Due to severe air pollution, India’s capital chief minister has announced that schools and construction sites in New Delhi will be closed for a week. This measure comes after the area has experienced sustained smog with much of the air pollution originating from a combination of crop stubble burning, vehicle emissions, and coal-fired plants outside of the urban center.
Air Quality Index (AQI) readings exceed 400 in some areas, which can severely impact those with pre-existing health conditions and is considered hazardous for even healthy individuals. Officials state the situation as very serious; for many, this is a call-to-action for the government to take preventative measures against air pollution and reduce carbon-emissions for India as a whole.
This map depicts Air Index Quality (AQI) readings from various cities throughout India, with a concentration of severely unhealthy readings near New Delhi.
Another design is using 2 20x25x1 filters, taping them to the sides of the box fan and then to each other so they sort of make a triangle, then cutting cardboard to make a top and bottom to the triangle.
This was discovered as a more effective design during the 2020 US west coast fires.
Bringing back this post to say that, having visited Vienna recently, there were people that actually turned off their cars when waiting for the light to turn green or even when waiting for a few seconds for a pedestrian to cross and then turning them back on to go about their day.
Would love to see this get adopted more widely.
It’s an attitude that makes sense if you want to save up on fuel and help the climate and the air quality.
This illustration features in the new issue of the Royal Town Planning Institute’s ‘The Planner’ magazine. It accompanies an article about poor air quality caused by traffic fumes. The author also considers how legislation and changing attitudes could potentially improve the environment.
