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An invisible threat: Summary report of ground-level ozone pollution analysis of 10 major metropolitan areas of India

The summer of 2024 has witnessed widespread ground-level ozone exceedance making the air more toxic across 10 major metropolitan areas of India. This time the geographical spread of the problem is much wider than the lockdown summer of 2020 in most metropolitan areas. The phase of the toxic built up has lasted longer in locations affected by the problem. Even the smaller metropolitan areas have witnessed rapid increase. In metropolitan areas in the south and western coastal belt the problem is not limited only to summer months.

Surge in Ground-Level Ozone Levels in India’s Major Cities: CSE Report

A nationwide analysis conducted by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) reveals a significant rise in ground-level ozone concentrations across ten major metropolitan areas in India during the summer of 2024. The affected cities include Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi-NCR, Greater Ahmedabad, Greater Hyderabad, Greater Jaipur, Kolkata, Greater Lucknow, Mumbai, and Pune. Anumita Roychowdhury, Executive Director of Research and Advocacy at CSE, underscores the health risks associated with ground-level ozone. "This highly reactive gas poses serious health hazards, particularly for individuals with respiratory conditions such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, as well as children and the elderly," Roychowdhury explains. The gas inflames airways, increases susceptibility to infections, and can exacerbate chronic respiratory conditions, leading to more frequent hospitalizations. The 2020 State of Global Air report highlights that India experiences some of the highest age-standardized rates of death attributable to ground-level ozone. Between 2010 and 2017, the country saw a 17% increase in the seasonal eight-hour daily maximum concentrations of this pollutant. Ground-level ozone is not directly emitted but forms through complex interactions between nitrogen oxides (NOx) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the presence of sunlight. These pollutants originate from vehicles, power plants, factories, and other combustion sources. VOCs can also be emitted naturally from plants. As the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) approaches its second phase, Roychowdhury emphasizes the need for a comprehensive approach to tackle the multi-pollutant crisis, which includes ground-level ozone. “There is often a trade-off where reducing particulate pollution can lead to increased NOx and ground-level ozone. We need stricter regulatory benchmarks for ozone and better controls on emissions from industries, vehicles, households, and open burning,” she says. Avikal Somvanshi, Programme Manager at CSE, highlights the broader geographic spread of ozone pollution in 2024 compared to the lockdown summer of 2020. This year’s data shows a prolonged toxic buildup in affected areas, including smaller metropolitan regions. The issue is now observed to persist beyond summer in some locations. The study, which covers data from April 1 to July 18, 2024, uses real-time data from the Central Pollution Control Board’s (CPCB) online portal. The analysis reveals that ground-level ozone exceedances were reported across all ten metropolitan areas, with Delhi-NCR experiencing the highest number of exceedance days at 176. Mumbai and Pune follow with 138 days each. The report notes a dramatic increase in exceedances in smaller metropolitan areas, with Ahmedabad showing a 4,000% rise, followed by Pune at 500% and Jaipur at 152%. This is contrasted with a decrease in exceedances in Kolkata and Chennai. The intensity of ground-level ozone pollution remains high across all metropolitan areas, with Jaipur recording the highest regional average and peak levels. Despite the highest number of exceedance days being in Delhi-NCR and Mumbai, Jaipur’s air has been found to be the most toxic in terms of regional averages and peaks. The study also points out that ground-level ozone levels remain elevated even at night in all metropolitan areas, with Mumbai reporting the most instances of night-time exceedance. Sharanjeet Kaur, Programme Officer at CSE, calls for improvements in monitoring and trend analysis methods. The current compliance standards, which allow exceedances on a limited number of days, do not adequately address the local impacts of ozone pollution. The report suggests that a city-wide average is insufficient to capture the severity of ground-level ozone pollution and its health implications. As ground-level ozone continues to pose a year-round challenge, particularly in sunny and less polluted areas, Roychowdhury stresses the need for an immediate and robust response. “The NCAP must refine its strategy to address not only PM10 but also ozone and its precursors. Effective action requires stringent controls on emissions and improved public awareness systems,” she concludes. This analysis underscores the urgent need for comprehensive policies and public health interventions to mitigate the growing threat of ground-level ozone pollution in India’s urban centers.

