Polluted waterways in India…
It’s a light posting – I’ve been out of pocket for the last several days. Regardless, I will catch up with the content from those days and mix it in with new content.
However, since I’ve had some mixed feed back, I would like to open it up in a poll. Do you prefer daily or weekly posts?
Headlines
FT – Pollution-related deaths exceed 9m per year 10/19. “…Equivalent to one in six of all deaths across the world.” Of which, 6.5m are from air pollution, 1.8m from water pollution, and 0.8m from pollution in the workplace.
FT – China lifts ban on Anbang sales of high-yield investment products 10/21. After being banned from selling new products in May, the insurance group (known for its purchase of the Waldorf Astoria in New York and a $6.5bn hotel portfolio from the Blackstone Group), has been enabled to get back to it.
NYT – Puerto Ricans Ask: When Will the Lights Come Back On? 10/19. “…80% of Puerto Rico still does not have electricity. Some residents have not had power for 45 days…”
Worthy Insights / Opinion Pieces / Advice
Politico – The Boomtown (Cape Coral, FL) That Shouldn’t Exist – Michael Grunwald 10/20
Perspective
National Geographic – These Are the World’s Happiest Places – Dan Buettner 10/18
NYT – A Boom in Credit Cards: Great News for Banks, Less So Consumers 10/19
National Geographic – Where to Find The Good Life – Manuel Canales & Kennedy Elliott 10/18
Real Estate
Asia – excluding China and Japan
NYT – Myanmar, Once a Hope for Democracy, Is Now a Study in How It Fails 10/19
Europe
FT – EU opens investigation into Chinese e-bike dumping – Michael Pooler 10/20
Featured
WSJ – The World’s Next Environmental Disaster – Krishna Pokharel and Preetika Rana 10/20
- “The Yamuna River that flows through this ancient city has helped sustain some of India’s greatest empires. Hindu poets celebrated its life-giving properties. The Mughal dynasty built the Taj Mahal and other monuments along its banks.”
- “Today, the Yamuna is a foul sludge for much of its 855-mile run. In Delhi, it is black and nearly motionless, covered in many areas with a foam of industrial chemicals, floating plastic and human waste.”
- “Every 100 milliliters of the Yamuna in Delhi contains 22 million fecal coliform bacteria, up from 12,250 in 1988, scientists say. Anything over 500 is unsafe for bathing, India’s government says. The comparable standard in Vermont is 235.”
- “Illnesses ranging from diarrhea to brain worms are reported along the river’s edges. By the time the Yamuna exits Delhi, it is so defiled that scientists have declared the next 300 miles ‘eutrophic,’ or incapable of sustaining animal life.”
- “For years, global environmentalists have focused on China, whose rapid industrialization made it one of the world’s most polluted major nations. Now it’s India’s turn.”
- “Unlike China, which has become wealthier and is starting to clean up, India is in the early stages of industrial growth. It is following the same road China took to get richer, meaning more factories and cars. Yet, it already has some of the world’s worst environmental problems.”
- “A government report in 2015 found that 275 of 445 rivers in India are severely polluted, including the Ganges. An international nonprofit, WaterAid, says 70% of India’s surface water is contaminated. Diarrhea, often caused by drinking bad water, is the fourth-leading cause of death in India, ahead of any cancer, and kills far more people than in China, which has a larger population.”
- “Greenpeace says that in 2015, the average Indian was subjected to more air pollution than the average Chinese for the first time, as China’s ‘systematic efforts’ to improve air have started working. A 2016 WHO report found that 10 out of the world’s 20 most polluted cities were in India, based on residents’ exposure to deadly small particulate matter.”
- “One reason India is an environmental mess at such an early stage of its development is that it has failed to master the basic services of sewage and water treatment which some other developing nations addressed when incomes rose.”
- “Of the over 16 billion gallons of sewage that India produces every day, 62% ends up on nearby water bodies untreated, according to the Central Pollution Control Board, a federal pollution monitor.”
- “Many Indian cities that built wastewater treatment systems don’t fully use them because of electricity shortages or other problems. Several others haven’t built them at all.”
