSP) values as 373, 338, 317, 377, 372, 377, 407, 387, and 370 μg/ m3 for the period of 1989 to 1997 (9 years), based on data collected by manual stations Source: What Is Polluting Delhi’s Air? A Review from 1990 to 2022 PM2.5 concentration is currently 18.2 times the World Health Organisation’s annual PM2.5 guideline value Source: IQAir Lifestyle changes that became a default in NCR post AQI Telling people not to exercise. This advice is particularly hard for doctors to offer as they keep encouraging people to exercise Stopping children from playing outdoors – something that every child enjoys. It is heartbreaking for paediatricians Moving from physical to online classes, which takes away an essential component of learning together in person. This often generates a sense of guilt of having failed our children as parents, teachers and paediatricians Assessing visiting places based on ability to control AQI in the premises Forcing some people, who just can’t handle the high AQI because of medical conditions, to think about moving away from Delhi in what used to be the best time to enjoy the outdoors – Inputs by Dr Anupam Sibal, Group Medical Director and Senior Consultant Paediatrician, Apollo Hospitals Group ‘The 90s saw a less crowded, greener Delhi, with fewer vehicles, and sparrows in its parks’ The 1990s saw a less crowded, greener Delhi, with fewer vehicles, minimal construction, and an abundance of sparrows in its parks. Still, the city’s skyline was dominated by the smokeemitting chimneys of the Indraprastha and Rajghat power stations, along with a Badarpur Power station on the capital’s outskirts. The air was thick with soot, and vehicles belched black smoke as a common sight. Riding a scooter for a few kilometres left burning red eyes and a black layer of soot on white shirts. 30 years ago, Delhi took its first significant step to combat air pollution by adopting CNG – Mohan George, Consultant, Clean Air & Sustainable Mobility, Center for Science and Environment (and Ex. Additional Director at Delhi Pollution Control Committee) Switching to CNG was a significant step in mitigating air pollution in the 90s Air quality might once have been an unfamiliar term, but the choking haze of pollution was an undeniable reality even in the mid-90s. Anumita Roychowdhury, Executive Director for Research and Advocacy, Centre for Science and Environment, shares, "When our Right to Clean Air Campaign was initiated in 1996, Delhi’s choking haze of pollution was visibly black. But there was barely any data to piece together the pollution jigsaw and to see through the smokescreen. Authorities could easily dismiss the problem of particulate matter as ‘natural dust’. We used photos of black human lungs as warheads to provoke a response. Despite these odds, we have seen massive energy changeover, with public and commercial transport moving from diesel to CNG and industrial areas switching from coal, pet coke and furnace oil to natural gas in Delhi. These were tough battles." She adds, "I still recall the April 5, 2002 directive of the Supreme Court, upholding the Right to Life, that declined to dilute the 1998 CNG order and imposed a penalty for non-compliance. Delhi’s first action phase was driven by desperation and the urgency for immediate relief. Yet despite the initial gains, air quality is far from the clean benchmark." "Even after switching to CNG it feels like we keep returning to square one when it comes to pollution. My daughter was born in ’95 and my son was born in ’97. Even in the ’90s, the air was bad enough for the doctor to warn me, during both pregnancies, that my placenta resembled that of a heavy smoker, due to pollution. She advised me to stay indoors," adds Swapna Liddle, historian and author.