Wet Hot Planetary Future

Hurricane Debby, currently working its way across the Big Bend country of Florida, is headed toward the Atlantic coast, where it’s expected to stall for several days, generating massive amounts of rainfall. For residents of the low country, this will bring back very bad memories of Hurricane Florence, in September of 2018, which was the second-biggest rainfall in American history—by some accounts it dropped the equivalent of all the water in Chesapeake Bay on the Carolinas. Of course you’re now wondering what the biggest rainfall in American history was: that would be Hurricane Harvey, just about exactly a year earlier in 2017, which dropped as much as 60 inches of rain on coastal Texas. In both cases, the water temperature in the surrounding oceans was hellish—and of course that’s the point. Warm air soaks up moisture, especially from the oceans: increase the air temperature a degree celsius and it’s capable of holding 7 percent more water vapor. We’ve increased the temperature a degree and a half… Many thanks to those who take out a voluntary and modestly priced subscription to this newsletter—it’s what keeps it coming to all who might need to read it! Type your email... Subscribe It’s not just on Gulf Coast, of course. We’ve seen huge rainfalls from desert Dubai to Delhi, where in June record heat was suddenly replaced by record deluge, with nine inches falling in 24 hours on the second most populated city on earth. An April analysis finding that this would be the sweatiest summer ever recorded across the tropics appears to be panning out. “It’s commonly known that the Earth is warming, and El Niño is a warm episode of a natural climate oscillation, so we expect the two to constructively interfere — that El Niño will compound the effects of global warming,” Berkeley researcher William Boos said. “Over the long term, global warming brings increased temperature, as well as increased humidity — that is, increased water vapor content of the air. Together with El Niño, this allows the heat and humidity to build up to greater levels at a given location in the tropics.” The researchers concluded from their analysis that the “strong‐to‐very‐strong El Niño” at the end of 2023, which was rated a 2.0 on the Oceanic Niño Index, suggests a 2024 tropical land mean maximum wet bulb temperature of 26.2 C (79.2 F) and a 68% chance of breaking existing records. The wet bulb temperature — basically the temperature you can maintain when covered in sweat or a wet T-shirt in the presence of a strong wind — is a better indication than temperature alone of how humans feel under humid heat conditions. In warm-humid environments like the tropics, wet bulb temperatures above 30 C could lead to irreversible heat stress. According to Boos, some areas that frequently suffer under humid heat stress, such as northern India, have a 50% chance of suffering record heat and humidity this summer. Here’s Christine Ro, writing in Forbes, with a paragraph that’s worth reading twice just to be reminded what all this means on a daily basis for the poorest people on the planet, who have done nothing at all to cause the crisis. Rising humidity affects human health not only directly, but also indirectly through the work that people’s lives depend on. Street vendors in Mumbai have reported that humidity risks spoiling the fruits, vegetables, and flowers they sell. In Delhi, a survey of street vendors found that 80% had fewer customers during heatwaves, and most of these workers could not take breaks during heatwaves. Intense heat creates a vicious cycle of lower income, fewer resources for healthcare, and worse health, driving a need to work more under punishing conditions. Or, as one climate researcher explained to Ro: Yet Avikal Somvanshi can just about live with 50°C heat in Delhi (where a dedicated heatstroke clinic opened in May amidst a brutal heatwave). What Somvanshi can’t handle is increased humidity, when “Delhi turns into a sauna.” “You can’t really do anything,” he says. “You just have to sit in front of a fan and wait for it to pass.” As often happens with the climate crisis, we’re getting the worst of all worlds: the increased moisture is not showing up in arid areas where it could do some good. An important January study found that over dry continental interiors there were reduced levels of humidity—which is bad news for, among other things, wildfire. (When things get hot and dry, it doesn’t take much to get a conflagration going). But in the places where most people live, along the ocean coasts, the numbers are really astounding: meteorologist Ben Noll today was listing the record humidity values in Debby’s path, and predicting that the hurricane would be “adding a new swath of records to this map by the end of the week.” As Jeff Masters and Bob Henson reported a few hours ago, if the rains from Debby are as intense and widespread as implied in the strong agreement among forecast models and official outlooks, Debby is likely to cause damage in excess of $10 billion, making this Category 1 hurricane more like a Category 3 or 4 storm in its impacts. Expect to see Debby’s name retired at the conclusion of the 2024 hurricane season. Maybe the rainfall will slosh its way up to New England, as happened after Hurricane Beryl triggered record flooding in parts of my state of Vermont, where people are now figuring out if they can stay in their homes. And what is there to be done? On the one hand, nothing. This is physics in its simplest form, and physics is unstoppable. On the other hand, everything. We’re a few weeks from the first votes being cast in this year’s presidential election, otherwise known as the last real chance for the United States to do something about the crisis it’s done more than any other country to cause. On the one hand, the Biden Harris administration is on track to actually cut America’s emissions substantially over the next four years—its investments in clean energy are beginning to kick in. (Leah Stokes has a fine account of the role that Harris played in the IRA fight) On the other hand, Trump and his sidekick have denied people are changing the climate (JD Vance is simultaneously desperate for Americans to have more kids, and utterly indifferent to the physical world they will inhabit). All of which is to say: organize. Organize. Organize. You can start by joining the Elders for Kamala call tonight at 8 eastern organized by Third Act. Even if you’re not an elder! The lineup reflects the way that serious people of all stripes are lining up to beat Trump: we’ve got Senators current (Bernie) and former (Tim Wirth and John Kerry, who also was, um, Secretary of State and international climate leader). We’ve got stars—Jane Fonda, Bette Midler. We’ve got some of the country’s greatest writers: Robin Wall Kimmerer, Rebecca Solnit, Terry Tempest Williams. We’ve got all kinds of other great organizers and leaders and what’s more we’ll have lots of ways for you to get hands-on involved. Young voters are in; time for those of us of a certain age to join in! Everyone complains about the weather, especially now—through November 5 you’ve got extraordinary leverage to actually do something about it! Share In other energy and climate news: +A staggeringly hopeful new report from the Rocky Mountain Institute finds that extracting minerals for new batteries won’t break the planet—indeed Even as battery demand surges, the combined forces of efficiency, innovation, and circularity will drive peak demand for mined minerals within a decade — and may even avoid mineral extraction altogether by 2050. These advancements enable us to transition from linear extraction to a circular loop, with compounding benefits for our climate, security, equity, health, and wealth. Change is already underway. Without the past decade of improvements in chemistry mix, energy density, and recycling, lithium, nickel, and cobalt demand would be 60–140 percent higher than they are today. Continuing the current trend means we will see peak virgin battery mineral demand in the mid-2030s. Accelerating the trend along six key solutions — deploying new battery chemistries, making batteries more energy-dense, recycling their mineral content, extending their lifetime, improving vehicle efficiency, and improving mobility efficiency — means we can reach net-zero mineral demand in the 2040s. At that point, end-of-life batteries will become the new mineral ore, limiting the need for any mining altogether. We have enough to get there; our known reserves of lithium, cobalt, and nickel are twice the level of total virgin demand we may require, and announced mining projects are already sufficient to meet almost all virgin demand. Accelerated progress means we only need to mine a cumulative 125 million tons of battery minerals. This quantity alone can get us to circular battery self-sufficiency. That is 17 times smaller than the amount of oil we extract and process for road transport every year. And, at today’s commodity prices, about 20 times cheaper as well. This is the circular economy that people have talked about hopefully for many years. It’s coming faster than we imagined. +Staggeringly unhopeful news from the scientists studying the great Atlantic currents that, among other things, keep Europe warm. Climate change, unabated, will collapse those currents by mid-century. It could happen as soon as 2037, and as late as 2064, with a median date of 2050. As Rodielon Putol explained at Earth.com, The urgency and precision of this prediction are unprecedented, sounding alarms among many within the scientific community and beyond. The detailed forecast has heightened concerns and spurred intense discussions about the potential global impact, emphasizing the need for immediate action and comprehensive climate strategies to mitigate the impending crisis. Study co-author René van Westen is an atmospheric and marine researcher.based at the University of Utrecht. “This is really worrying,” said van Westen. “All the negative side effects of anthropogenic climate change, such as more heat waves, more droughts, and more flooding, will continue. If you add an AMOC collapse on top of that, the climate will become even more distorted.” +In news from the corporate domination sector, attempts to phase out fossil fuel production are being met with lawsuits (and settlements) under ‘free trade agreements.’ The U.S. avoided, mostly on a technicality, having to pay $15 billion for nixing the Keystone XL pipeline, but as Katie Surma and Nicholas Kusnetz explain Australia, Canada, Colombia and Slovenia are facing tens of billions of dollars in claims from companies for phasing out coal power plants, rejecting mining licenses or disallowing liquefied natural gas permits. In 2022, Italy was ordered to pay a British oil company roughly $200 million after offshore drilling restrictions upended the firm’s development plans. In other countries, the system set up for these claims—investor-state dispute settlement, or ISDS—has driven up costs of closing coal power plants, prevented governments from canceling oil and gas licenses or otherwise impeded efforts to reduce fossil fuel use, government ministers and researchers say. Companies even win awards despite leaving behind environmental contamination, violating human rights or breaking national laws. The ISDS system is uniquely daunting for governments because arbitrators overseeing the cases can award compensation not just for real losses but also for unearned, expected future profits. It’s a key reason awards can balloon into the billions of dollars. Governments already face numerous practical and political obstacles as they attempt to move away from fossil fuels, said Canadian lawyer and professor Gus Van Harten, who has studied ISDS’s evolution for decades. “This system is providing an unwarranted and unexpected further minefield.” +Back to school beckons—so timely advice on how to organize to Rewild Your Campus. +Veteran activist Patrick Reinsborough coined the term Marsification a few years ago in “an effort to critique the whole tech-billionaire Mars-will-save-us narrative. It picked up steam recently through a little media attention and then New Scientist naming it as one of their words of the year for 2023 and then it got into wikipedia. We created the word to help activists name how fantasies of turning Mars into Earth are distracting us from the fact we’re rapidly turning Earth into Mars. It’s also a general critique of techo-fixes in general since the Mars fixation is the most absurd techo-fix narrative of them all.” And now there’s a record album to go with it, music that “invites you to float in the zero gravity of astrocolonial dreams and the nightmares that fuel them.” +Nifty new tool from airgradient.com lets you know where carbon emissions are coming from around the world The data comes from more than 500 open source AirGradient air quality monitors that are run by engaged citizens around the world. This marks a significant milestone in environmental monitoring, especially in the context of ever-increasing CO2 levels, which we recently saw increase by a record-breaking 5ppm compared to last year. +One of the best things about the Inflation Reduction Act is how its clean-tech factories are being built in the places that need them the most. As Anthony Flint reports, this is a huge boon for ‘legacy cities.’ In the Carondelet neighborhood of St. Louis, where once-busy shipyards gave way to vacancy and blight during the waning decades of the 20th century, a global specialty minerals company is building a $400 million factory to produce highly efficient batteries for energy storage. Another new factory is rising up amid the shuttered steel mills and closed coal mines of Weirton, West Virginia, built by a different manufacturer whose battery technology involves mixing iron particles and air. And in Schenectady, New York—where the production of electric lights, appliances, and engines by Thomas Edison’s General Electric company spurred an economic boom that began in the late 1800s and had faded away by the mid-1900s—the first of a class of super-tall, highly efficient onshore wind turbines recently rolled out from a pristine assembly line at a new GE plant. “It’s a win-win for the environment and the local workforce,” beamed New York State Assemblyman Angelo Santabarbara in a TikTok video recorded outside the plant, which will ultimately employ 200 people including skilled union labor. The end result, he said, will be “a more affordable, reliable, sustainable, and secure energy future.” +Working in collaboration with Vox, Drilled Media’s remarkable Amy Westervelt has the goods on carbon capture—the oil companies that are promoting it and taking huge amounts of taxpayer money to implement it have known all along it won’t work. Squinting at the numbers reveals some shocking takeaways about Exxon’s confidence in CCS. While Shell’s optimistic projection envisions 10,000 large-scale CCS facilities operational by 2070, with more than 2500 facilities by 2050, Exxon predicts somewhere between 250 and 500 facilities by 2050. Exxon’s 2018 projections align with what critics of CCS have been saying for years. In its fact sheet on CCS, the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA), a nonprofit, non-partisan think tank that produces market-based research on the energy transition, states: “It’s worth noting that not one single CCS project has ever reached its target CO2 capture rate.” Stanford University researcher Mark Jacobson said that because it also requires energy and materials to function, CCS attached to a fossil-fueled power plant is worse for the climate than replacing fossil energy with renewables. “They actually increase carbon dioxide emissions by doing this, in addition to increasing air pollution,” he said, referencing a study he conducted in 2019 that does the math on the lifecycle CO2 emissions of various carbon capture scenarios. Even when CCS is powered by wind, Jacobson said it’s not worth doing, from a climate perspective. “If you just used wind to replace coal in the first place, you’d get a higher reduction in CO2 emissions,” he said. Meanwhile, Nina Lakhani in the Guardian shows how the CCS plants have become an environmental nightmare in Cancer Alley. Ammonia production generates air pollutants such as nitrogen oxide, particulate matter and volatile organic compounds – a toxic mix already choking residents in Cancer Alley. CO2, itself an asphyxiant and intoxicant, also poses a threat as leaks can cause injury or death by replacing oxygen in the air – which makes St Rose residents Randy and Dedra Dorsey fear for the safety of their grandchildren. Out canvassing, some locals were dismayed by prospects of another polluting facility while others hoped it would bring jobs. At one house, a retired teacher with a heart condition was anxious that the air quality could get even worse and signed the petition, promising to attend the forthcoming community meetings. Kyereh did her best to stay positive and moved on to the next house, but the 54-year-old was worried. +Counterpoint—Most of the country’s environmental groups (and me too) think the new permitting reform bill put forward by Joe Manchin is too kind to the fossil fuel industry. Sam Matey, in his Substack newsletter, disagrees Developing Asian economies are building gigawatt-scale solar farms by the dozen, and adding a little more American LNG to the market in addition to the Qatari and Russian LNG already available isn’t going to stop that. Let us hope it’s just a little more, because as the Guardian reports this week, methane emissions are now rising at their fastest rate in decades. Also on Substack: Kaitlin Curtice, with a lovely account of what she calls ‘mother-earth-driven politics.” And the thing is, as much as we want to believe that our politics and social leanings dictate our relationship with Mother Earth, it’s actually the other way around. I mean, think about it. Think about the way colonization has worked throughout the centuries, separating peoples from the land, desecrating Mother Earth, destroying waters, trees, and the peoples who care for them. It’s important to separate our souls and bodies from Mother Earth for colonialism and authoritarianism to thrive. +If there’s a voice I need to hear regularly, it’s Utah writer Terry Tempest Williams. Here she is in the Salt Lake Tribune explaining from her Castle Valley home that its time to actually address climate chaos. The desert has always had deluges, but these last two flash floods felt different, just as the climatologists have warned, especially in drought. Scientists say floods will become more frequent, more intense and more catastrophic in scope and scale. And in the American Southwest, their predictions are coming to pass. We are ground zero for climate chaos be it extreme heat, extreme floods and as happened within Pre-Puebloan cultures: extreme displacement. It is now understood that the “Ancient Ones” did not disappear as we were taught decades ago, but left the Colorado Plateau and migrated to the Rio Grande Valley due to the megadrought of 1,200 years ago. We are experiencing this once again. +Cheap Chinese EVs aren’t coming to America any time soon, thanks to large tariffs designed to protect Detroit, but they are spreading fast in the rest of the world. BYD just agreed to deliver 100,000 vehicles for Uber in Europe and Latin America. +I love the Olympics, and so it annoys the heck out of me that it too has to cope with the difficulties of the climate crisis. But it does, as the LA Times reports: Weather has been a challenge during the first week of these 2024 Summer Olympics, with conditions veering from one extreme to another. A storm blew in for the opening ceremony, drenching the city with an inch of rain and hanging around long enough to postpone skateboarding the next day. Then came the heat. Researchers worry that Paris represents the latest in an Olympic trend that has winter athletes scrambling to find enough snow and their summertime counterparts facing health risks — cramping, vomiting, heat stroke — caused by peak temperatures. “We are in a race against time,” Sebastian Coe, a former Olympian and head of the international track federation, wrote in a report last month. “Whilst global temperatures continue to rise, climate change should increasingly be viewed as an existential threat to sport.” +The ever vigilant House Judiciary Committee, led by that exemplary public servant Jim Jordan, has discovered that a ‘woke cartel’ of Presbyterians, Quakers and Catholic nuns is intimidating Big Oil, which would simply like to overheat the planet in peace, thank you very much. The Republican-led House Judiciary Committee recently released a press statement that opened with: “Today, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust Chairman Thomas Massie (R-KY) demanded information from more than 130 U.S.-based companies, retirement systems, and government pension programs about their involvement with the woke ESG cartel Climate Action 100+. Several faith-based organizations received the letter, including the Unitarian Universalist Association, the Committee on Mission Responsibility Through Investment of the Presbyterian Church U.S.A., the United Church of Christ, and the Quaker organization Friends Fiduciary Corporation, as well as JLens, a Jewish lens on investing. The list also includes Catholic organizations like Mercy Investment Services, Christian Brothers Investment Services, Loyola Marymount University, and the Sisters of Saint Dominic of Caldwell. +I missed this in June, but the Institute for Local Self Reliance, and the reliable John Farrell, have an important new report on the dangers of for-profit utility monopolies The century-old system of regulated, for-profit monopolies controlling U.S. electricity distribution is broken. Electric service is fundamentally public in nature, much like municipal water or wastewater services, but it is primarily provided by private companies. However, the underlying, basic legal premise has always been that a private utility “was created for public purposes [and] performs a function of the state.”1 The public purpose has been subverted by private, monopoly ownership. Along with costly electricity, this structure generates a vicious cycle –– monopoly, investor-owned utilities build excessive political power on the backs of captive customers, sabotage public oversight and competitors, and then pour their monopoly profits into further political subversion. Instead, federal and state policy makers should break up utility monopoly power by reasserting public control over distribution of this public good. The costs of electric utility monopoly power are staggering. By hindering clean energy investment of their competitors, investor-owned utilities block rapid and affordable climate solutions that can create thousands of good jobs. Carbon pollution from utility power plants has juiced record storms and wildfires causing widespread destruction of homes and costing thousands of lives. The total health costs from electricity pollution are staggering –– equal to the price paid for all electricity sold each year –– and include a lifetime sentence of asthma for millions of children. Utilities have hiked electricity prices to record levels in many regions, triggering a debilitating routine of shutoffs for many families. These lasting impacts cost all of us, even as they compound longstanding disproportionate health and economic harms for people of color and those with low incomes. +Forget high-tech solutions—a new paper from Stanford’s Mark Jacobson finds that the Bronze Age technique of firebricks could be the key to cutting industrial emissions The technology involves assembling heat-absorbing bricks in an insulated container, where they can store heat generated by solar or wind power for later use at the temperatures required for industrial processes. The heat can then be released when needed by passing air through channels in the stacks of “firebricks,” thus allowing cement, steel, glass, and paper factories to run on renewable energy even when wind and sunshine are unavailable. These systems, which several companies have recently begun to commercialize for industrial heat storage, are a form of thermal energy storage. The bricks are made from the same materials as the insulating bricks that lined primitive kilns and iron-making furnaces thousands of years ago. To optimize for heat storage instead of insulation, the materials are combined in different amounts. Batteries can store electricity from renewable sources and provide electricity to generate heat on demand. “The difference between firebrick storage and battery storage is that the firebricks store heat rather than electricity and are one-tenth the cost of batteries,” said lead study author Mark Z. Jacobson, a professor of civil and environmental engineering in the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability and School of Engineering. “The materials are much simpler too. They are basically just the components of dirt.”

