Pollution ...
Have you guys read the fantastic book, "State of Fear" by Michael Crichton ? The book is quasi-non fiction and talks about the irrational fear being put into people's head about Global Warming by the environmentalist lobby (Which is almost as well funded as the Oil lobby). He shows evidence in his book that a large part of the world has actually cooled over the past 100 years and in fact we might be heading for a second "Ice Age".
Pollution is a major concern in India. With growing industrialization and a fast growing consumer market, pollution is getting out of hand. The air quality in Mumbai is amongst the worst in the world. China has even worse of a problem, with seven of the world's top ten polluted cities in the world in China.
However, pollution-wise, the US is by far the leader. It contributes 24% of the world's pollution, with China at 13%. So, normalizing this in terms of population, the US emits 8 times the amount of pollutants as China (per person). In fact, China's contribution is only expected to rise to 17.8% even in 2025.
You would never realize that, if you read media reports from the Western World - They would have you believe that India and China are the twin evils when it comes to pollution !
Despite all the noise made in the US about environmental protection, absolute reduction in pollutants has been quite low - 30% in the last 15 years. This is because, even with stringent regulations, the sheer number of cars and energy utilities leads to a huge amount of pollution.
There are three major sources of pollution - Emissions from power plants (Coal based), Industrial Plants (Smelters for example) and Automobiles.
India has a new bill in parliament which would set a minimum standard of 99.5% Pollution reduction in the first two of those - This would put it at the same level as the European Union.
As far as the third one is concerned, low sulfur diesel and petrol are being made available - And new cars have to adhere to Euro II pollution standards. The weak link there is the old vehicles on the road - The 20 year old Ambassador Diesel and the 30 yr old Government Transportation bus ..
New Delhi under Shiela Dixit did a phenomenal job of converting buses and autorickshaws to CNG power. In fact, this might have been one of the major reasons Ms. Dixit was re-elected.
Pollution is a major concern in India. With growing industrialization and a fast growing consumer market, pollution is getting out of hand. The air quality in Mumbai is amongst the worst in the world. China has even worse of a problem, with seven of the world's top ten polluted cities in the world in China.
However, pollution-wise, the US is by far the leader. It contributes 24% of the world's pollution, with China at 13%. So, normalizing this in terms of population, the US emits 8 times the amount of pollutants as China (per person). In fact, China's contribution is only expected to rise to 17.8% even in 2025.
You would never realize that, if you read media reports from the Western World - They would have you believe that India and China are the twin evils when it comes to pollution !
Despite all the noise made in the US about environmental protection, absolute reduction in pollutants has been quite low - 30% in the last 15 years. This is because, even with stringent regulations, the sheer number of cars and energy utilities leads to a huge amount of pollution.
There are three major sources of pollution - Emissions from power plants (Coal based), Industrial Plants (Smelters for example) and Automobiles.
India has a new bill in parliament which would set a minimum standard of 99.5% Pollution reduction in the first two of those - This would put it at the same level as the European Union.
As far as the third one is concerned, low sulfur diesel and petrol are being made available - And new cars have to adhere to Euro II pollution standards. The weak link there is the old vehicles on the road - The 20 year old Ambassador Diesel and the 30 yr old Government Transportation bus ..
New Delhi under Shiela Dixit did a phenomenal job of converting buses and autorickshaws to CNG power. In fact, this might have been one of the major reasons Ms. Dixit was re-elected.
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