World’s record heat is worsening air pollution and health in Global South

n fact, 2023 and 2024 may well be the hottest years in 100,000 years, with all indicators pointing to it getting hotter, bringing ever-worsening global impacts. “The temperature-related extreme events witnessed [last Norther Hemisphere] summer will only become more intense,” warned Samantha Burgess, deputy director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service. In 2024, extreme heat enveloped whole regions of the world for weeks on end, with severe unprecedented consequences. A deadly heat wave killed at least 1,300 people during the annual Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia, while the worst drought in a century gripped Southern Africa, leaving 21 million children malnourished. Record drought also devastated South America, reducing Amazon rivers to their lowest levels ever recorded. North America wasn’t spared either. Heat domes — stalled high pressure systems that retain and intensify temperatures — blanketed vast parts of the U.S. and killed more than 100 people in Mexico. But less noticed, and harder to track, is the way in which oppressive heat helps degrade air quality, making people sick. While air pollution sources are typically local or regional, the invisible hand of climate change is further deteriorating air quality around the planet. Stubbornly persistent heat waves, record wildfires, and drastically changing wind and precipitation patterns all “alter the formation, duration and dispersion of air pollution,” notes a World Meteorological Organization bulletin, highlighting the synergistic health effects of global warming. The Global South, an epicenter of poor air quality, is being especially hard hit. A toxic soup of air pollutants — automotive exhaust fumes over urban India, choking dust clouds blowing across Nigeria, and suffocating wildfire smoke blanketing Brazil — are being made even deadlier by a rapidly destabilizing climate. 2024 was the first year in history seeing an average global temperature rising 1.5° Celsius (2.7° Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels. Ozone over New Delhi The summer of 2024 in India’s capital, New Delhi, was more brutal than any Kunal Kumar can remember. The city was trapped under the longest heat wave in 13 years. Things were so bad that Kumar, a gig worker who makes food deliveries, was forced some days to give up his outdoor income. “Better to lose my wages and stay at home than die of a heatstroke,” he said. Delhi, a sprawling city in northern India, is nestled in the country’s Indo-Gangetic Plain where summer daytime temperatures average 32°C (90°F). But a series of persistent anticyclonic wind circulation events over the northern Indian Ocean, coupled with the fading El Niño, caused clockwise wind gusts to sink over the city, creating a persistent high-pressure heat dome that pushed 2024 temperatures to relentless highs. For weeks, brutal daytime temperatures stayed above 40°C (104°F), with little respite by night. The city’s solar heat-absorbing built environment made conditions even more miserable and dangerous. For Kumar, who spends 12 to 15 hours a day on the road making deliveries, the heat was life-threatening — as it was for the rest of the city’s 33.8 million people, many of whom work outside or lack air-conditioning. In Kumar’s cramped South Delhi neighborhood, heat radiated off the walls and street day and night in a textbook example of the urban heat island effect. He was dehydrated and irritable most days. “Everywhere you look there’s a traffic jam in this city. Stuck in jams, under the hot sun with hot air blowing on your body; it was unbearable,” Kumar remembers. Normally, air pollution is perceived as a winter problem in Delhi, when a thick blanket of low-altitude smog gets trapped by cool air hanging above the metropolis. That smog is mostly composed of toxic PM2.5 particulates — very tiny particles that lodge in the lungs and can cause cardiovascular and respiratory disease. Every winter, PM2.5 levels peak due to seasonal crop burning and the exploding of fireworks during the Diwali festival, turning Delhi into one of the world’s most polluted places. But now, as global warming and urban development bring higher temperatures over the city in summer, the co-occurring impacts of intense heat and air pollution compound in less obvious but seriously unhealthful ways. In hot summer months, the traffic jams Kumar and thousands of gig workers are stalled in every day become hotspots for toxins that include PM2.5 particulates and ground-level ozone. High up in the stratosphere, ozone plays a vital beneficial role, absorbing the sun’s harmful ultraviolet rays. But close to Earth’s surface, it’s a potent air pollutant whose insidious health impacts accrue in the body. Ground-level ozone is formed when nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds (VOCs), emitted from vehicle exhausts and other combustion sources such as factories, react with sunlight. A recent analysis by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), a Delhi-based think tank, found that new hotspots for ground-level ozone emerged across the city over the summer. Between April and July 2024, Delhi recorded ground-level ozone readings in excess of safe limits on 102 days, often for more than 13 hours at a stretch, the analysis said. Annual PM2.5 background levels have also risen steadily, driven predominantly by an increase in transportation emissions — traffic that now worsens air pollution in winter and drives ground-level ozone in summer. Epidemiologist Poornima Prabhakaran, director of the Centre for Health Analytics Research and Trends at Ashoka University, calls the increasing ground-level ozone trend worrying. India has the highest death burden of any nation from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, attributable to ground-level ozone levels, according to the “State of Global Air” report published annually by U.S.