The Great Smog of India

The Great Smog of India | Siddharth Singh

pick

An emphatic PICK. If you‘ve got any interest in air pollution, development, social or environmental justice or India in general, I cannot recommend this book highly enough. Singh has delved deep into every aspect of air pollution and the result is a multi-faceted, well informed, humane, empathetic and yet urgent call to action. India‘s air is killing India‘s population but it‘s true impact is by in large ignored here. A vital, needed book.

CarolynM Hope you're feeling better. By the way, my husband really enjoyed City Adrift. He visited Mumbai a couple of years ago, so he had some points of reference. I'll have to read it now. 6y

GlassAsDiamonds @CarolynM oh brilliant!!! 😊😊😊😊 I‘m glad he enjoyed it (and I always get a thrill reading about places I‘ve been!). It‘s a fast read if not purely enjoyable - let me know what you think! Feeling much better. Still “tender” and taking food VERY carefully but getting there 😊😊😊😊 6y

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GlassAsDiamonds

The Great Smog of India | Siddharth Singh

I‘m not usually an underliner but sometimes, it‘s inevitable (but only so far as pencil). A crore is 10 million so roughly 30 million households across India remain unelectrified. That means no refrigeration. No safe food or medical storage. No electric light. No access even to mobile micro-banking let alone the internet or online banking. On the other hand, most of the slums in Mumbai have access to some amount of electricity. Mind boggling.

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GlassAsDiamonds

The Great Smog of India | Siddharth Singh

SUCH a cogent, universal point!!! I know in Australia, the argument against dealing with our own pollution issues is often “well, other worse polluters aren‘t doing anything” (🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️), ultimately stupidly irrelevant and ignorantly immature - we need to do everything we can, and a little bit more, to try and make a dent in these issues. The world IS round & air knows not national walls or boarder derived boundaries. Every bit helps.

CarolynM I wish some of the green groups here would direct more energy toward pollution issues. I know there are lot of environmental issues that need attention, but it seems to me air and water quality are pretty fundamental. 6y

GlassAsDiamonds @CarolynM Agree. I am also surprised at how much I didn‘t know about energy generation itself or the various power generation options - it makes some of the hysteria at home seem quite ill informed. Interestingly, the solar power expert at another talk was asked about the Adani mine by two Aussies (we were over represented foreigners at the LitFest!). He was highly informed and from an energy AND environmental perspective, all for it! 6y

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GlassAsDiamonds

The Great Smog of India | Siddharth Singh

“Dehliwalla” in this context simply means “person who lives in Delhi”.... on the next page, the marathon runner these paragraphs are about who suffered an acute reaction to a bad pollution day (in Delhi, this means in or over the “Hazardous” range) including viral bronchitis, migraine & vomiting was actively and publicly shamed for pulling out of the Delhi Marathon, which is run during the worst of Delhi‘s air quality 🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️

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GlassAsDiamonds

The Great Smog of India | Siddharth Singh

Pardon my dodgy underlining but I don‘t think it‘s irrational in 2019 to be thoroughly incensed that a “smog season” is a thing. 😡 I know it is, we‘re currently living through it but it infuriates me. The air is visibly better than this morning but we just got an outside AQI reading of 354 and friends to the north got 481 this morning (healthy is under 25 just as an FYI, both these readings are “Hazardous”). This should not be. 😡😡😡

Cinfhen That‘s crazzzzy!!! How does anyone breathe??? 6y

Cinfhen Hope you‘re feeling better 6y

TrishB Hope you‘re ok. I‘ve been to China with work a few times, once it was really bad and I just felt like my throat was going to close. Hope it gets better. 6y

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GlassAsDiamonds @Cinfhen thanks! I‘m upright!!! As for breathing: we‘re still coughing out the effects of a week in Delhi level air pollution in Jaipur (although Mumbai is worse this week) but we run air purifiers 24/7, have our own AQI monitor & fairly heavy duty filtering face masks with replaceable filters... In Shanghai, common talk meant most places haD air purifiers & people wore masks. Here, there‘s some weird cone of silence so similar mitigation is rare. 6y

GlassAsDiamonds @TrishB many thanks, we‘re well armed. China‘s AQI is horrible isn‘t it? I can send you a link for really good quality face mask if you go back. They‘re working on it and it‘s having a noticeable effect especially in cities like Shanghai which don‘t have the physical environmental complications of Beijing (but also locals were aware to a point, wore masks and many ran air purifiers!). India‘s worse but NO ONE SAY OR DOES A THING, drives me crazy! 6y

TrishB I think next visit will be later this year or early next year so a link would be useful! We go to Shanghai and the surrounding area. 6y

GlassAsDiamonds @TrishB we used to live in Shanghai 😊 I use a IDMask which is a heavy duty seal with replaceable filters. I know others use VogMasks but they don‘t seal around the face so the efficacy is limited. One codicil is that the ID masks can‘t be easily worn with glasses but they are highly effective. Do you have WeChat? I could send you their store link directly. (edited) 6y

TrishB I‘m just about on Litsy!! I don‘t have WeChat. 6y

GlassAsDiamonds @TrishB 😊😊😊 In that case try this link: http://en.idmask.com.cn 6y

TrishB Thanks, will keep that for next trip. 6y

GlassAsDiamonds @TrishB they‘re hard core but highly, highly effective. You can get small portable air purifiers but we tested them with an AQI monitor and unless you literally breathe directly into the fan... they don‘t really work. I‘ve even worked out in the IDMasks - it‘s not fun per se but none of that horrible throat closing, hard to breathe sensation. I am told that China‘s making great strides with its city air quality though so 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻 6y

TrishB Thanks- I have only struggled once - where we tend to stay is about 3 hours inland from Shanghai - we escape the worst most of the time, I‘ve only felt it once when we went. 6y

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GlassAsDiamonds

The Great Smog of India | Siddharth Singh

Okay people, let‘s do this thing!!! Not quite sure why I was avoiding my hitherto unknown and current most anticipated read of the year ... I‘ll blame the food poisoning. Anyhoo....STARTING!!!!! Ha!

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GlassAsDiamonds

The Great Smog of India | Siddharth Singh

Omg...! This is the book I‘ve wanted for all of the two years I have lived in Mumbai. For me, it‘s the discovery of the festival: not only has someone thought about air pollution in India, he researched it heavily AND wrote a book on it!! It annoyed me to no end that it was in a session combined with a book on the Spanish Flu but I concede a logical link to the London Fog. Still; he‘s here. He wrote a book. I own it & shall report on it forthwith!

Cinfhen Sooo happy to see you sooo excited 😊 6y

GlassAsDiamonds @Cinfhen I almost have no words. Literally he was talking about air pollution that‘s killed the elderly parents of two people we know this year alone (it kills a million people a year) but I was so relieved that someone was talking about it, let alone had written a book, I almost cried in the session, then almost went to buy copies for *everyone* I know! This is the book of the festival, truly. 6y

Cinfhen That‘s crazzzzy!! I take so much for granted. Thank you for inspiring me 🙏🏻 6y

BiblioLitten This is beyond fascinating! It‘s high time people took it seriously. Hats off to the author. 6y

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