MYSORE: Bangalore will not have any healthy people left in 15 years if the government fails to arrest soaring pollution levels in both urban and rural levels. This grim warning came from Vision Group 2020, a panel comprising of eminent personalities from the state, constituted for making Karnataka a developed state.
Air pollution levels have also hit alarming levels. Pollution levels are said to be at a record high at Mysore Road. According to pollution board authorities, the Suspended Particulate Matter (SPM) is 305 microgram against a minimum of 140.
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I would like to quote nandan Nilekani as said in an interview with BS here
"How we design our cities matters critically. Public health improves, or deteriorates, depending on whether a city is designed to facilitate walking or not". He recalls what the head of the Australian post office told him. When postmen’s bicycles were replaced by motorcycles, their weight went up.
In Bangalore, I see people getting sick most parts of the year regardless of the weather. Children are the worst affected. Pollution is the main cause but the weather gets blamed. Where are we heading?
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Comments
Not Surprising !
This had been in the coming for quite some time. The polluting industries & increase in motor vehicles might end us all soon.
I particularly like the part where Mr.Nilekani stresses that cities must be made for walking (much more than for cars).
The interview with Mr.Nilekani has many more interesting points :
He also has an idea on healthcare reforms - he says "we should be able to learn from others’ mistakes. We must not exchange one set of problems like malnutrition with another like obesity".
Also, he lays emphasis on preventive as much as curative care. As for paying for your healthcare, he visualises a three tier system whereby the better off pay their full health insurance premium, the government shares the burden of those in the middle and pays the full premium for the poor. Significantly, he does not consider resource a major hurdle.
His idea is to “leverage technology to develop high volume low cost effective solutions, not do things the old fashioned way with clerks and sub-clerks”.
Is it a local effect ?
If we take the CO2 being emitted by IC engines the net effect is a global warming.