-based Health Effects Institute in partnership with UNICEF; ozone killed 238,000 people in India in 2019. People also continue breathing other toxic contaminants released from tailpipes and smokestacks. But “The impacts of [these] secondary pollutants have not been given as much attention compared to the impacts of smog and PM2.5, probably because of lack of awareness,” Prabhakaran said. Prabhakaran is working with scientists internationally, developing databases to track the impacts of air pollution (including PM2.5 and ozone) on a variety of outcomes, such as respiratory and cognitive health functions. “We’re trying to analyze, with data, every health outcome that we can get our hands on,” Prabhakaran said, adding, “Intermediate risk factors like hypertension, high blood pressure, fasting glucose, high lipid levels — all of those cardiovascular outcomes — are known to worsen with even chronic, low-dose [air pollution] exposure.” Clean air programs have largely failed to improve air quality in India because they’ve been incentivized for dust control, rather than reducing transport and industrial combustion — the biggest sources of contaminants year round. “Our programs need to become more multipollutant-focused, which means taking a whole basket of pollutants [into consideration] like PM2.5, nitrous oxides, and ozone, to track improvements in air quality. Not just the level of dust in the air,” said Anumita Roychowdhary, CSE’s executive director of research and advocacy. Outdoor workers like Kumar remain very vulnerable to impacts due to their extensive exposure. The Indian government views the booming gig economy positively as an employment generator, at a time when unemployment rates have reached record highs. But those jobs often come at a considerable cost to workers’ long-term health. “I try not to take days off, even when I’m sick, because it slashes my earnings,” said Kumar. But breathing Delhi’s toxic soup day in and day out could bring on disease and early death. There’s also an economic cost. Gig workers are often primary family breadwinners, laboring without insurance or paid medical leave. A survey of 10,384 app-based workers across India conducted by the People’s Association in Grassroots Action and Movements and the University of Pennsylvania found that nearly 100% of respondents said they suffered physical and mental health issues due to gig work. Around 43% earned less than 500 rupees ($5.80) a day, and a similar proportion said they took no days off. “Companies hiring us should be more humane with benefits, wages and time off,” said Kumar, adding, “We work through the rain, through the heat.” It’s heat that scientists say will only intensify in coming years. Last year, Ewésh Yawalapiti Waurá says he watched helplessly as drought shrank away the life-giving waters of the river near his native village in Xingu Indigenous Park. Flowing through Brazil’s Amazon Rainforest, the Xingu River and its tributaries are vital to the territory’s 16 Indigenous groups. But drought wasn’t the only challenge faced by residents in 2024: As the river receded below, thick plumes of choking smoke hung overhead, the result of raging wildfires described as the worst the region has seen in recent years. Xingu Indigenous Park is located where the Amazon Rainforest biome transitions to the tropical Cerrado savanna biome in the central Brazilian state of Mato Grosso. The park, a protected area, was created in 1961 to preserve Indigenous culture and natural biodiversity. Waurá is the executive director of the Xingu Indigenous Land Association (ATIX), a group formed in 1994 to defend the rights of Indigenous peoples living in the Xingu region. But how, does one protect the people from deadly wildfire smoke? In the past, “it was easy to control the fire[s]. Today any fire gets out of control, spreads out; it’s difficult to control,” Waurá told Mongabay in a video interview. More than 200 firefighters from IBAMA, Brazil’s environmental agency, were sent to douse fires in the Xingu territory last year, with more volunteers joining them in “full force.” But the blazes remained “really out of control,” Waurá said. The local landscape has changed dramatically in recent years, Waurá added. Climate change and deforestation for agribusiness expansion have combined to dry out the region, destroying the remaining rainforest’s ability to resist fire. Dust over Nigeria’s Kano In the commercial city of Kano, Nigeria, dust is a daily part of life. “Kano is very hot. Even when there is power and the fan is running, we find it very difficult to sleep in the room [at night] due to the heat, especially during the dry season,” Zahara Usaini, a small-scale trader and 32-year-old mother of three, told Mongabay. Located in the arid, northern part of Nigeria, Kano’s surrounding landscape is dominated by savanna grasslands. In the past, temperatures there typically rose only as high as 33°C (91°F). But last year, they reached new records — hitting 39°C (102°F), and even 41°C (106°F) in places. A prolonged heat wave, made 10 times more likely due to the effects of climate change, swept the region in 2024. “The hotness of every dry season is increasing each year. I think it’s from God,” Usaini said. She felt anxious as she waited at Khalifa Sheikh Isyaku Rabiu Pediatric Hospital, where her youngest child, Hauwa, had been admitted. Hauwa, just 3 years old, had developed a fever that the family initially mistook as a malaria symptom. But when she didn’t respond to treatment by a local hospital, and started to convulse and lose consciousness, Hauwa was transferred to Khalifa and given the correct diagnosis: meningitis.

