The accelerated economic growth experienced by emerging countries, such as India or China, comes at a high price. At the level of atmospheric pollution, The situation is so serious in both that for years all the alarms have been raised and investigations are not stopped to verify to what extent pollution is affecting the health of its inhabitants.
While it is true that China has become the planet's environmental problem, especially its capital, Beijing, increasingly unbreathable, the truth is that India is not lagging behind. In this Green Ecologist article, we will address the issue of Pollution in India and its consequences.
New Delhi, the most polluted
Although China has the most polluted cities, India is also terribly polluted and, in fact, its capital, New Delhi, has the most polluted air in the world As a result of a dense emog that breaks records in toxicity. Specifically, in 2014 it became even more harmful than what is breathed in Beijing.
Shorter life
Furthermore, we now have a study that has drawn shocking conclusions. American scientists have found that air pollution in India is reducing an average of three years (3.2, exactly) the lives of 660 million people. Therefore, it is not only suffered by people who live in cities, but also by those who reside in rural areas.
Thus, it can be stated that more than half of the Indian population is affected seriously, apart from the millions of deaths that are due to this same cause. And, in general, practically the 1.2 billion inhabitants of the country breathe in environments with harmful levels of pollution, the same study indicates.
The new study emphasizes that the origin of the problem is none other than negligence on the part of the country's authorities, more focused on industrial growth than on preventing pollution levels from soaring, as has happened in recent years. Not just in New Delhi, but nationwide, with the catastrophic result that 13 Indian cities are in the top 20 of the most polluted in the world, according to the World Health Organization.
These premature deaths are also the consequence of typical problems of underdevelopment. While the country grows at dizzying rates, the social situation continues to be dramatic for many people, mired in poverty, without access to basic resources. In particular, using kerosene lamps due to lack of electricity is a major source of pollution that impairs people's health.
Die from contamination
Losing 3.2 years of life on average, logically, means losing many more years for some than others. It is a statistical figure, which helps to shed light on the tremendous public health problem posed by pollution. Taken together, those wasted years add up to a brutal 2.1 billion years.
Shortening a life means, in many cases, dying as a result of diseases caused by pollution, such as cancers or breathing problems, and in other cases due to complications in people with diseases of another type or fragile due to having suffered some pathology or due to a simple matter of age or malnutrition.
In 2013, NASA created a map where you can visualize the most polluted places in the world, those where it is most likely to die from this cause, including China, India, Indonesia and Europe.
And in the future, will India improve its situation? Although the country is taking steps in the right direction, expanding its green energy production, with investments in solar and wind energy, there are still no laws that control the pollution levels of chemicals as harmful as sulfur dioxide or mercury.
Image from section 2
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