The air quality in Delhi

Pollution in India is out of control. We got notices from Adam’s school during the winter about the dangerous levels of pollution, and the need to cancel outdoor gym. The school assured us that they were monitoring the pollution levels carefully, and they shared the link to the site that gave daily levels with color markings to indicate danger levels. I went to the site; the levels of that time are included below.

For comparison, I then went to see the levels listed for cities in the US that are perceived as heavily polluted, like NY and LA. These levels are posted below, too.

As you can see, India wins (or loses), hands down. I know that the population in Delhi exceeds that of other cities and probably exceeds its own ability to cope. But from my lay person’s perspective, it’s not entirely clear why. The population is large, but not all the residents have cars and drive, as we do (say) in LA. Plus, in the US we drive big gas guzzling cars that are much less prevalent here. Public transportation here touts CNG (compressed natural gas), that should also be less polluting.

Friends have pointed out, though, that there are coal-burning factories nearby. And that the many trucks in the area flout all the emissions standards, and get away with it through bribery. There are also considerable numbers of people on the streets - -vegetable vendors, guards, drivers. I noticed during the winter that they kept warm outdoors by burning random stuff; I guess this becomes another source of pollution.