ग्रीन स्कूलों की श्रेणी में सोलन ने फिर मारी बाजी, शिमला दूसरे और जिला बिलासपुर रहा तीसरे स्थान पर

प्रदेश भर में सोलन ने फिर एक बार ग्रीन स्कूल में पहला स्थान प्राप्त किया है। शिमला दूसरे और बिलासपुर तीसरे स्थान पर रहा है। विज्ञान एवं पर्यावरण केंद्र (सेंटर फॉर साइंस एंड एनवायरमेंट) नई दिल्ली की ओर से वर्ष 2024-25 के लिए यह प्रमाणिता जारी की है। सोलन 11 स्कूल ग्रीन श्रेणी में प्रमाणित किए गए हैं। प्रदेश भर से 1,322 स्कूलों ने ग्रीन स्कूल के लिए अपना पंजीकरण किया था। Himachal : ग्रीन स्कूलों की श्रेणी में सोलन ने फिर मारी बाजी, शिमला दूसरे और जिला बिलासपुर रहा तीसरे स्थान पर संवाद न्यूज एजेंसी, सोलन। Published by: अंकेश डोगरा Updated Fri, 17 Jan 2025 02:00 AM IST सार 37289 Followers शिमला विज्ञान एवं पर्यावरण केंद्र की ओर से पर्यावरण ऑडिट के आधार पर सोलन के 11 और शिमला के 6 स्कूलों को ग्रीन श्रेणी में प्रमाणित किया गया है। Himachal Solan again won in the category of green schools Shimla second and district Bilaspur third सांकेतिक तस्वीर। - फोटो : अमर उजाला नेटवर्क Reactions 1 विस्तार Follow Us प्रदेश भर में सोलन ने फिर एक बार ग्रीन स्कूल में पहला स्थान प्राप्त किया है। शिमला दूसरे और बिलासपुर तीसरे स्थान पर रहा है। विज्ञान एवं पर्यावरण केंद्र (सेंटर फॉर साइंस एंड एनवायरमेंट) नई दिल्ली की ओर से वर्ष 2024-25 के लिए यह प्रमाणिता जारी की है। सोलन 11 स्कूल ग्रीन श्रेणी में प्रमाणित किए गए हैं। प्रदेश भर से 1,322 स्कूलों ने ग्रीन स्कूल के लिए अपना पंजीकरण किया था। Trending Videos Advertisement: 0:11 Close Player उपनिदेशक प्रारंभिक शिक्षा सोलन मोहिंद्र चंद पिरटा ने बताया कि सोलन से 300 स्कूलों ने ग्रीन स्कूल के पंजीकरण किया था। जबकि 101 स्कूलों ने जीएसपी वेबसाइट पर अपलोड किए गए थे। इसमें से विज्ञान एवं पर्यावरण केंद्र की ओर से पर्यावरण ऑडिट के आधार पर सोलन के 11 और शिमला के 6 स्कूलों को ग्रीन श्रेणी में प्रमाणित किया गया है। राजकीय छात्र वरिष्ठ माध्यमिक पाठशाला नालागढ़, राजकीय वरिष्ठ माध्यमिक पाठशाला मंझोली, बघेरी, भाटिया, बोहली, राजकीय उच्च विद्यालय कनाह, केंद्रीय विद्यालय एयर फोर्स स्टेशन कसौली, पाइनग्रोव स्कूल धर्मपुर, इंटरनेशनल स्कूल कसौली, शिवालिक वैली स्कूल नालागढ़ और राजकीय प्राथमिक पाठशाला जलाणा ग्रीन श्रेणी में शामिल किए गए हैं। ग्रीन श्रेणी में सम्मिलित स्कूलों के प्रधानाचार्य, मुख्याध्यापक, अध्यापक और दो स्कूली बच्चों को 4 फरवरी को इंडिया हैबिटेट सेंटर लोधी रोड में सम्मानित किया जाएगा। दिसंबर में प्रदेश के सभी स्कूलों का विवरण दिया गया था जिसमें जिला सोलन से 101 स्कूलों की रिपोर्ट अपलोड की गई थी। ग्रीन श्रेणी चयन के लिए इन स्कूलों के प्रोजेक्टों को बेहतर काम करने के आधार पर ऑरेंज, येलो और ग्रीन प्रमाण दिए जाते हैं। उप निदेशक उच्च शिक्षा गोपाल चौहान, उप जिला शिक्षा अधिकारी राज कुमार पराशर और जिला विज्ञान पर्यवेक्षक अमरीश शर्मा ने ग्रीन श्रेणी में चयनित स्कूलों को बधाई दी। ग्रीन स्कूल के लिए प्रदेश भर से 1322 स्कूलों ने ऑनलाइन पंजीकरण किया था, लेकिन इसमें सिर्फ 291 स्कूलों ने ही अपने प्रोजेक्ट को अपलोड किया है। जिसके आधार पर स्कूलों का ऑडिट किया गया है।

Stop Blaming Punjab And Haryana Farmersfor Delhi’s Strangulating Toxic Air Levels

