Fuming in New Delhi

There is a parallel movement of climate change deniers – those who do not attribute global warming to man-made causes – among ultra-conservative Hindus in India to the Evangelical movement here in the United States. Strangely, ultra-conservative pastors in Europe haven’t been seduced by the anti-science movement that allowed too many American Evangelicals to reject scientific certainty. Not true in India.

But so far India seems to have avoided really understanding the horrific pollution that has embraced China’s largest cities, most notably unbreathable Beijing. Or has it? Often attributed to dust from the countryside, charcoal burners and effluents from old, inefficient cars, big Indian cities have earned reputations as among those having the worst air on earth. Coal? Not taken seriously, even though 68% of this nation’s electricity comes from burning coal with some of the dirtiest plants imaginable. But something in the air has changed.

The conservative, Hindu-faith-driven Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) recently elected Prime Minister, Narendra Modi. Modi had earlier led environmental clean-ups, but in his new role, he seems to have back-pedaled in order to spur economic growth, which Modi believes cannot explode with excessive environmental regulations. Until his recent meeting with President Barack Obama, where some joint efforts against greenhouse gas emissions were agreed, Modi’s words were sounding increasingly as if he were a Tea Party Republican railing against the EPA. Man-made emissions are the cause?  Not to these politicos.

But folks living in India’s capital city, New Delhi, are seeing first-hand the horrific pollution that defines the entire city. They are beginning to understand how bad it really is. “Some among New Delhi’s Indian and foreign elites have started to wear the white surgical masks so common in Beijing. The United States Embassy purchased 1,800 high-end air purifiers in recent months for staff members’ homes, with many other major embassies following suit.

“Some embassies, including Norway’s, have begun telling diplomats with children to reconsider moving to the city, and officials have quietly reported a surge in diplomats choosing to curtail their tours. Indian companies have begun ordering filtration systems for their office buildings…

“One driver for the change is a deluge of stories in Indian and international news outlets over the last year about Delhi’s air problems. Those articles, once rare, now appear almost daily, reporting such news as spikes in hospital visits for asthma and related illnesses. One article about Mr. Obama’s visit focused on how, by one scientist’s account, he might have lost six hours from his expected life span after spending three days in Delhi.

“‘We felt this was an issue we should take up, and we have taken it up,’ said Arindam Sengupta, executive editor of The Times of India, whose campaign against air pollution has helped give prominence to the problem… But Nicholas Dawes, a top editor at The Hindustan Times, said the media coverage was just one reason for the attitude shift. ‘I think the people of Delhi are increasingly unwilling to tolerate tough circumstances,’ he said.

“At least so far, that has not translated into much meaningful action by the government. In fact, the problem is likely to get worse as the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi works to reboot the economy. His government recently promised to double its use of coal over the next five years.” New York Times, February 14^th. At least people are talking about it. But when you think about how big India and China are, their proclivity to rely on coal for power generation, how many new coal plants are being build every week, we do not have a shot in hell of getting climate change under control even in the distant future. And by then, perhaps already, it just might be too late. There is a clarion call emanating around the world. Will it be heard in time?

I’m Peter Dekom, and global climate change cannot be countered without globally-embraced solutions.