China-India Smog Rivalry a Sign of Global Menace

By Angel Hsu and Jason Schwartz Scientific American March 26, 2014 Topic: Air Pollution

Summary: People in the past would usually think that China is the smoggiest country, but now they are starting to debate whether India have more air pollution than China or vice-versa. According to research done by Yale and Columbia universities, India and Chinas EPI or Environmental Performance Index came out to be a tie, and that nearly the entire population of both countries is exposed to harmful particulate matter less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter, known as PM2.5. The amount of particulate matter they are exposed to is 250 percent higher than that threshold deemed safe by the WHO. But nowadays, China have been trying to improve their air quality, and they made this issue more popular for their citizens to become more aware.

Thoughts: I think that China seem to care more about their air quality now that they know how bad it is. They have more monitoring stations than India, and more people are going online to search air quality in China. I am kind of surprise how they have more regulations and the people are more aware of this situation in Beijing than in New Delhi, even though there are more people in New Delhi. There are even more days where the AQI is considered as excellent in Beijing than in New Delhi.

Next Step: Now that we know about the two smoggiest countries, we can do something to help them reduce the amount of smog in those areas. We can make this issue more popular for more people to be aware of this in New Delhi so that those people can change their ways and help make New Delhi a more environmental friendly city. I think that the people in New Delhi should live more like the people in Beijing because the people in Beijing is really trying their best to reduce the amount of air pollution in their city.