The Alarming Rise of India’s Pay-to-Breathe Industry

[Roadvirus]

And to think these guys are exempt from climate agreements, just like China, because they get the coveted "Developing Nation" status.

As attempts to fix the problem at the source fail, a new kind of inequality is taking hold in Indian cities. Facing potentially deadly air quality outside, wealthier Indians are paying to breathe free, creating a booming market for air purifiers that is forecast to grow 35 percent to $597 million by 2027. But in a country already economically divided along caste, gender, and religious lines, where 63 percent of people pay for health care out-of-pocket and the top 10 percent of the population hold 77 percent of the wealth, paying for breathable air isn’t an option for most.

The Alarming Rise of India’s Pay-to-Breathe Industry

As the state’s solutions to pollution fail, the need for expensive air purifiers is driving a new kind of inequality.

www.wired.com

Reminds me of a sub-plot of Stephen King's Running Man (under his Richard Bachman persona). The poor were slowly dying from polluted air in the slums while the rich bitches could afford high-tech air filter apparatuses.

Talk about life imitating art.

 

[Hamish Howl]

Mexico City had this problem. Not sure if they still do.

 

[Helix]

And to think these guys are exempt from climate agreements, just like China, because they get the coveted "Developing Nation" status.



Reminds me of a sub-plot of Stephen King's Running Man (under his Richard Bachman persona). The poor were slowly dying from polluted air in the slums while the rich bitches could afford high-tech air filter apparatuses.

Talk about life imitating art.

The Bachman Books compilation was great. I have the edition that includes Rage. It's hard to pick a favorite in that compilation, but it's probably a tie between The Long Walk and Roadwork.

 

[lemmiwinx]

We have a similar eco-caste system as India here in the US. They're called Prius drivers and they think their carbon emissions don't stink.

 

[Glitch]

And to think these guys are exempt from climate agreements, just like China, because they get the coveted "Developing Nation" status.



Reminds me of a sub-plot of Stephen King's Running Man (under his Richard Bachman persona). The poor were slowly dying from polluted air in the slums while the rich bitches could afford high-tech air filter apparatuses.

Talk about life imitating art.

Sounds to me like India is going through the same growing pains the US went through during the 1950s and 1960s. A day in Los Angeles was equivalent to smoking a pack of 20 cigarettes, whether you were a smoker or not, regardless of your age. We've been there, done that. It got so bad that we had no choice but to start imposing clean air standards on industries. This was before the EPA existed. Our family chose to move out of the city in the mid-1960s to get that fresh air (and avoid further riots). Sounds to me like India is reaching that point now.

 

[HIP56948]

2027 First date..."I had a wonderful night at the party. Would you like to come up and perhaps, breathe some fresh air?"

 

[Checkerboard Strangler]

This was happening in cities like Beijing a decade ago.

 

[Checkerboard Strangler]

"Okay come on Cohaagen, you got vot chew vont! Giff zees people air!"

 

[Ug make hammer]

Roads remained choked with traffic, and the city’s poorer residents resorted to dumpster fires, burning scraps of wood, rubber, and plastic to stay warm.

If the combination of advertisements and news coverage is to be believed, breathing air in India’s capital is equivalent to 50 cigarettes a day during Diwali, a Hindu festival where many people burst firecrackers, and 10 cigarettes a day during the winter.

To work on the air in India’s cities, purifiers need to filter out fine particulate matter, fungus, bacteria, viruses, and toxic gasses like sulfur and nitrous oxides.

India is making progress on renewables and nuclear, but clean electricity isn't going to help people who can't afford electricity at all.

 

[Nomad4Ever]

We have a similar eco-caste system as India here in the US. They're called Prius drivers and they think their carbon emissions don't stink.

Somebody got upset after he asked how much a friend spends on gas a month lol

 

[Roadvirus]

Mexico City had this problem. Not sure if they still do.

As i understand it, they still have "bad" days. But not as frequent as in the past.

 

[Checkerboard Strangler]

Roads remained choked with traffic, and the city’s poorer residents resorted to dumpster fires, burning scraps of wood, rubber, and plastic to stay warm.

If the combination of advertisements and news coverage is to be believed, breathing air in India’s capital is equivalent to 50 cigarettes a day during Diwali, a Hindu festival where many people burst firecrackers, and 10 cigarettes a day during the winter.

To work on the air in India’s cities, purifiers need to filter out fine particulate matter, fungus, bacteria, viruses, and toxic gasses like sulfur and nitrous oxides.

India is making progress on renewables and nuclear, but clean electricity isn't going to help people who can't afford electricity at all.

They've also been steadily replacing their monstrous fleet of Hindustan Ambassador taxicabs.
The Ambassador is reputedly more reliable and durable than an antique Maytag washing machine, but it was always a terrible polluter.

New cabs either offer a much more efficient engine or electric.
Their millions of Tuk Tuks are also going electric as well.
But as you implied, it's obviously not happening fast enough for a nation of well over a billion people.

 

[Ug make hammer]

They've also been steadily replacing their monstrous fleet of Hindustan Ambassador taxicabs.
The Ambassador is reputedly more reliable and durable than an antique Maytag washing machine, but it was always a terrible polluter.

New cabs either offer a much more efficient engine or electric.
Their millions of Tuk Tuks are also going electric as well.
But as you implied, it's obviously not happening fast enough for a nation of well over a billion people.

Some of those Ambassadors were diesel engined. Diesel engines have OK emissions when they're new, but need a lot of maintenance. I'm also guessing that the Indian version of this classic Morris was made with looser tolerances so they burn oil.

If cab drivers still want the vehicle, maybe the smartest thing would be to develop a new engine and replace only that (free but with some cost recovery in use after that.) It might even be possible to do something cheaper, like re-boring the cylinders and fitting new rings. Even proper tuning might help: I suspect the reason the cars are so cheap to run, is that they're not getting any professional service at all.

 

[Checkerboard Strangler]

Some of those Ambassadors were diesel engined. Diesel engines have OK emissions when they're new, but need a lot of maintenance. I'm also guessing that the Indian version of this classic Morris was made with looser tolerances so they burn oil.

If cab drivers still want the vehicle, maybe the smartest thing would be to develop a new engine and replace only that (free but with some cost recovery in use after that.) It might even be possible to do something cheaper, like re-boring the cylinders and fitting new rings. Even proper tuning might help: I suspect the reason the cars are so cheap to run, is that they're not getting any professional service at all.

I may be wrong but I think most of those Ambassadors are diesel.
Anyway, India has been insituting a slow rolling phase-out of the old Ambassadors.
I think the push is to introduce EV cabs in some areas and newer more efficient internal combustion vehicles where EV isn't practical.
Obviously all of this HAS to move slowly because as you might guess, it is not reasonable to expect poor cabbies to fork over on a new car and small cab franchises can't afford to move fast on new cars either.
All that said, India recognizes that the antique Hindustans are polluters.

I would like to think that engine swaps are a going concern because in a poor country, that's got to be an option.

 

[Deuce]

And right wingers seriously want us to be more like that.

 

[Deuce]

We have a similar eco-caste system as India here in the US. They're called Prius drivers and they think their carbon emissions don't stink.

lol desperate flailing

 

[watsup]

Reminds me of a sub-plot of Stephen King's Running Man (under his Richard Bachman persona).

Good movie. Arnold says “I’ll be back” as he was about to be slung into the underground city full of assassins. And he fulfilled his promise!