Air pollution is a great equaliser

Air pollution is deadly. This is no longer a question of debate. Most of us who live in the gas chamber that our cities are know that the air is not fit to breathe. But what are we doing about it? This is where the matter gets murkier than the air we are forced to inhale. Let’s understand why we are not winning this battle for blue skies and clear lungs. In 2019, the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) launched the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP), as it is called, to fix the air quality of our cities. This move meant that instead of the Supreme Court, governments would drive action on air pollution. Targets for clean air were set for 131 cities that had a high pollution load. They were required to reduce particulate concentration by 20-30 per cent by 2024 from the base year of 2017; the target was later revised to 40 per cent by 2025-26 from the base year of 2019-20. All good you would say. Even better was the fact that the 15th Finance Commission provided direct grants to 42 cities and seven urban agglomerates with a population of more than 1 million for action to curb air pollution. The ministry provided funds for the remaining cities. And with this, some Rs 20,000 crore has been earmarked for the five-year period till 2025-26. This is not all. Each state government and each city is required to make an action plan based on studies on the sources of pollution to decide on the priority of action. Funding is performance-linked and requires cities to show improvement in air-pollution levels and an increase in the number of “good” air days, with the air quality index below 200 as the benchmark. In 2022, the ministry introduced a ranking called Swachh Vayu Survekshan to recognise the cities that had taken action to reduce deadly pollution. You would argue that all the elements are here for us to reduce the burden of pollution in our air. But this is not the case. The fact is, in this focus on setting up the entire paraphernalia, the action that needs to be taken has been lost sight of. My colleagues have taken a deep dive into the programme and have found the following: The most problematic is that the NCAP measures only PM10 as the key pollutant; this means, all action is linked to the control of PM10 — not PM2.5, the tinier fractions of the particulate that are widely indicted for the disease burden. These are so tiny that they can enter the blood stream and cause heart diseases, not just asthma and lung problems. Also, the fact is that PM10, or the coarser particulate, is dust-related, and dust is not a pollutant per se. Dust becomes a health problem when it is coated with toxins that come from other sources, mainly from combustion-related sources like vehicles or industries. It needs to be addressed, but not without taking hard and often inconvenient steps to reduce emission from the growing number of vehicles on our roads; from the use of coal in industrial units without pollution measures; from the continued open burning of garbage; and, of course, the wickedest of all, from the continued use of biomass for cooking food, which not only fouls up the air but also adds to the health burden of women. So, action linked to control this one pollutant, dust, is the most favoured of all because it belongs to no one in particular, unlike emission from vehicles, for which manufacturers would be held to account, and from coal-burning power plants, where power producers would be responsible. The review by my colleagues has found that 64 per cent of the money for air-pollution control has been spent on road paving, road widening, pothole repair, water sprinkling, and mechanical sweepers. However important the repair of road potholes may be, we who live in India know that these are never ever done; it is a perpetual exercise in futility and all in the name of air pollution control. Clearly, this is not the way to go. The other problem is that there is no real link between reduction in PM10 levels and the action that cities have supposedly taken to achieve the progress. In fact, there is often an inverse relationship — cities that rank high on reducing pollution are at times the lowest in terms of action taken. This mismatch leads to policy confusion; it tells us nothing about what must be done to combat pollution and what is working and where. The much-heralded governmentalisation of air pollution agenda cannot become an exercise to move the files and tick the boxes. It must be about action. This is about the air we breathe, and let’s be clear that air pollution is a great equaliser; it impacts the rich and the poor equally. This is not like the case of water pollution, where the rich can maintain the quality in-house or use bottled water. This is about air, which we need to breathe at all times, and no number of air purifiers can clean the air everywhere. The writer is at the Centre for Science and Environment sunita@cseindia.org, X: @sunitanar

पिछले साल से 89% कम बारिश, फिर भी कैसे ‘झीलों का शहर’ बन गया दिल्ली? ड्रेनेज सिस्टम के अलावा ये हैं बड़ी वजह

