'It's positively alpine!': Disbelief in big
cities as air pollution falls
Delhi is one of many capitals enjoying improved
air quality since restrictions were introduced due to the coronavirus
by Hannah
Ellis-Petersen in Delhi, Rebecca Ratcliffe in Bangkok, Sam Cowie in São Paulo,
Joe Parkin Daniels in Bogotá and Lily Kuo in Beijing
Sat 11 Apr
2020 05.00 BSTLast modified on Sat 11 Apr 2020 15.06 BST
The
screenshots began to circulate on Delhi WhatsApp groups last week, captioned
with varying expressions of disbelief. Having checked the air quality index,
something of a sadistic morning ritual among residents of India’s capital, most
could not believe their eyes.
Gone was
the familiar menacing red banner, indicating how each intake of breath is
really just a toxic blast on the lungs, replaced instead by a healthy, cheerful
green. Could it really be that Delhi’s pollution levels now fell into the
category of … “good”? “It’s positively alpine!” exclaimed one message.
A
nationwide lockdown imposed across India almost two weeks ago to stop the
spread of the coronavirus – the largest lockdown of its kind attempted anywhere
– has led to widespread chaos and suffering, especially among the country’s 300
million poor. Yet in Delhi, the world’s most polluted city, it has also
resulted in some of the freshest air the capital has seen in decades.
New Delhi
pollution then and now
It is a
lockdown silver lining being repeated across the world, as toxic megacities
such as Bangkok, Beijing, São Paulo and Bogotá, where varying coronavirus
restrictions have been imposed, all reported an unprecedented decline in
pollution. Yet it is countered with one cruel irony: with most residents of
these cities strictly confined to their homes, few have any way to appreciate
this newly fresh air, except through an open window or a during speedy trip to
the supermarket.
In Delhi,
air quality index (AQI) levels are usually a severe 200 on a good day (anything
above 25 is deemed unsafe by World Health Organization). During peak pollution
periods last year they soared well into a life-threatening 900 and sometimes
off the measurable scale. But as Delhi’s 11m registered cars were taken off the
roads and factories and construction were ground to a halt, AQI levels have
regularly fallen below 20. The skies are suddenly a rare, piercing blue. Even
the birdsong seems louder.
Dr Shashi
Tharoor, a politician and author who has been vocal on environmental issues,
said he hoped that it was a wake-up call. “The blissful sight of blue skies and
the joy of breathing clean air provides just the contrast to illustrate what we
are doing to ourselves the rest of the time,” said Tharoor. “Today the typical
Delhi AQI hovers around 30 and one blissful afternoon, after a spurt of rain,
it dropped to 7.”
“Seven,”
Tharoor exclaimed again in disbelief. “In Delhi! Pure joy!”.
Tharoor’s
sister Smita, who was visiting from the UK when the lockdown was imposed and
found herself stuck in Delhi, was equally effusive. As someone with asthma, she
said the city’s air, normally thick with pollution, was usually a health
nightmare. But now: “The air is clear, the skies are blue. I see the evening
stars with clarity and hear the chirruping of excited birds at this unexpected
bonus they have received.”
While
India’s powerful car lobby has long disputed that cars are a major cause of
Delhi’s pollution, Sunita Narain, director of the Centre for Science and
Environment, said the lockdown and resulting rapid drop in pollution showed
once and for all just what a polluting role vehicles had in the city.
Narain also
stressed that while she wished Delhi was like this “all the time”, adding: “I
don’t want people to say ‘Oh, environmentalists are celebrating this lockdown:’
we are not. This is not the solution. But whatever the new normal is
post-Covid-19, we have to make sure we take this breath of fresh air and think
about the serious efforts we need to deal with pollution in Delhi.”
It is not
just Delhi experiencing the clearest skies in years. As pollution dropped to
its lowest level in three decades this week this week, residents of Jalandhar
in Punjab woke up to an incredible sight in the distance: the Dhauladhar
mountain range in Himachal Pradesh. The peaks, which are over 120 miles away,
had not been sighted on the Punjab horizon for almost 30 years.