Forseveral years now, farmers from the north western region of the country -- Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and parts of western Uttar Pradesh -- have been continuously battered for chocking Delhi’s air. As if farm fires were the real reason behind the capitals toxic air in the months of October and November, when the period of still air over New Delhi coincides with the harvesting of paddy crop, no effort was spared to iron out the menace, rue farmers. Every paddy harvest season, with the media shrill rising in crescendo as harvesting progressed, farmers were on the receiving end for pollution Delhi’s already toxic air. In a magnificent cover-up for its own undoing over the years, simply to absolve itself of any responsibility, New Delhi found it very convenient to shift the blame on farmers – painting them as the true villain of the story. But on June 4, media reports say that in a presentation before the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) had a different story to tell. Quoting a January 2023 report of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), the PM’s Advisor Tarun Kapoor was told that burning of agricultural residues had contributed only one per cent to PM 2.5 to PM 10 air pollution levels in Delhi. In an era where transparency and accountability are the hallmark of governance, if what was said is true, and I see no reason for not believing in what has been put on record, the best that New Delhi can do is to stand up, accept the fault and apologise to the farmers. The bureaucracy, numerous expert committees, and the national media (both print and electronic) too must accept responsibility for spreading misinformation. After all, these institutions had collectively defamed the farming community for no fault of theirs as is now clearly evident. When I say ‘no fault of theirs’, I am not trying to defend the harmful practice of stubble burning. The disadvantages of stubble burning and its effect on the environment and human health are well acknowledged. All efforts should surely be made, and that includes creating wider awareness and providing affordable solutions, to turn stubble burning into history. But what is simply not acceptable is that in the search of a scapegoat, farmers, who being unorganised, come in handy for repeated bashing. Farmers provide a smokescreen to hide New Delhi’s glaring contribution to polluting its own air. Shifting the needle of suspicion to farmers therefore became the most effective deflector. This had helped in building an army of abusive trolls on social media, who not only excelled in casting aspersions on farmers, but went to the extent of accusing them for deriving sadistic pleasure so as to pollute Delhi’s ‘clean’ air. Because of continuous farmer bashing, the Supreme Court came down heavily against the ‘erring’ farmers. As a result, by October 21, 2024, Punjab had registered 874 FIRs, 471 daily dairy reports (DDR), red entries were made in the revenue records of 394 farmers and penalties to the tune of Rs. 10.55-lakh were imposed on 371 farmers. In Haryana, by the same date, 400 farmers were blacklisted barring them for selling their crops in mandis for two years, while 18 were arrested in Kaithal district in just two days. In November, another 32 farmers were arrested in Yamunanagar. Such draconian measures were termed as ‘Tughlaki firman’ by the opposition parties. Interestingly, it is the same CAQM on whose reports the apex court had directed the police in Punjab and Haryana to initiate criminal prosecution against farmers who indulge in farm fires, now acknowledges that farmers in north-west parts of the country had contributed only one per cent to Delhi’s air. This is what had prompted, as per media reports, the well-known Haryana bureaucrat, Ashok Khemka, a 1991 batch IAS officer, to write to the Haryana Chief Minister urging him to declare that given what was presented before PMO by the CAQM Chairman the other day, it is quite clear that farmers in Punjab and Haryana are not responsible for adding to Delhi’s air pollution. The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) had also shown that despite a significant drop by 71.2 per cent in stubble fires during October-December 2024, Delhi’s PM 2.5 levels had risen for the second consecutive year in 2024. And given the fact that farm fires had practically no role to play, New Delhi cannot any more hide behind Punjab fires. Further it is important to know that while the number of farm fires in Punjab and Haryana have come down as evident from the CSE study, stubble burning incidents on the other hand have multiplied in Madhya Pradesh and are even spreading to Chhattisgarh. Everyone loves to heap blame on farmers. In one of my earlier columns (SUVs and not farmers responsible for the scary air pollution levels, in Bizz Buzz, Oct 25, 2024) my argument was that given that every fourth car on the street being an SUV, and with their numbers continuously rising, these monster cars spew 20 per cent more carbon emissions than a mid-size car. It is time to clamp down on the SUVs but the problem is that every member of the elite society wants to flaunt his newly-acquired SUV as a status symbol. Yes, it is true that air pollution levels are different from carbon emissions (says an AI search), but they are closely linked. Being two sides of the same coin, air pollution also includes greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, as well as other pollutants like methane, nitrous oxide and others. Coming back to stubble burning, the time has come to stop blaming Punjab and Haryana farmers for Delhi’s strangulating toxic air levels and instead shift the focus on managing its own air quality norms. While I don’t deny that some measures have been taken over the years but a lot more certainly needs to be done, including some tough decisions. This can only happen if Delhi residents are first made to realise that they themselves are responsible for the worsening air levels they are living with.