देश की राजधानी दिल्ली में इस साल जुलाई में पिछले साल के मुकाबले 89 फीसदी कम बारिश दर्ज की गई है. पिछले साल पूरे महीने 384 मिमी वर्षा हुई थी. इसकी तुलना में राष्ट्रीय राजधानी में इस बार 1 से 31 जुलाई के बीच 203.7 मिमी बरसात दर्ज हुई, जो कि सामान्य बारिश 209.7 मिमी के मुकाबले भी कम है. इसके बावजूद दिल्ली में चारों ओर जलभराव के कारण लोगों को भारी मुसीबत का सामना करना पड़ रहा है. आइए जानने की कोशिश करते हैं कि आखिर ऐसा क्यों हुआ. क्या इसके लिए केवल ड्रेनेज सिस्टम जिम्मेदार है या और भी कारण हैं? देश की राष्ट्रीय राजधानी दिल्ली के दरिया में तब्दील होने की पहली वजह तो सीधे तौर पर ड्रेनेज सिस्टम से जुड़े इंफ्रास्ट्रक्चर की कमी और उसका ढंग से देखभाल का नहीं होना है. आखिरी बार साल 1976 में दिल्ली के लिए ड्रेनेज सिस्टम का प्लान तैयार किया गया था. ऐसे में अधिकतर जगह की पाइप लाइन काफी पुरानी हो चुकी है. गाद (सिल्ट) के कारण मौजूदा सीवेज सिस्टम अक्सर जाम हो जाता है. एक दिक्कत यह भी है कि पाइप लाइन की मोटाई कहीं अधिक तो कहीं कम है. नालों की सफाई में कोताही? दिल्ली में जलनिकासी के लिए चार फुट से ऊपर के 713 नाले हैं. चार फुट से कम के 21 नाले हैं. इनकी सफाई दो चरणों में होती है. सफाई का पहला चरण मानसून से पहले शुरू होता है, जिसमें इन नालों को पूरी तरह से साफ किया जाता है. सफाई का दूसरे चरण तब शुरू होता है, जब मानसून का सीजन खत्म होता है. इस बार दिल्ली नगर निगम की तरफ से दावा किया जा रहा है कि बारिश से पहले चार फुट से ऊपर के 93 फीसदी से ज्यादा नालों की सफाई का काम हो गया था. चार फुट से कम ऊंचाई वाले नालों की सफाई भी करीब 85 फीसदी होने की बात कही गई है. इसके बावजूद जरा सी बारिश में दिल्ली दरिया में बदल गई तो कहीं न कहीं नालों की सफाई पर सवाल खड़े हो जाते हैं. सड़कों के डिजाइन, नालियों के ढलान में गड़बड़ी राष्ट्रीय राजधानी में जलभराव के कारणों में से एक कारण यहां की सड़कों का डिजाइन भी है. यहां की कई मुख्य सड़कों और नालियों के ढलान में गड़बड़ी पाई गई है. यहां की कई स्लिप सड़कों को सही ढंग से डिजाइन नहीं किया गया है. साथ ही साथ निचले इलाकों में ड्रेनेज सिस्टम में गड़बड़ी होने पर सड़कों पर लबालब पानी भर जाता है, जो कहीं और बह कर नहीं जाता. आबादी के दबाव के मुताबिक सुविधा का अभाव स्टैंडर्ड्स में कमी और स्ट्रक्चरल नॉलेज के अभाव में मनमुताबिक जल निकासी की सुविधा से भी जलभराव के हालात बनते हैं. ऐसी हालत में कई बार शुरू में तो जलनिकासी की व्यवस्था काम करती है. लंबे समय में यह सिस्टम पूरी तरह से नाकाम हो जाता है. विशेषज्ञों का यह भी कहना है कि पुराने शहरों में ऊंची-ऊंची नई इमारतें तो बनाई जा रही हैं, पर ड्रेनेज सिस्टम पर काम नहीं किया जा रहा है. आबादी बढ़ने के साथ पुराने सिस्टम पर बोझ बढ़ता है और व्यवस्था ध्वस्त हो जाती है. दिल्ली को ही ले लें, तो यहां का सिस्टम जब बना था, तब आबादी 40 लाख थी. अब यहां तीन करोड़ से ज्यादा लोग रहते हैं. यानी आबादी के मुताबिक व्यवस्था में बदलाव नहीं किया गया. विशेषज्ञों का कहना है कि जलभराव से बचना है तो शहर की आबादी और रिहायशी इलाकों का अनुमान लगाकर अगले 100 सालों के लिए ड्रेनेज सिस्टम बनाया जाना चाहिए. अचानक भारी बारिश से बिगड़ते हालात दिल्ली में इस साल 27 से 28 जून के बीच 24 घंटे में करीब 228.1 मिलीमीटर यानी लगभग 9 इंच बारिश दर्ज की जा चुकी है. यह यहां पिछले 88 सालों में जून के एक दिन में सबसे ज्यादा बारिश का रिकॉर्ड है. इससे पहले साल 1936 में जून के 24 घंटे में 235.5 मिमी बारिश रिकॉर्ड की गई थी. दिल्ली के सफदरजंग वेदर स्टेशन के मुताबिक राजधानी में एयरपोर्ट के आसपास 28 जून को तीन घंटे में ही 148.5 मिलीमीटर बारिश हो गई थी. इसके कारण बाढ़ के हालात बन गए. 4 से 5 फुट तक पानी भर गया और कारें डूब गईं. कई जगहों पर नावें तक चलने लगी थीं. बताया जाता है कि दिल्ली का मौजूदा इंफ्रास्ट्रक्चर 50 मिलीमीटर से ज्यादा बारिश झेल ही नहीं झेल सकता है. ऐसे में एक दिन में इतनी बारिश ने सारी दिल्ली को लबालब कर दिया. अनियमित मौसम भी जिम्मेदार मौसम की अनियमितता सारे पूर्वानुमानों को फेल कर देती है. इसके कारण तैयारियां नहीं हो पातीं. यही नहीं, अचानक और बेमेल बारिश का काफी असर इंफ्रास्ट्रक्चर पर पड़ता है. वास्तव में नासा की एक रिपोर्ट के अनुसार धरती के तापमान में सालाना एक डिग्री की वृद्धि हो रही है. इसलिए वायुमंडल में वाष्प की मात्रा करीब सात फीसदी तक बढ़ने की संभावना है. इसी के कारण कम समय में भारी बारिश होती है. सेंटर फॉर साइंस एंड एनवायरनमेंट की डायरेक्टर जनरल सुनीता नारायण ने सोशल मीडिया पर एक वीडियो पोस्ट किया था. इसमें उन्होंने कहा है कि क्लाइमेट चेंज के कारण भारी से भारी बारिश होगी. कई स्थानों पर 24 घंटे की बारिश का रिकॉर्ड टूट रहा है. इसका मतलब यह है कि किसी एक शहर या एक क्षेत्र में पूरे साल या पूरे सीजन के बराबर बारिश एक ही दिन में या कुछ ही दिनों में हो सकती है. ऐसा दिल्ली में भी हो चुका है. ऐसी बेमेल बारिश का बुरा असर बुनियादी ढांचे पर पड़ता है. पूरे साल के बराबर बारिश कुछ ही दिनों में होने से ड्रेनेज सिस्टम से लेकर अन्य इंफ्रास्ट्रक्चर इसके लिए तैयार नहीं होते हैं. ऐसे में हालात बिगड़ जाते हैं. दूसरे विभागों की लापरवाही भी वजह जानकारों का यह भी कहना है कि कई शहरों में भारी गंदगी के चलते भी ड्रेनेज सिस्टम फेल होते हैं. इसके लिए आम लोगों से लेकर सरकारी कर्मचारी-अधिकारी तक जिम्मेदार होते हैं. वास्तव में आम लोग पॉलीथीन और कूड़ा सड़क के साथ ही खाली प्लॉटों आदि पर फेंक देते हैं. बारिश के दौरान यही कूड़ा पानी के साथ बहकर नालियों में पहुंच जाता है और उन्हें जाम कर देता है. इससे पानी का बहाव प्रभावित होता है और नालियों से बहकर निकलने के बजाय यह पानी सड़कों पर भरने लगता है. नाले-नालियों की सफाई के लिए जिम्मेदार कर्मचारी और अफसर इसमें लापरवाही भी करते हैं. कई बार अलग-अलग सरकारी विभागों में तालमेल का अभाव भी जलभराव का कारण बनता है. एक विभाग अच्छी-भली सड़क बनाता है तो बिजली विभाग, जल विभाग, निजी कंपनियां या किसी और दूसरे विभाग के लोग सड़क खुदवा देते हैं. फिर से बनाने के बजाय खुदी ही छोड़ देते हैं. इससे सड़क पर कीचड़ के साथ ही जलभराव की समस्या भी होती है.

