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2018, China Daily
Delhi’s smog crisis has shifted global attention away from Beijing, and rightly so, because China’s capital has taken long-term, fruitful measures to address the problem which have already yielded positive results.
The Conversation, 2017
Delhi’s air pollution crisis made international headlines in early December when a cricket match between India and Sri Lanka was suspended due to poor air quality.
Journal of Cleaner Production, 2016
2012
Among the most striking features of this city, any foreigner who ever travelled or stayed in Beijing would immediately mention its incredibly high levels of pollution and its infamous fog. The city’s reputation being seriously damaged, action must be taken to preserve not only the populations from tremendous risks, but also maintain attractiveness for foreign entrepreneurs and improve competitiveness. The bottom line of our recommendations therefore stays in the absolute necessity for Beijing Municipality to increase transparency and implement serious environmental quality assessment mechanisms, in order to develop partnerships and benefit from international cooperation.
South China Morning Post, 2020
COVID-19 crisis has focused global attention to respiratory health. In cities with chronic and severe air pollution, people may be more vulnerable to the virus. While the entire world’s attention at present is on crisis mitigation due to coronavirus, it is important not to lose sight of the health impacts of serious and chronic air pollution. Even in comparatively clean Europe, COVID-19 lockdown has resulted in 11,000 less deaths due to air pollution reduction, and 1.3 million fewer days of work absence. India’s lockdown has reduced air pollution in cities like Delhi by some 90%. 21 Indian cities were among the top 30 cities of the world with worst air pollution. An average Indian lost 5.3 years of life expectancy due to air pollution in 2016. In Delhi, this loss was a staggering 12 years. Both China and India share similar economic ambitions and have witnessed rapid industrialisation. Both have faced serious air pollution challenges. However, China has been significantly more successful in combating air pollution compared to India. See my analysis with Kris Hartley on what India can learn from China to substantially reduce its urban air pollution.
Since the prolonged, severe smog that blanketed many Chinese cities in first months of 2013, living in smog has become " normal " to most people living in mainland China. This has not only caused serious harm to public health, but also resulted in massive economic losses in many other ways. Tackling the current air pollution has become crucial to China's long-term economic and social sustainable development. This paper aims to find the causes of the current severe air quality and explore the possible solutions by reviewing the current literature, and by comparing China's air pollution regulations to that of the post London Killer Smog of 1952, in the United Kingdom (UK). It is hoped that China will learn the lesson from the UK, and decouple its economic growth from the detrimental impact of environment. Policy suggestions are made.
Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
, is a civil servant. He is a postgraduate from St Stephen's College and an alumnus of Indian Institute of Public Administration and National Institute of Financial Management and writes on governance issues and management. A thick fog engulfed London from December 5 to December 9, 1952, mixed with black smoke emitted from homes and factories to create a deadly smog. A toxic smog smothered the British capital, paralyzing the city and blackening out the sun. It is estimated to have killed at least 4,000 Londoners. {Smoke + Fog = Smog} When a severe cold spell hit London in early December 1952, Londoners did what they usually did in such a situation; they burned more coal to heat up their homes. Then on December 5, 1952, a layer of dense fog engulfed the city and stayed for five days. Since the smoke from the coal burning in homes, plus all of London's usual factory emissions, had been prevented from escaping into the atmosphere by an inversion, the fog and smoke combined into a rolling, thick layer of smog. Londoners, used to living in a city known for its pea-soup fogs, were not shocked to find themselves surrounded by such thick smog. Yet, although the dense smog did not instill panic, it nearly shut down the city from December 5 to December 9, 1952. In 1956 and 1968, the British Parliament passed two Clean Air Acts, which began the process of eliminating the burning of coal in both people's homes and in factories. A situation akin to London could be developing in Delhi, if prompt action is not taken to address the problem of pollution. A blanket of haze and smog has enveloped since Diwali this year. There is near-asphyxiating quality of air in Delhi-NCR. It has now reached breaking point. People have posted photographs of smog-covered lights with accompanying texts complaining of " zero visibility ". Many have said that the air smells of charred firecrackers and that it is becoming difficult to breathe.
Current Urban Studies, 2014
Capitalism and Postcapitalism in East Asia: Marxist Perspectives - Edited by Kohei Saito and Seongjin Jeong, 2024
El desafío de los medios ante la fragmentación de las audiencias. El caso La Nación, 2022
Springer Proceedings in Mathematics & Statistics, 2019
Revista geon, 2017
The European Physical Journal C, 2010
Revista Española de Geriatría y Gerontología, 2008
Journal of Applied Physiology, 1996
Nanotechnology, 2010
Romanian Journal of Neurology, 2018