New global findings in the 8th Annual Indicator Report of the ‘Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change’ revealed that the people in every country face record-breaking threats to health and survival from the rapidly changing climate, with 10 out of 15 indicators tracking health threats reaching concerning new records.
By Salam Rajesh
The extensive layer of smog (smoke + fog) that the recent NASA satellite imagery showed clearing hovering over the expanse of Pakistan and India about a week back demonstrates the extent of air pollution from different sources in these two countries, threatening the health of millions of people settled and working in these ‘danger zones’.
India’s national capital, and the surrounding National Capital Region (NCR), was cloaked in dense smog 24×7 for several days on end, reducing visibility to zero and causing motor vehicle accidents while sounding the alarm bell on drastic health issues for those living and working in the NCR region. Much parts of Pakistan faced similar predicament, and perhaps inducing people to rush to the hospitals on complaints of eye sore, breathing issues, and skin inflammation.
Massive stubble burning by farmers in Punjab and Haryana is in the eye of the storm, literally, while the causes are multiple such as polluting smoke emitting from the numerous factories in India’ industrial belt, emissions from polluting motor vehicles, wildfires, and forest fires amongst other causes.
Air pollution poses a significant global environmental and public health challenge, adversely impacting human health, ecosystems, and the economy. Air pollution is a pressing concern in densely populated urban areas like the major cities in India, including those in the NCR, and particularly heightened during winter when the pollution levels often reach hazardous levels.
Winter pollution is exacerbated by various factors, including temperature inversions, stagnant atmospheric conditions, increased emissions from different heating sources, and accumulating pollutants over time, according to an assessment by the climate watch-group Climate Trends.
These conditions lead to elevated concentrations of PM2.5 and other pollutants, posing serious health risks to residents, especially vulnerable populations such as children, the elderly, and individuals with pre-existing health conditions, the climate watch-group says.
In a comparative analysis of winter PM2.5 pollution levels across some major Indian cities, it was assessed that the city of Varanasi emerged as the only city meeting the national standards for the assessment years of 2022-23 and 2023-24 respectively.
The coastal city of Mumbai too demonstrated fair pollution levels below the national standard during the assessed year of 2023-24, while the national capital Delhi consistently exhibited the highest pollution levels, followed by Chandigarh, with Patna showing comparatively higher concentrations attributed possibly to industrial emissions and vehicular traffic.
Delhi experienced a notable increase in winter pollution levels compared to the preceding year when the other cities in India experienced lower PM2.5 levels during the recent winter, the Climate Trends report said indicating the validity of Delhi as one of the worst polluted cities in the country, particularly worrying this year as demonstrated by the NASA image which is undeniable.
A Climate Action Tracker summary evaluated India’s status as “Poor” based on the observation that “the level of information provided is extremely limited with no emissions pathway to demonstrate how India will reach net zero by 2070. It remains unclear as to whether India’s net zero by 2070 target covers all greenhouse gas emissions or just CO2”.
Referring to the changing weather trends in the country, the Climate Action Tracker indicated that the rise in minimum temperatures accentuated by global warming continues to push the mercury to new levels.
Initially, it was the maximum temperatures that registered the rise, whereas in recent years the minimum temperatures are also rising steadily. The diurnal temperature variation, which is the difference between daily maximum and minimum temperatures, has decreased, the report evaluated.
Elaborating further on the observed temperature rise, the Climate Action Tracker summary asserted that the month of February this year witnessed the second highest minimum temperature in the month since the year 1901, while the month of January recorded the fourth highest minimum temperature since the India Meteorological Department (IMD) started tracking the variation in the maximum and the minimum temperatures across the country.
Experts around the globe called for the trillions of dollars spent on fossil fuels to be redirected towards protecting people’s health, lives and livelihoods in the face of health threats as climate change impacts reach record-breaking levels with each passing year, sparing none – people and even the wildlife – across the seven continents, and the oceans.
New global findings in the 8th Annual Indicator Report of the ‘Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change’ revealed that the people in every country face record-breaking threats to health and survival from the rapidly changing climate, with 10 out of 15 indicators tracking health threats reaching concerning new records.
Dr Marina Romanello, Executive Director of the Lancet Countdown at the University College in London has a fair warning for everyone when she says, “This year’s stock-take of the imminent health threats of climate inaction reveals the most concerning findings yet in our eight years of monitoring”.
“Once again, last year broke climate change records with extreme heat waves, deadly weather events, and devastating wildfires affecting people around the world. The relentless expansion of fossil fuels and the record-breaking greenhouse gas emissions compounds these dangerous health impacts, and is threatening to reverse the limited progress made so far, and put a healthy future further out of reach”.
Global warming is accentuated and is accelerated by the release of both white and black carbons into the atmosphere from the different sources – the numerous factories, the nuclear reactors, polluting vehicles, aerosol from jet fuels, wildfires, forest fires, stubble burning, and the loss of forests and wetlands that are vital storehouses of carbon.
The Government of India is presently working on ways and means to discourage farmers from resorting to stubble burning to clear off their agricultural wastes, whereas, reports indicated that the Punjab and Haryana farmers are trying to outwit the Government by calculating the movement of the satellites, especially the NASA satellite, and burning the stubble only in the afternoon when it is assessed that the roving satellite had passed across India.
This only re-emphasizes the thinking that more intensive measures are necessary to dissuade the farmers from contributing to smog and air pollution. As in the NCR, the farmers back home in Manipur too needs to be sensitized on the dangers of air pollution with reference to health hazards, and to refrain from stubble burning.
(Salam Rajesh is an Imphal based media professional, and currently works as an independent researcher and writer on socio-environmental issues. He coordinates campaigns and advocacy for indigenous peoples’ rights.)