Sunita Narain: “Reality and Perseverance in India: Pollution, Poverty, and Policy”

It is an unfortunate reality that the countries least responsible for the climate and ecological crises we face are often the ones most vulnerable to their effects today and in the future. India – with its population of 1.4 billion, rapidly rising temperatures, and limited resources compared to many developed nations – finds itself at the crossroads of these challenges. What do India’s leading scientists and advocates have to say about coping with these extreme pressures? In this episode, Nate is joined by environmentalist and policy advocate Sunita Narain to discuss the intricate relationship between environmental issues and development, emphasizing the need for economically inclusive solutions. She highlights India’s challenges with sanitation, urban mobility, and climate change, while pushing for wiser approaches to governance and community planning. How can the moral and cultural history of India combine with science and innovation to guide policy making decisions? Why does ‘sustainable development’ need to go beyond environmental considerations to include the economic availability for each nation’s poorest citizens? And perhaps most importantly, how could today’s challenges position India as a global leader in creating an economic system that prioritizes the health and well-being of all life on Earth? About Sunita Narain Sunita Narain has worked at the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), a research and advocacy centre based in New Delhi, since 1982. She is currently Executive Director of the Centre, Treasurer of the Society for Environmental Communications and Editor of the bi-monthly magazine Down To Earth. She is a writer and environmentalist who uses knowledge for change. In 2005, she was awarded the Padma Shri, the fourth-highest civilian award of the Republic of India. She has also received the World Water Prize for her work on rainwater harvesting and for her political influence in developing paradigms for community water management. In 2005, she also chaired the Tiger Task Force, at the request of the Prime Minister, to develop a conservation action plan for the country after the loss of the tigers in Sariska. Sunita Narain was a member of the Prime Minister’s Council on Climate Change as well as the National Ganga River Basin Authority.

How are ‘heat domes’ hurting our health?

Humanity achieved a fateful milestone last year. The European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service has officially declared 2024 the hottest year on record, and the first year in history with an average global temperature rising 1.5° Celsius (2.7° Fahrenheit) above the pre-industrial period — significantly increasing dangerous climate risks. In fact, 2023 and 2024 may well be the hottest years in 100,000 years, with all indicators pointing to it getting hotter, bringing ever-worsening global impacts. “The temperature-related extreme events witnessed [last Norther Hemisphere] summer will only become more intense,” warned Samantha Burgess, deputy director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service. In 2024, extreme heat enveloped whole regions of the world for weeks on end, with severe unprecedented consequences. A deadly heat wave killed at least 1,300 people during the annual Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia, while the worst drought in a century gripped Southern Africa, leaving 21 million children malnourished. Record drought also devastated South America, reducing Amazon rivers to their lowest levels ever recorded. North America wasn’t spared either. Heat domes — stalled high pressure systems that retain and intensify temperatures — blanketed vast parts of the U.S. and killed more than 100 people in Mexico. But less noticed, and harder to track, is the way in which oppressive heat helps degrade air quality, making people sick. While air pollution sources are typically local or regional, the invisible hand of climate change is further deteriorating air quality around the planet. Stubbornly persistent heat waves, record wildfires, and drastically changing wind and precipitation patterns all “alter the formation, duration and dispersion of air pollution,” notes a World Meteorological Organization bulletin, highlighting the synergistic health effects of global warming. The Global South, an epicenter of poor air quality, is being especially hard hit. A toxic soup of air pollutants — automotive exhaust fumes over urban India, choking dust clouds blowing across Nigeria, and suffocating wildfire smoke blanketing Brazil — are being made even deadlier by a rapidly destabilizing climate. 2024 was the first year in history seeing an average global temperature rising 1.5° Celsius (2.7° Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels, as confirmed by the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, the United Nations World Meteorological Organization, and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Data courtesy of ERAS Copernicus. Ozone over New Delhi The summer of 2024 in India’s capital, New Delhi, was more brutal than any Kunal Kumar can remember. The city was trapped under the longest heat wave in 13 years. Things were so bad that Kumar, a gig worker who makes food deliveries, was forced some days to give up his outdoor income. “Better to lose my wages and stay at home than die of a heatstroke,” he told Mongabay. Delhi, a sprawling city in northern India, is nestled in the country’s Indo-Gangetic Plain where summer daytime temperatures average 32°C (90°F). But a series of persistent anticyclonic wind circulation events over the northern Indian Ocean, coupled with the fading El Niño, caused clockwise wind gusts to sink over the city, creating a persistent high-pressure heat dome that pushed 2024 temperatures to relentless highs. For weeks, brutal daytime temperatures stayed above 40°C (104°F), with little respite by night. The city’s solar heat-absorbing built environment made conditions even more miserable and dangerous. For Kumar, who spends 12 to 15 hours a day on the road making deliveries, the heat was life-threatening — as it was for the rest of the city’s 33.8 million people, many of whom work outside or lack air-conditioning. In Kumar’s cramped South Delhi neighborhood, heat radiated off the walls and street day and night in a textbook example of the urban heat island effect. He was dehydrated and irritable most days. “Everywhere you look there’s a traffic jam in this city. Stuck in jams, under the hot sun with hot air blowing on your body; it was unbearable,” Kumar remembers. Normally, air pollution is perceived as a winter problem in Delhi, when a thick blanket of low-altitude smog gets trapped by cool air hanging above the metropolis. That smog is mostly composed of toxic PM2.5 particulates — very tiny particles that lodge in the lungs and can cause cardiovascular and respiratory disease. Every winter, PM2.5 levels peak due to seasonal crop burning and the exploding of fireworks during the Diwali festival, turning Delhi into one of the world’s most polluted places. But now, as global warming and urban development bring higher temperatures over the city in summer, the co-occurring impacts of intense heat and air pollution compound in less obvious but seriously unhealthful ways. In hot summer months, the traffic jams Kumar and thousands of gig workers are stalled in every day become hotspots for toxins that include PM2.5 particulates and ground-level ozone. High up in the stratosphere, ozone plays a vital beneficial role, absorbing the sun’s harmful ultraviolet rays. But close to Earth’s surface, it’s a potent air pollutant whose insidious health impacts accrue in the body. Ground-level ozone is formed when nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds (VOCs), emitted from vehicle exhausts and other combustion sources such as factories, react with sunlight. A recent analysis by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), a Delhi-based think tank, found that new hotspots for ground-level ozone emerged across the city over the summer. Between April and July 2024, Delhi recorded ground-level ozone readings in excess of safe limits on 102 days, often for more than 13 hours at a stretch, the analysis said. Annual PM2.5 background levels have also risen steadily, driven predominantly by an increase in transportation emissions — traffic that now worsens air pollution in winter and drives ground-level ozone in summer.

