Cutting Through India’s Smog

Cutting Through India’s Smog. (2015, February 22). Retrieved March 2, 2015, from http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/23/opinion/cutting-through-indias-smog.html?ref=topics&_r=0

 

Indians appear to be waking up to the dangers of the dirtiest energy sources including coal, diesel oil, and burning garbage in order to sustain economic growth and an exploding population.  Due to the country’s countless population that is more than 1.2 billion and the fact that it has been named the world’s third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) report, out of the 20 most polluted cities in the world, India has 13.  This explains how the country also has the highest death rate from chronic respiratory diseases.  Despite all of this, however, according to Michael Bloomberg, since the country is worried about their economic issues, it won’t be fixed if they don’t focus on the environmental quality.

 

Bloomberg has a point of stating the fact that if the country doesn’t focus on its environmental quality, it won’t be able to survive its economy.  The reason being is with people dying from chronic respiratory diseases which could be anyone, whether they have money or not, there is a possibility of them having to ask financial aid and when they do, there will be lots of them.  The economy will grow even worse.  Health is very important, without people working or just living and paying for their expenses, the economy will die very soon.

Smog Worsening in California

http://www.sci-tech-today.com/news/Heat__Drought_Worsen_Calif__Smog/story.xhtml?story_id=023001AFX3S4#

The extreme drought in California has dramatically slowed down efforts to remove smog from Southern California air. The prolonged dry spells has translated to a layer of heat trapping cooler air lower to the ground. This action causes pollution’s main concentration to occur closer to the ground. The air pollution in southern california is an extreme burden on citizens and also puts them at health risk. Hot conditions have also led to more forest fires, which increase air pollution with the levels of smoke being released into the atmosphere.

This article speaks to how the extreme drought in California has affected the air pollution. With California being in one of it’s worst droughts ever, the temperatures have increased making the smog’s level of concentration to drop significantly and further impacting humans. This is alarming and particularly scary as there is no clear solution. With this being said relief could come as soon as winter with storms and rain stirring up the air.

“Heat, Drought Worsen Smog in California | Sci-Tech Today.” SciTech Today RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Nov. 2014..