It is the
absence of cars on some of the world’s most congested roads that seems to be
making the most crucial differences. Thailand’s capital, Bangkok, which only
last month had closed schools because the pollution got so bad, has experienced
a similar transformation in the air since partial lockdown, mainly due to the
fall in road traffic. “We can see quite a big gap between the air quality
standard that we have [compared with this time last year],” says Tara
Buakamsri, Thailand director for Greenpeace.
But
residents of Bangkok lamented how the places to enjoy the fresh air were
swiftly disappearing. Playgrounds, sporting grounds and even parks, a rare
source of solace in the bustling, intensely urban environs of Bangkok, have all
now been shut. “I feel sad for the old people who use the park to hang out and
meet friends. I think they will be so sad at home,” said Nantawan Wangudomsuk,
31, a producer who used to run in the parks.
Across
South America’s most populous city of São Paulo, ground zero of Brazil’s
brewing coronavirus crisis, notorious traffic queues and smoggy horizons are
also giving way to calm streets and clearer skies.
During
weekday rush-hour, downtown São Paulo’s João Goulart elevated highway –
nicknamed Minhocão, the Big Worm – normally heaves with traffic as thousands of
cars cram four narrow lanes and beeping motorbikes weave through daringly small
spaces. But with the city’s coronavirus lockdown, Minhocão now resembles a
small-town avenue instead of a major road in a metropolis of 12 million people.
“The air is
certainly better,” said Daniel Guth,an urban mobility consultant. “I’ve felt
the improvement in air quality both as a cyclist and as a quarantined citizen,”
he laughed. “We should use this as a moment to reflect on what transport
methods we should prioritise when this crisis is over.”
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Tell us
Despite
being under lockdown, many Paulistas, as the city’s residents are known, are
still finding ways to enjoy the cleaner air, taking to windows and apartment
balconies for nightly pot-banging protests against Brazil’s far-right President
Jair Bolsonaro, who has repeatedly dismissed the coronavirus as just “a little
flu”.
Bogotá, the
sprawling mountaintop capital of Colombia, is also usually choking with traffic
so bad that officials occasionally ban cars for entire days. But since the
nationwide coronavirus quarantine took hold on 24 March, exhaust fumes have
fallen as the city ground to a halt. Yet the newly fresh air has been taunting
Bogotá’s residents, who are allowed to leave home only for food and medicines,
not even a daily dose of outdoor exercise. “Without a doubt this pandemic is
helping us improve air quality,” said Carolina Urrutia, Bogotá’s district
environment secretary. “With the city shut down, we are able to focus our
efforts on other environmental factors.”
Cali,
Colombia’s third city and usually a smokey, congested metropolis, has also been
spared from the usual forest fires, allowing residents to breathe fresher air.
“The thick cloud that usually hangs over us has been lifted,” said Christian
Camilo Villa, an air quality activist and Cali resident. “The concern is that
it will return when the quarantine ends.”
Indeed, the
fear among environmentalists and residents is that, rather than attempting to
maintain the low levels of pollution in the world’s biggest capitals, when
industry and cars kick back into action post-lockdown, the situation will go
back to square one, and perhaps even worsen, as people and industry attempt to
make up for the lost months.
The signs
from China, which is coming out of the other side of the coronavirus outbreak
and where lockdowns are loosening up, are not positive. For the first four
weeks after the Chinese new year holiday in late January, when the coronavirus
outbreak was at its worst, pollution levels fell 25% across the country. But
since early March, levels of nitrogen dioxide pollution have begun to inch back
up as the country gets back to work with factories, businesses and power plants
re-opening and traffic returning.
Lauri
Myllyvirta, lead analyst for the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air,
said: “The big question is whether government stimulus measures lead to
pollution levels rebounding above the levels before the crisis, like happened
after the 2008 financial crisis.”
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