New Delhi & Climate Dystopia
New Delhi, the capital city of India, with a population of over 30 million, is constantly suffocated with some of the worst air quality in the world. Schools and outdoor construction projects are regularly cancelled because of the toxic smog from nearby factories and industrial enters. Between October and February of every year, the air quality index for ozone and particulate matter (AQI) of New Delhi climbs to incredibly unsafe levels due to the cooler weather, burning fields to clear land for planting, pollution from vehicles and thermal power plants, as well as burning of effigies and lighting of fireworks during religious festivals.
In the midst of international attention being focused on Indian cities for being choked with smog, hotels in New Delhi have recently made headlines for marketing themselves as escapes from outdoor pollution and havens with high air quality:
India Today Trending Desk
What initially appears as a standard marketing campaign for hotels, shopping malls, and restaurants is in reality something much worse: a vision of the climate dystopia that all of us will have to endure as global temperatures rise year over year. It should not be up to individuals living in New Delhi, (or any urban area for that matter) to find workarounds to live amidst deteriorating air quality. What is evident here is a lack of government action in addressing the climate crisis. Offering wealthy patrons a smog and stress free shopping experience indicates a national government willing to abandon its poorest citizens to their own devices.
13 of the top 25 most smog filled cities in the world are in India, yet the effects of decades of disastrous environmental policy are visible throughout the country. Asthma and chronic respiratory diseases have been a scourge in the smog-filled urban centers of India. Over 35 million people in India struggle with asthma and 13% of deaths in the country every year are due to respiratory diseases, all concentrated mostly in urban areas and worsened by the environmental crisis government seems intent on ignoring.
There are striking parallels between the public health crisis in Indian cities with cancer alley in Louisiana. Between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, in an 85 mile stretch along the banks of the Mississippi River, there are over 200 oil and gas refineries, poisoning the water and choking the air with industrial waste products. In this region, cancer rates from air and water pollution far exceed what would be considered an acceptable level of risk just about anywhere else in the United States. For the poor and disadvantaged, there is no safe haven from industrial pollution. Just as the burdens of costs of industrialization have been borne by the working class, actions taken to deal with the climate crisis cannot exclude the needs of lower income people.
