Sunday, March 15, 2009

Businessweek: World's Worst Air Pollution is in New Delhi

It is official: India's capital is a filthy place and the only good thing about the air pollution in New Delhi is that everyone from the President to the city's poorest, breathe in the same filth: http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/blog/eyeonasia/archives/2009/03/worlds_worst_ai.html?chan=top+news_top+news+index+-+temp_global+business Interesting, too, that this distinction does not find mention in the Indian media in the run up to an election. Could the Indian media, horror of horrors, be biased as has been alleged in several places, India included? Are Indians getting their news from two bit propagandists and sundry jingoists who cannot bring themselves to address the country's worst flaws? Aren't these hacks also apologists for the crooked politicians and bureaucrats in India because they do not hold them to account for their misgovernance?

The answers, if anyone wishes for a honest response, are in the affirmative to all of the questions above. The facts are also clear as has been posted on this blog in the past. Thousands of crores of aid money, much of which could be used to make life better, is not being used at all in India. The enormous potential of the sunlight and the winds that the country receives is being ignored by a government of ignorant buffoons who prefer to invest public funds in buying filthy coal mines in other countries, in doing deals with petty dictatorships like Omar Bashir's Sudan in getting oil concessions and which use two bit clowns like the so-called energy "expert" N N Sachitanand to knock down the potential in fast developing renewable energy technologies using ignorance and not knowledge as arguments.

While I am not going to be able to vote this May as there is no way that I can make it to India come election-time, I shall watch the campaign carefully to find out if there are any politicians who promise simple but concrete solutions to make the air and water cleaner. And, as this blog is determined to do, to show fossil fuels the fist, they will be featured here.

1 comment:

mehulkamdar said...

At the very least the NEJM and other studies are available in the USA and there is a cocnerted effort to try and reduce the use of fossil fuels to whatever extent is possible. As far as India is cocnerned, the study in New Delhi is going to produce - nothing. Yes, absolutely nothing. By and large when incumbent politicians are perpetually recumbent no matter which party they belong to, this is exactly what happens.

The tragedy is that when those who have the power to legislate change remain inert, there are many millions more who suffer because of official neglect.