I’ll show you who’s boss: Mother Nature

The natural disaster was not just an isolated event, but a stark reminder of the fragile balance between human development and the environment. The floods were the result of incessant monsoon rains, but the extent of the damage was exacerbated by years of unchecked deforestation, unplanned construction and encroachment on ecologically sensitive areas. Wayanad, known for its lush forests and hilly terrain, had been increasingly subjected to human interference. “Roads, resorts and buildings were constructed in areas that once served as natural buffers against such disasters,” says Eldho Chirackachalil, All India Professional Congress (AIPC) Leader and Social Activist. He continues, “If the government allows quarries in areas like this, strict regulations should be put in place. Unauthorized quarries are also a major cause of incidents like this.” Experts have long warned about the dangers of building on floodplains, lake beds and steep slopes. Dr. Madhav Gadgil, an ecologist and the chair of the Western Ghats Ecology Experts Panel, has repeatedly cautioned that disrupting natural drainage systems makes regions like Wayanad more vulnerable to flooding and landslides. His report, often referred to as the Gadgil Report, highlighted the need for sustainable development in the Western Ghats, an area that spans six states and is known for its biodiversity. Unfortunately, the report’s recommendations were largely ignored. In the wake of the 2024 floods, more voices from the community and environmental experts have underscored the urgency of addressing these issues. Retired Major General Indrabalan, who is actively engaged in rescue operations, stated, “The floods are not just about heavy rains; they are about the cumulative impact of years of exploitation. We’ve ignored the warnings for too long, and now we're paying the price.” Despite the increasing frequency of such events, human activities continue to disrupt the environment. In Chennai, for example, construction in flood-prone areas persists in the southern parts of the city; while the Aravalli hills in Haryana face relentless encroachment. “Indian real estate is developing far more rapidly than the earth can sustain. Every day we see natural water bodies filled up with garbage and apartment blocks coming up over them. In many cities see government projects and tourism projects destroying hills and bringing down forests for development of villa projects,” fumes lawyer Ajay Francis Inigo, while Sunita Narain, Director General of the Centre for Science and Environment, remarks, “The Wayanad floods are an alarm for all of us. We need to rethink our approach to development, especially in ecologically sensitive areas. The cost of ignoring these warnings is becoming evident.” Experts have long warned about the dangers of building on floodplains, lake beds and steep slopes. Dr. Madhav Gadgil, an ecologist and the chair of the Western Ghats Ecology Experts Panel, has repeatedly cautioned that disrupting natural drainage systems makes regions like Wayanad more vulnerable to flooding and landslides. “The Wayanad floods are an alarm for all of us. We need to rethink our approach to development, especially in ecologically sensitive areas. The cost of ignoring these warnings is becoming increasingly evident. — Sunita Narain, Director General of the Centre for Science and Environment Wayanad’s unique geography made it particularly vulnerable to landslides and flooding. The excessive construction on hill slopes and the deforestation in the region have aggravated the situation. The natural water absorption capacity of the soil has been drastically reduced. We must realize that playing with natural topography has disastrous impacts on our lives and the lives of our future generations.” — Dr. V. Sreekumar, a geologist from the Kerala University of Environmental Sciences.

Overcoming the Challenges of Solar Energy in Extreme Weather Conditions

Remember last month, when Delhi’s heat broke all historic records? Or think back to the devastating Kerala floods of 2018, where thousands of people lost their lives and livelihoods. These events are just glimpses into a troubling pattern—over the past decade, India has been grappling with an increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather events. The storms are lingering longer, the heatwaves are becoming more relentless, and wildfires are raging with unprecedented intensity. According to reports by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), our nation experienced extreme weather events on 235 of the 273 days, or a little over 86% of the days from Jan 1 to Sep 30, 2023. These harsh conditions have affected thousands of individuals in every state and union territory. But the story doesn’t end with the weather itself. The ripple effects of these extreme events reach far and wide, affecting not just natural systems but also our critical energy infrastructure. Take solar panels, for example—a cornerstone of the renewable energy movement. These panels are designed to work best at around 25°C, converting sunlight into electricity most efficiently when temperatures range between 15°C and 35°C. However, they are delicate, made of glass, silicon cells, and protective coatings, and are vulnerable to harsh conditions. The wind’s sheer force can tear panels from their mountings, making it dangerous for people who might be in the way. Even if they stay put, strong winds can warp their structures, diminishing their efficiency and lifespan.

Is India ready to face climate challenge? Experts share views

Over 300 people have died and many are still missing in one of the worst ever landslides to hit Kerala and the country. But it's not just Kerala. Across the country, weather patterns are changing and have caused massive damage to lives and property. Himachal Pradesh, which saw unprecedented floods last year, was hit by cloudbursts and floods this week in which over 50 people died and many are missing. While heavy rain in metro cities is causing massive waterlogging and floods. So, is India ready for climate emergency? Kerala landslide man-made tragedy? How to improve landslide warning systems? How best to protect Western Ghats? Nature vs livelihood debate? Why are extreme weather events on the rise? How to make cities weather-proof? And how serious is the climate emergency? Watch as experts share their views on the Climate Roundtable with Rajdeep Sardesai.

