
Smog Chokes Delhi, Leaving Residents ‘Cowering by Our Air Purifiers’ - throwaway-hn123
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/08/world/asia/india-delhi-smog.html
======
sandGorgon
previous discussion -
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12886672](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12886672)

and relevant info on the cause of the smog. Its not industrial pollution, but
agricultural burning that's happening in neighboring states -
[http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/11/03/world/asia/farmers-
unch...](http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/11/03/world/asia/farmers-unchecked-
crop-burning-fuels-indias-air-pollution.html)

[https://www.bloomberg.com/gadfly/amp/articles/2016-11-04/who...](https://www.bloomberg.com/gadfly/amp/articles/2016-11-04/who-
s-choking-new-delhi-not-carmakers)

As last time, here's the problem to solve : what is a cheap, recyclable way to
plant seeds without burning (last harvest's) hay ? The current solution of
using a "seeder" costs 1900$ that is unaffordable by farmers. This was posted
in November 2015 - [http://scroll.in/article/770176/why-we-should-be-alarmed-
at-...](http://scroll.in/article/770176/why-we-should-be-alarmed-at-nasas-
images-of-burning-fields-in-punjab-but-also-get-used-to-them)

~~~
meric
Feed it to goats.

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Tepix
Aside from this specific event, do you have the feeling that we will be unable
to stop catastrophic changes on earth due to pollution and resource exhaustion
(overfishing etc)? Think about runaway greenhouse effects, floods, loss of
biodiversity...

I think Elon Musk is right in his urgency regarding the Mars colonisation
plans. Sure, you can always say "let's wait a couple of decades, with the new
tech we'll have then it will be much easier and cheaper", but you could be
mistaken. Technology and human civilization does not always move forward.
We've been thrown back many times in the past and eventually there will be the
day when we will not recover to previous levels: The beginning of the end. By
then, we will no longer be able to tackle a huge challenge such as Mars
colonization because we will be fighting for survival.

~~~
danmaz74
Realistically, whatever damages we could do to Earth's ecosystem, it will
always be _much_ easier to fix (or cope with) things here than to create a
livable ecosystem on Mars.

~~~
Tepix
Earth is not just threatened by human caused problems. There could also be
some other catastrophic event such as supervolcanoes, meteorites, killer
virus. We may not have enough time to "fix" it. A second outpost drastically
increases our chances of survival.

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mani04
People blame crop burning as the reason. Probably the farmers are polluting
this place for 15 days, but the same farmers are absorbing our emissions with
their farm plants for the remaining 350 days in the year. Nobody seems to
mention it ever. The farmers also give us food to eat.

The farmers only need about 2000 dollars for a machine called "happy seeder"
to stop burning. It is not a lot of money but the political class will only
"subsidize" it, as long as the illiterate farmer fills out a big application
form, takes a crowded train to the far-away capital city and submits to the
right official along with some bribe.

Given those conditions, I really cannot blame the farmer, I only feel sorry
for them.

By the way, I live in Delhi. I am suffering because of this pollution but I
will not blame the farmers like media and other people of Delhi. Farmers are
nice and simple people, they give us food to eat. Their farms absorb the
emissions from my petrol car till I can afford to go electric.

------
f_allwein
Interesting to remember that much the same thing happened in London not so
long ago:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Smog](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Smog)

So maybe there's hope Delhi will clean itself up in the near future.

~~~
Fifer82
London is still really bad, continually missing European Clean Air Quality
targets and has been fined several times. The Great Smog was visible due to
sulphur from burning coal etc. Whereas today, you cannot see the smog... but
it is still very much there.

~~~
Reason077
Yes, London is bad. Paris too. Especially with the reeking fumes near any
major road from all the dirty diesel vehicles. Air quality in both cities is
totally unacceptable in my opinion.

But it's nothing remotely like the scale of disaster that India has, where
there is often constant choking smoke enveloping entire cities and regions.
Even China is clean by comparison.

------
andrewvijay
Fueled by this mess in our capital me and a couple of friends spoke to a
regional administrative officer for an anti pollution drive that will bring
some sense in people. We were told to come back when the pollution is high
enough. We're fucked in this country.

~~~
rm2889
Who was it? Maybe we can shame them to action via twitter, etc. Or at least
make them aware that this isn't cool

~~~
andrewvijay
Twitter? I'm sorry this is rural India. No one knows or gives a shit about
twitter. A more probable event is that police arresting me :D

But thanks for your concern we have contacted a couple of rich heads to use
the situation to their advantage.

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eklavya
Delhi badly needs a good solar transport story yesterday. There is a big
market opportunity here, I hope someone grabs it.

~~~
Cthulhu_
Can't have solar power if you don't have sun due to smog. Besides, who is
going to pay for it? It can't compete with cheap scooters.

~~~
eklavya
This smog is temporary (because of the moronic cracker fun on Diwali). Delhi
gets a lot of sunshine throughout.

Government is subsidising all things solar.

Also I meant electric vehicles, sorry mixed up both the things.

------
Faaak
Yet they still continue to use their motorbikes, without knowing the causality
link between that and the pollution.

But yes, must be hard when "your actions are so small they don't count".

~~~
ericzawo
While your point is valid, a little compassion for those who suffer under this
pollution, which is caused by a lot harder problems than a few million
motorcycles.

~~~
ptaipale
A few million motorcycles is definitely a significant cause of the problem.

