WHERE IS THE WORST AIR IN THE WORLD? IF YOU SAID CHINA YOU WOULD BE WRONG, A LITTLE...

Sao Paulo, Brasil

Much has been made lately of the extremely high levels of pollution in China, but if you thought that Beijing was the number one offender, you would be wrong.

The unsightliness of pollution has become more of a concern after recent studies detailed how the level of pollution is directly linked with a much higher incidence of cancers and respiratory illness.

In fact, one of the places with the worst air pollution is Calcutta, one of the largest and poorest of India's large cities.  Some estimate that breathing the air in Calcutta day in and day out, is the equivalent of smoking two packs of cigarettes a day.  

In New Dehli, denizens do not fare much better.  People try to escape the worse of it by occupying higher floors, but even that does not help.  The level of particulates is so high that breathing in the air is like standing with one's head on top of a chimney stack.  

An estimated 3.2 million people died prematurely in 2010 due to high levels of pollution and most of them were in Asian countries from India all the way to China.  

Children, the elderly and people who are already ill with other illnesses are at most risk.  

What is worse, the pollution levels are spiking recently and are bringing the levels to heights never seen before.  

New Dehli, India

The city with the worse pollution problem however is Ahwaz, in southern Iran.  Ulaan Bator, Mongolia's capital is second.  

And to the western world these woes seem far away and not a concern to us.  But such view is wrong.  Pollution rides air currents and eventually finds its way into the atmosphere all around the globe.  There it returns to earth in the form of polluted rain.  In some cases, like San Francisco, the pollution rides the air stream and reaches the coast.  One third of the soot in San Francisco derives from air that blew over from Asia.  

Los Angeles, USA - photo Arnstutz

The United States are not immune.  The California valley due to its configuration is a hot spot of pollution. The low plains by the sea are bordered by the high mountain range that strecth from north to south, making it a natural barrier for air movement and trapping city pollution in the low lands.

Also the source of pollution differs.  In Delhi, which has a rate of pollution twice as high as Beijing, the main source of the problem is the exhaust fumes from buses and cars.  Whereas in other places, coal burning plants are the culprit, such as is the case in Beijing.  

Efforts in both India and China are stifled by the escalating rate of industrialization which requires more energy, more vehicles, more luxuries.  Gone are the days in which Beijing was a city pullulating with people riding their bikes.

These countries then, need to step up their efforts if they want to decrease pollution, and by consequence, mortality.  Beijing is looking at electric cars as a possible solution to better their air quality.  

But the 'necessary' compromise of having bad pollution as a growing pain for the country's advancement might prove too much in a world that is already standing at the brink of climate disaster.   It is a compromise that might prove all too costly in the end.

Source: Slate.com 3.4.13