जानिए मिंटो ब्रिज कैसे बन गया एक ऐतिहासिक भूल

वि वेक मि श्रा भा रती य मा नसून की खा सि यत यह है कि कुछ ही घंटो में कि सी क्षेत्र में सा ल की औसत वर्षा का 50 या उससे अधि क फी सदी पा नी बरसा सकता है। भा रत में रा ज करने वा ले ब्रि ता नि या हुकूमत के अंग्रेजी वा स्तुका र वर्षा वि तरण की इस खा सि यत का अंदा जा नहीं लगा पा ए और देश की रा जधा नी दि ल्ली में मिं टोमिं टो ब्रि ज ना म का एक ऐसा वि रा सती नमूना देकर चले गए जहां थो ड़ी सी वर्षा के दौ रा न ही जा नलेवा बा ढ़ जैसी स्थि ति पैदा हो जा ती है। हा ल ही में 28 जून, 2024 को दि ल्ली में हुई अत्यंत भी षण मा नसूनी वर्षा ने पूरी रा जधा नी को जलमग्न कर दि या । इस भी षण वर्षा के दौ रा न 11 लो गों की मौ त हो गई और मिं टोमिं टो ब्रि ज समेत कई सुरंग वा ले रा स्तों में इतना पा नी भर गया कि उन्हें बंद करना पड़ा । जुला ई, 2020 में ऐसी ही भी षण वर्षा के बा द मिं टोमिं टो ब्रि ज के नी चे एक डी टी सी बस डूब गई थी और जलभरा व के का रण एक व्यक्ति की मौ त भी हो गई थी । भा रती य मौ सम वि भा ग के मुता बि क सफदरजंग स्टेशस्टे न पर 28 जून, 2024 की सुबह सा ढ़े आठ बजे तक 229 मि ली मी टर (एमएम) वर्षा रि कॉ र्ड की गई जो कि 1936 के बा द से जून मही ने की दूसदू री सर्वा धि क वर्षा थी । सा ला ना औसत 800 एमएम वर्षा हा सि ल करने वा ले दि ल्ली में कुछ घंटों की यह वर्षा भा रत के मा नसून की प्रकृति को दि खा ता है कि कि स तरह कुछ घंटों में ही बहुत ज्या दा वर्षा हो सकती है। दि ल्ली की हृदयस्थली कनॉ ट प्लेस और रेलवे स्टेशस्टे न तक पहुंचा ने वा ला मिं टोमिं टो ब्रि ज का रा स्ता अब अपनी ऑर्क शेप की खूबसूरत सि वि ल इंजी नि यरिं गरिं के का रण कम बल्कि जलभरा व के का रण ज्या दा पहचा ने लगा है, जहां बरसा त में न सि र्फ शक्ति शा ली इंजन वा ली गा डि य़ां पा नी में जा कर डूबने की स्थि ति में आ जा ती हैं बल्कि यह ब्रि ज जा नलेवा भी बन जा ता है। मिं टोमिं टो एक रेलवे ब्रि ज है जो कि मिं टोमिं टो रो ड पर ही बना या गया है। दरअसल मिं टोमिं टो ना म 1905 से 1910 के बी च भा रत में तत्का ली न ब्रि टि श वा यसरा य रहे लॉ र्ड मिं टोमिं टो के ना म से प्रचलन में आया । हा लां कि , सरका री का गजों में इसका ना म अब शि वा जी ब्रि ज दर्ज है। 1933 में इसे यमुना के बा ढ़ क्षेत्र और दि ल्ली रि ज के बी च बना या गया था । दि ल्ली रि ज प्रा ची न अरा वली रेंज का उत्तरी वि स्ता र है जो शहरी क्षेत्र से घि रा हुआ है। मिं टोमिं टो रेलवे ब्रि ज को बना ने में चूना गा रे और सी मेंट का इस्तेमा ल कि या गया है। 90 वर्ष के इस पुरा ने ब्रि ज के नी चे की सडक़ एक कटो रे जैसी है, जि समें वर्षा के समय बहुत तेज जलभरा व हो ता है। इस दौ रा न जलभरा व की समस्या से बचने के लि ए ब्रि ज के रा स्ते में कई बदला व कि ए गए, मसलन रा स्ते को चौ ड़ा कि या गया । सा थ ही शक्ति शा ली मो टर पंप लगा ए गए ता कि जलभरा व हो ते ही पा नी को बा हर नि का ल लि या जा ए । हा लां कि , यह सा रे उपा य अब तक वि फल सा बि त हुए हैं। औपनि वेशि क का ल में बना ए गए इस रेलवे ब्रि ज को हेरि टेज या नी वि रा सत मा ना जा ता है। इसका नि र्मा ण नई दि ल्ली को अपने शि ल्प और वा स्तु से गढऩे वा ले एडवि न लुटि यंस की देखरेख में उनकी टी म के द्वा रा हुआ था । आधुनि क शि ल्प और वा स्तु के महा रथी लुटि यंस नई दि ल्ली में इस ब्रि ज की खूबसूरती को ध्या न में रखा लेकि न वह यह भूल गए कि यूरो प और भा रत की वर्षा में का फी भि न्नता है। सेंटर फॉ र सा इंस एंड एनवा यरमेंट की ओर से प्रका शि त बूंदों की संस्कृति (डा इंग वि जडम का हिं दीहिं दी अनुवा द) में बरसा त की वि भि न्नता को लेकर दि वंगत प्रमुख मौ सम वि ज्ञानी पी .आर पि शरो ती के हवा ले से लि खा गया है ’ भा रत में बरसा त की प्रकृति यूरो प से एकदम भि न्न है। और यहां की बरसा त की प्रवृत्ति यों को औपनि वेशि क शा सन के दौ रा न यूरो प से आए इंजी नि यरों ने नहीं समझा और आज भी भा रती य इंजी नि यर यही गलती दो हरा ए जा रहे हैं। अब भी जो परि यो जना एं तैया र हो रही हैं वे देसी पर्या वरण से मेल नहीं खा ती ।’ वहीं , बरसा त इस प्रकृति की भि न्नता पर पि शरो ती आगे बता ते हैं कि ‘यूरो प के वि परी त भा रत में पूरे वर्ष बरसा त नहीं हो ती । बरसा त मुख्यत: सा ल के चा र मही नों में हो ती है। फि र इन दि नों भी रो ज पा नी नहीं बरसता । देश के अधि कां श इला कों में वहां पडऩे वा ला अधि कां श पा नी 50 दि नों में ही गि रता है। और इन दि नों में भी चौ बी सो घंटो पा नी नहीं बरसता । दरअसल जब पा नी पड़ता है तब मूसला धा र ही बरसता है। देश के अधि कां श हि स्सों में ज्या दा तर पा नी 100 घंटों के अंदर ही गि रता है।’ बूंदों की संस्कृति पुस्तक में इस बा रे में पि शरो ती के अनुभव के हवा ले से एक दा वा यह भी कि या गया है कि कि सी भी जगह औसत जि तने सेंटी मी टर पा नी बरसता है और अक्सर वहां उतने ही घंटों में पा नी पड़ जा ता है। मि सा ल के तौ र पर दि ल्ली में 80 सेंटी मी टर बा रि श हो ती है और यहां 80 घंटों में ही बा रि श हो जा ती है। इतना ही नहीं पि शरो ती के अनुसा र सा ल का आधा पा नी तो बरसा त वा ले कुछ घंटों के सि र्फ पां चवे हि स्से के अंदर ही बरस जा ता है। इस प्रका र अगर कि सी शहर में औसत 80 सेंटी मी टर पा नी पड़ता है तो 40 सेंटी मी टर पा नी सि र्फ 16 घंटों में ही बरस जा ता है। जबकि पूरे देश को देखें तो आधे हि स्से में वहां पडऩे वा ले पा नी का आधा भा ग सि र्फ 20 घंटों के अंदर ही बरस जा ता है। भा रत में मूसला धा र वर्षा की यह तथ्य शा यद वा स्तुका र एडवर्ड लुटि यंस नहीं लगा पा ए। पि शरो ती के अनुसा र ‘एडवर्ड लुटि यंस जि न्हों ने दि ल्ली शहर को बसा ने की यो जना बना ई थी , वह भी हमा रे यहां हो ने वा ली बरसा त की प्रकृति नहीं जा न पा ए थे। नई दि ल्ली और पुरा नी दि ल्ली को जो डऩे वा ली जो सडक़ मिं टोमिं टो ब्रि ज के नी चे से गुजरती है वह 20 से 30 मि ली मी टर वर्षा हो ते ही पा नी से भर जा ती है। शा यद इस ना मी वा स्तुका र ने सो चा हो गा कि दि ल्ली में हो ने वा ली 800 मि ली मी टर वर्षा 365 दि नों में बरा बर हो ती हो गी ।’ इससे पता चलता है कि देसी पर्या वरण के ज्ञान के अभा व में न सि र्फ करी ब 90 सा ल पुरा ना शि ल्प एक बर्बा द नमूना हो सकता है बल्कि इंजी नि यरों का अंधा नुकरण आधुनि क सुरंगों को भी एक ही बरसा त में वि फल कर दे रहा है। (डा ऊन टू अर्थ)र्थ

Gurgaon’s air this July worst in 4 years, reveals CPCB data

Gurgaon: The city’s air pollution levels in July were the highest since 2021, a report by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has shown. July’s average air quality index (AQI) this year was 108 —‘moderate’ — compared to 89 (satisfactory) in the month last year. Experts attributed the rise in pollution to lack of rain and local factors such as traffic congestion and waste burning. The average AQI in July 2021 was 88 (satisfactory), while it was 106 (moderate) in the same month the following year. According to CPCB data, no ‘good’ air days were recorded this July. The city witnessed one ‘poor’ air day, 16 ‘moderate’ air days and 14 ‘satisfactory’ days this time. In comparison, there were two ‘good’ air days in July 2022, as well as two ‘poor’ days, 12 ‘moderate’ days and 15 ‘satisfactory’ days. In 2021, the city had a better record with 21 ‘satisfactory’ days and 10 ‘moderate’ air day. The deteriorating air quality is a cause for concern and indicates a need for effective measures to control pollution, experts said. Steps like strictly implementing the ban on garbage burning and penalising violators, managing traffic better to reduce snarls, and strengthening pollution control measures can help in bringing down the AQI to safer levels, they said. Moreover, the monsoon, which is weak this year, failed in dispersing pollutants in July. According to data by the India Meteorological Department (IMD), Gurgaon recorded 90.9mm of rainfall till July 30 — 44% lower than the normal of 162.9mm. In July 2023, the city received 217.2mm of rainfall, a surplus of 24%. Anumita Roychowdhury, executive director for research and advocacy at the Centre for Science and Environment, said: “Monsoon usually helps in cleaning the air, but this July’s rains haven’t been as predicted. The city received less rain, due to which pollutants were not washed out of the atmosphere. Also, local factors are greatly contributing to the city’s high pollution levels. Policymakers need to keep erratic weather conditions and air pollutants in mind while planning mitigation measures. The city also needs to cut down its own local emissions.” Gurgaon and the rest of Delhi-NCR are geographically disadvantaged and frequently bear the brunt of transboundary pollution, but the high pollution levels in summer and monsoon are primarily because of localised emissions, said Swagata Dey, policy specialist at Center for Study of Science, Technology and Policy. “The AQI was lower in 2021 because of diminished economic activity due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It spiked in 2022 after all restrictions were lifted. At present, the city needs to manage its hyperlocal sources such as transportation, construction activities, and waste burning. With the revival of monsoon winds and better management of localised emissions, we should be able to see a larger proportion of good air days,” she added. When approached, Haryana State Pollution Control Board (HSPCB) officials admitted that suspension of road dust due to vehicular traffic and waste burning are major areas of concern in the city. “Over the years, highly polluting industries have moved out of NCR. We have changed rules regarding DG sets and also put a ban on biomass burning. These have definitely shown some results, but we still need to strengthen the public transportation system and control construction and demolition waste as well as road dust,” a senior HSPCB officer said.