Reality and Perseverance in India: Pollution, Poverty, and Policy

It is an unfortunate reality that the countries least responsible for the climate and ecological crises we face are often the ones most vulnerable to their effects today and in the future. India – with its population of 1.4 billion, rapidly rising temperatures, and limited resources compared to many developed nations – finds itself at the crossroads of these challenges. What do India’s leading scientists and advocates have to say about coping with these extreme pressures? In this episode, I’m joined by environmentalist and policy advocate Sunita Narain to discuss the intricate relationship between environmental issues and development, emphasizing the need for economically inclusive solutions. She highlights India’s challenges with sanitation, urban mobility, and climate change, while pushing for wiser approaches to governance and community planning. How can the moral and cultural history of India combine with science and innovation to guide policy making decisions? Why does ‘sustainable development’ need to go beyond environmental considerations to include the economic availability for each nation’s poorest citizens? And perhaps most importantly, how could today’s challenges position India as a global leader in creating an economic system that prioritizes the health and well-being of all life on Earth? https://youtu.be/i_peHBbM7eo

What's making Delhi air deadlier

New Delhi: Delhi’s skies have donned a grim shade of grey. Emissions from vehicles, fumes from industries and smoke from local fires have shrouded the air, choking residents all season. But experts are worried about a bigger problem—the pollutants in Delhi’s air are getting finer and deadlier. The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the apex air quality monitoring body in India, assesses a city’s pollution levels on the basis of three primary parameters—air quality index or AQI (a 24-hour average of major pollutants), PM10 (coarse particulate matter usually comprising dust), and PM2.5 (ultrafine particles typically released through combustion). However, these might not be providing an accurate picture of how dangerous the city’s air is. Research studies and environmentalists warn that while sources of pollution in Delhi-NCR have largely remained the same over the last few years—stubble fires, vehicular emissions, waste burning and industrial emissions—pollution particles are reducing in size.

