Breathing is a 'crime'

 

In 2013, when I landed in Beijing, I could not miss the affect the air had on me- smelt like a residue of a milder chemical, a tingling sensation smacked my tongue as I stuck it out to taste. 'Is this what acid rain is?', I wondered. Never exposed to terms like air quality index or particulate matter. 

Conversations with friends would invariably drift towards the toxic air outside, the impact on our health and how AQI levels released by various local websites could be 'dodgy'. The impatient couples with newborns were plotting their way out of Beijing, young kids were not allowed to step out to play and the elderly would defy warnings to stay indoors.       

We bought an air purifier, stocked up on specialised filtering masks  and felt 'safe' within 'purified' walls as the world outside was darkening. 

An 'environmental crime' was inflicted on industrialised economies, like UK, in the past. It was China's turn in 2013. 

10 years on, the skies are blue, the AQI more true - apart from the occasional  sandstorms from Mongolia or a weak cold air current that makes smog engulf the northern China region, the air quality has improved considerably in the past decade. 

So what did Beijing, a sprawling metropolis of 21 million inhabitants, do to improve its air quality. 

To begin with, the government addressed the problem head on and declared a 'war on pollution' by introducing the air pollution action plan in September 2013. 

A systematic plan to reduce the use of coal, better law enforcement mechanisms, publishing weekly air quality reports and increased level of public engagement helped  Beijing teeter out of the airpocalypse.

The campaign targeted all kinds of pollution: chimney smoking factories within the city were shutdown, crackdown on coal combustion, pollution from construction was kept in check and China's automakers rolled out a range of electric vehicles on the road for public transportation. 

While the campaign ensured people's anger was being assuaged, a Chinese  documentary on , Under the Dome, took the country by storm in 2015. The investigative feature by a former Chinese  journalist added fuel to the burning issue, urging officials to take a serious look. Surprisingly, the documentary was 'allowed' to be shared and watched by millions, despite criticising the politics and economics that led to the smog. 

In Delhi, it's that time of the year when the blame game over pollution is played out on the airwaves, while the quality of air gets worse by the day. The culprit- stubble burning by farmers from Delhi's near-by states, hoping to clear the residue and prepare their fields for the next crop in a short time. 

Is that the only reason? Then why does India have 39 out of 50 most polluted cities in the world.   

While crop burning is the usual suspect, vehicular pollution, coal-fired power plants, construction and industrial units are other sources of pollution that play a part in this 'crime'.

Should India launch a 'war' by proposing  a national environmental policy to target worsening air quality levels. Or wait until the environmental kuznets curve follows its own path. The popular chart shows the rise and decline of pollution in an industrializing nation's economy, but in a country where industrialization is still in its nascent stage, the ability to breathe clean air shouldn't become a 'crime'.  

P.S. As I speak the AQI in Beijing is 169 (PM 2.5) and Delhi just hit the roof at 500!