Congress slams govt over rapidly deteriorating air quality across nation

The Congress on Thursday slammed the Centre over the issue of "deteriorating air quality", alleging that this government denies there is a real problem, underfunds programmes targeted at mitigating pollution and fails to utilise the resources that it allocates. Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said that among the lesser-known tragedies of "the non-biological PM's reign is the rapidly deteriorating air quality nationally" and the policy chaos that has characterised the government's response to it. In the last five years, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has left more than 75 percent of the Environment Protection Charge (EPC) and Environmental Compensation (EC) funds unspent, the former environment minister said on X. In total, Rs 665.75 crores have been left unutilised, he claimed. "Earlier this week in the Rajya Sabha, a Union Minister of State claimed that 'There are no conclusive data available in the country to establish direct correlation of death/disease exclusively due to air pollution'. In reality, a study published in the prestigious Lancet journal showed that 7.2% of all deaths in India are associated with air pollution - about 34,000 deaths each year in just 10 cities," Ramesh said. In July, a study by the Centre for Science and Environment revealed that the government's interventions are poorly designed, with the National Clean Air Programme largely focused on mitigating road dust rather than industrial, vehicular, and biomass emissions that are the leading causes of mortality, he said.

'Lesser-known tragedies of PM's reign': Congress slams govt over 'rapidly deteriorating air quality'

NEW DELHI: The Congress party on Thursday criticised the Centre regarding the "deteriorating air quality" in the country, claiming that the government refuses to acknowledge the severity of the problem and underfunds programs targeted at mitigating pollution, failing to utilize the resources that it allocates, and misuse the funds that get spent. The Congress general secretary in charge of communications, Jairam Ramesh said: "Among the lesser-known tragedies of 'the non-biological PM's reign is the rapidly deteriorating air quality nationally' and the policy chaos that has characterised the government's response to it." In the past five years, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has left more than 75 percent of the Environment Protection Charge (EPC) and Environmental Compensation (EC) funds unused, Ramesh said in a social media post on X. He claimed that in total, Rs 665.75 crores have been left unutilized. "Earlier this week in the Rajya Sabha, a Union Minister of State claimed that 'There are no conclusive data available in the country to establish direct correlation of death/disease exclusively due to air pollution'. In reality, a study published in the prestigious Lancet journal showed that 7.2% of all deaths in India are associated with air pollution - about 34,000 deaths each year in just 10 cities," Ramesh said. A study conducted by the Centre for Science and Environment, in July highlighted the inadequacies in the government's efforts to tackle air pollution. The report indicated that the National Clean Air Programme primarily concentrates on alleviating road dust, while neglecting the more significant contributors to mortality, such as emissions from industries, vehicles, and biomass burning, he added. He further stated,"This Government denies there is a real problem, underfunds programmes targeted at mitigating pollution, fails to utilize the resources that it allocates, and misuses the funds that do get spent." The Congress leader and Virudhunagar MP Manickam Tagore shared a separate video on X and said, "Paper leakage outside, water leakage inside." The leader pointed out that the water leakage in the Parliament lobby, used by the President, underscores pressing issues related to weather resilience in the new building, merely a year after its completion.

Cong slams govt over ‘rapidly deteriorating air quality nationally’

The Congress on Thursday slammed the Centre over the issue of “deteriorating air quality”, alleging that this government denies there is a real problem, underfunds programmes targeted at mitigating pollution and fails to utilise the resources that it allocates. Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said that among the lesser-known tragedies of “the non-biological PM’s reign is the rapidly deteriorating air quality nationally” and the policy chaos that has characterised the government’s response to it. In the last five years, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has left more than 75 percent of the Environment Protection Charge (EPC) and Environmental Compensation (EC) funds unspent, the former environment minister said on X. In total, Rs 665.75 crores have been left unutilised, he claimed. “Earlier this week in the Rajya Sabha, a Union Minister of State claimed that ‘There are no conclusive data available in the country to establish direct correlation of death/disease exclusively due to air pollution’. In reality, a study published in the prestigious Lancet journal showed that 7.2% of all deaths in India are associated with air pollution – about 34,000 deaths each year in just 10 cities,” Ramesh said. In July, a study by the Centre for Science and Environment revealed that the government’s interventions are poorly designed, with the National Clean Air Programme largely focused on mitigating road dust rather than industrial, vehicular, and biomass emissions that are the leading causes of mortality, he said. “This Government denies there is a real problem, underfunds programmes targeted at mitigating pollution, fails to utilize the resources that it allocates, and misuses the funds that do get spent,” Ramesh said. The Congress on Tuesday slammed as a “shocking lie” the government’s assertion in the Rajya Sabha that there is no conclusive data available in the country to establish a direct correlation of death or disease exclusively due to air pollution. The opposition party was reacting to Minister of State for Health Anupriya Patel’s reply in the Upper House of Parliament. In a post on X, Ramesh had said, “Today in the Rajya Sabha, the Union Minister of State responded to a question about the public health impact of air pollution by claiming that ‘There are no conclusive data available in the country to establish direct correlation of death/disease exclusively due to air pollution’. This is a shocking lie.” (AGENCIES)

Tanzania moves to confront municipal waste

Authorities in Tanzania are working with international agencies including the India’s Centre for Science and Environment to wrestle municipal solid waste which are increasingly posing health and environmental risks. The National Environmental Management Council (NEMC) is partnering with the CSE aiming to ensure sustainability of solid waste management in local government authorities across the country. “We want solid waste to turn into opportunity. We want Dar es Salaam to champion this initiative before it is rolled out to upcountry regions,” Dr. Immaculate Semesi, the NEMC’s Director General, told a stakeholders meeting in Dar es Salaam on Thursday. “Solid Waste Management is still a challenge and as the council we are looking at different interventions to address the problem. Figures show that Tanzania produces over 17 million tonnes of solid waste annually, in which less than 50 per cent is collected and sent to dumpsites. In Dar es Salaam, solid waste is the largest emitter of methane, accounting for over 55 per cent of methane emissions from the city. Between 2024 and 2040, these emissions are projected to increase further by over 90 percent. Experts say, Methane is a strong greenhouse gas that stands out for being 80 times more potent and dangerous than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period. Dr Semesi said the council is committed to support councils to implement best practices. The session had so far brought representatives from the Regional Administration and Local Government, and the five councils forming Dar es Salaam region. India’s High Commission’s Second Secretary Nerender Kumar expressed the commission’s commitment towards supporting environmental sustainability campaigns in Tanzania. Mr Kumar hailed the partnership between NEMC and India’s CSE saying the agency has been working with institutions in the global south to strengthen capacity and help address current environmental challenges. Aditya Batra, Programme Director (Board & Funding) at CSE said the center is a think-tank that has been in operation for the past 40 years. Its focus, according to Batra, is to push for affordable solutions that work within the country.