World’s record heat is worsening air pollution and health in Global South

Humanity achieved a fateful milestone last year. The European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service has officially declared 2024 the hottest year on record, and the first year in history with an average global temperature rising 1.5° Celsius (2.7° Fahrenheit) above the pre-industrial period — significantly increasing dangerous climate risks. In fact, 2023 and 2024 may well be the hottest years in 100,000 years, with all indicators pointing to it getting hotter, bringing ever-worsening global impacts. “The temperature-related extreme events witnessed [last Norther Hemisphere] summer will only become more intense,” warned Samantha Burgess, deputy director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service. In 2024, extreme heat enveloped whole regions of the world for weeks on end, with severe unprecedented consequences. A deadly heat wave killed at least 1,300 people during the annual Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia, while the worst drought in a century gripped Southern Africa, leaving 21 million children malnourished. Record drought also devastated South America, reducing Amazon rivers to their lowest levels ever recorded. North America wasn’t spared either. Heat domes — stalled high pressure systems that retain and intensify temperatures — blanketed vast parts of the U.S. and killed more than 100 people in Mexico. But less noticed, and harder to track, is the way in which oppressive heat helps degrade air quality, making people sick. While air pollution sources are typically local or regional, the invisible hand of climate change is further deteriorating air quality around the planet. Stubbornly persistent heat waves, record wildfires, and drastically changing wind and precipitation patterns all “alter the formation, duration and dispersion of air pollution,” notes a World Meteorological Organization bulletin, highlighting the synergistic health effects of global warming. The Global South, an epicenter of poor air quality, is being especially hard hit. A toxic soup of air pollutants — automotive exhaust fumes over urban India, choking dust clouds blowing across Nigeria, and suffocating wildfire smoke blanketing Brazil — are being made even deadlier by a rapidly destabilizing climate. Ozone over New Delhi The summer of 2024 in India’s capital, New Delhi, was more brutal than any Kunal Kumar can remember. The city was trapped under the longest heat wave in 13 years. Things were so bad that Kumar, a gig worker who makes food deliveries, was forced some days to give up his outdoor income. “Better to lose my wages and stay at home than die of a heatstroke,” he told Mongabay. Delhi, a sprawling city in northern India, is nestled in the country’s Indo-Gangetic Plain where summer daytime temperatures average 32°C (90°F). But a series of persistent anticyclonic wind circulation events over the northern Indian Ocean, coupled with the fading El Niño, caused clockwise wind gusts to sink over the city, creating a persistent high-pressure heat dome that pushed 2024 temperatures to relentless highs. For weeks, brutal daytime temperatures stayed above 40°C (104°F), with little respite by night. The city’s solar heat-absorbing built environment made conditions even more miserable and dangerous. For Kumar, who spends 12 to 15 hours a day on the road making deliveries, the heat was life-threatening — as it was for the rest of the city’s 33.8 million people, many of whom work outside or lack air-conditioning. In Kumar’s cramped South Delhi neighborhood, heat radiated off the walls and street day and night in a textbook example of the urban heat island effect. He was dehydrated and irritable most days. “Everywhere you look there’s a traffic jam in this city. Stuck in jams, under the hot sun with hot air blowing on your body; it was unbearable,” Kumar remembers. Normally, air pollution is perceived as a winter problem in Delhi, when a thick blanket of low-altitude smog gets trapped by cool air hanging above the metropolis. That smog is mostly composed of toxic PM2.5 particulates — very tiny particles that lodge in the lungs and can cause cardiovascular and respiratory disease. Every winter, PM2.5 levels peak due to seasonal crop burning and the exploding of fireworks during the Diwali festival, turning Delhi into one of the world’s most polluted places. But now, as global warming and urban development bring higher temperatures over the city in summer, the co-occurring impacts of intense heat and air pollution compound in less obvious but seriously unhealthful ways. In hot summer months, the traffic jams Kumar and thousands of gig workers are stalled in every day become hotspots for toxins that include PM2.5 particulates and ground-level ozone. High up in the stratosphere, ozone plays a vital beneficial role, absorbing the sun’s harmful ultraviolet rays. But close to Earth’s surface, it’s a potent air pollutant whose insidious health impacts accrue in the body. Ground-level ozone is formed when nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds (VOCs), emitted from vehicle exhausts and other combustion sources such as factories, react with sunlight. A recent analysis by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), a Delhi-based think tank, found that new hotspots for ground-level ozone emerged across the city over the summer. Between April and July 2024, Delhi recorded ground-level ozone readings in excess of safe limits on 102 days, often for more than 13 hours at a stretch, the analysis said. Annual PM2.5 background levels have also risen steadily, driven predominantly by an increase in transportation emissions — traffic that now worsens air pollution in winter and drives ground-level ozone in summer. Epidemiologist Poornima Prabhakaran, director of the Centre for Health Analytics Research and Trends at Ashoka University, calls the increasing ground-level ozone trend worrying. India has the highest death burden of any nation from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, attributable to ground-level ozone levels, according to the “State of Global Air” report published annually by U.S.-based Health Effects Institute in partnership with UNICEF; ozone killed 238,000 people in India in 2019. People also continue breathing other toxic contaminants released from tailpipes and smokestacks. But “The impacts of [these] secondary pollutants have not been given as much attention compared to the impacts of smog and PM2.5, probably because of lack of awareness,” Prabhakaran said. Prabhakaran is working with scientists internationally, developing databases to track the impacts of air pollution (including PM2.5 and ozone) on a variety of outcomes, such as respiratory and cognitive health functions. “We’re trying to analyze, with data, every health outcome that we can get our hands on,” Prabhakaran said, adding, “Intermediate risk factors like hypertension, high blood pressure, fasting glucose, high lipid levels — all of those cardiovascular outcomes — are known to worsen with even chronic, low-dose [air pollution] exposure.”