Climate Change ! No Joke

by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group

India could have been “shining” a decade ago or is “rising”, or so it is claimed, but its air, water or soil have reached a level of pollution that has made the country groaning. It is not that the cities alone attract filth and the countryside is pristine. Pollution has destroyed the commons without exception. But the cities are where it hurts more. Of the world’s 20 most polluted cities, 13 are in India.

Delhi, the capital, where I live, is among the worst culprits, after Ludhiana and Kanpur, according to regular surveys by both government and private agencies. The air in Delhi from early morning till late evening is not only thick with gaseous pollutants—carbon dioxide and sulphuric gases—but is the medium for continuous flow of floating particulates so tiny that they are called PM2.5, or particulate matter of the diameter not exceeding 2.5 microns (1/36^th the width of a human hair). While the presence of 100 micrograms of such particles per cubic meter of air is regarded as borderline case for air quality, Delhi has 985.

These particles are so small they move through the nostrils undeterred by the hairs and, once into the lungs, they float into the inner pulmonary recesses where, once trapped by the body’s own mechanism of stopping intruders, it cannot get out with cough or sputum as it has by then got wedged in alveoli that are too small to allow anything to pass out. Over time, it corrodes pulmonary tissue, causing acute asthma, pneumonia, and lung cancer. Diseases caused by air pollution in India are the third largest killer, having claimed 600,000 lives last year.

In the developed nations, the level of pollution is a lot more. An Indian emits on an average about 1.4 tons per year of what is known as ‘greenhouse’ gases, or gases that cause the planet’s heat to get trapped. But the US citizen emits 17 tons, the world average being 5.3 tons. Yet, after a visit abroad, the first shock that an Indian gets after stepping out of the airport is the acrid smell of the air and the choking sensation. In developed countries, emission is primarily caused by energy generators but use of energy there has been substantially disciplined over the past few decades.

India, on the other hand, has a mix of both first-world and third-word emission. The killer smog of North India is caused by both car pollution and a combination of primitive practices—like burning post-harvest crop residue, and the widespread use of fuelwood and cowdung cakes in poor homes. Their cumulative effect is clearly visible in satellite imagery, its being termed “Asian brown cloud”. Meteorologists have been saying that it is the single largest factor behind delaying of the monsoon.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi seemed on the right track when he began his tenure after a promise to rebuild Varanasi and 100 ‘smart cities’. However, the foul air that we Indians breathe has its origin in the past two decades’ sudden rush of pollutant cars, and almost total refusal of the state to regulate. To give an example from Delhi once again, the city has 18 lakh cars and 1,200 cars added each day. If India were a bit less friendly to car buyers, there could be more investment on urban public transport—metro in India is still in its infancy and battery operated taxi services a pipe dream—and there could be more tax on cars. 

While India has long been insensitive to environmental implications of using polluting fuel, allowing guzzlers on road, distributing free (intermittent) power in villages in the name of helping the “poor farmer”, distorting policy to encourage freight movement by polluting trucks instead of cleaner railway—in short, not interfering with traditional lifestyle—it is now faced with an existential crisis. Since Kyoto Protocol was adopted in December 1997, and entered into force in 2005, it was clear that environmental issues would get the centre-stage. The US managed to duck the Kyoto Protocol for the sheer size of its emission and the time and cost needed to bring it under control. But both China and India were exempted along with nearly 100 developing countries. Being tied with China, and living under the smug belief that China is too large industrially to accept global standard readily, we have allowed things to deteriorate to the extreme.

US-China pact a warning bells

 for Modi’s Swachh Bharat Abhiyan

It is this context that the US-China agreement last week should jolt India. Following the agreement between President Obama and President Xi Jinping, the US is now committed to a target of 26-28 per cent reduction from the 2005-level emission by 2025. China, on the other hand, has agreed to peak emission in 2030 and is committed to make “best efforts” to peak earlier. China has further declared that it would ensure 20 per cent energy generation from “zero emission” sources by 2030.

Where does the US-China deal make India stand now? What happens to the renewed thrust on coal-based energy that India is making? Besides, its investment on renewable energy is negligible. How far can it go in making India truly and environmentally swachh? Can India put a “congestion charge” like in London for being found moving in city? Modi’s ideas of cleaning the country sounds impressive. But has he woken up to the enormity of the task? What causes doubt is his recent remark, “Climate change? Is the technology correct”, and the following remark that “old people” complain that “this time the weather is colder” because they’ve lost the “ability to bear cold”.

If the quick spread of cardiovascular and bronchial diseases and spread of cancer among the young are any indicator, climate change is no joke, Mr. Modi.   

(The author is National Editor, Lokmat group)