Let’s Mitigate Smog with Solar
There are Five 5 weird ways climate change could end our civilization:
1. Ancient plagues comes back;
2. We get stupid ;
3. War doubles ;
4. Farmland becomes too tropical to grow food;
5. Smog.
Biomass burning is why there’s so much Smog in Central Punjab
Smog is on its way. And guess where it is coming from?
Look at the NASA MAP. Red Spots are all active fire.
Agriculture fire all along the border on the Indian side and in Indian Punjab.
On contrary, here the Pakistani Punjab Government has banned Agriculture and paddy burning, Solid Waste Burning and stopped the Brick Kilns from being operative.
Experts said that all these crop burnings in India are ultimately causing the smog in Pakistan, particularly in Lahore and vicinity. The main reason is Farmers. Farmers of Indian Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. The farmers of these states burn up their field after the harvesting of the crop instead of dumping the waste. Air flow patterns from India pick up emissions as they move over the densely urbanized regions of Punjab and Haryana where farmers burn the straw in their fields and pull this pollution into Central Punjab. Pre-monsoon dust storms also contribute to air pollution in the region.
The kharif crops are planted in June/July and are harvested in October. The crop residue (which could be managed better) is burnt and is a big source of PM2.5 & PM10. It starts with burning of rice stubble by Punjab, Haryana & western UP in month of October to clear the field for next crop. With an increase in cultivated area for paddy, pollution caused by rice stubble burning has increased. To stop burning of crop stubble and residue, for preparing the soil for sowing Rabi crops, is exactly how should India help Pakistan on smog issue.
Why is smog responsible for the tripping of an HT line but fog was less responsible in the past?
It’s because besides Arsenic and GHG, smog also has contaminations such as Carbon particles which are good conducter for crona to occur. Winter causes vertical air mixing to be much lower than in the summer thus causing the pollution to hang around for longer.
How can this be managed?
There can be large scale biomass-to-biogas plants or large scale composters. There maybe other alternatives as well — it will need to be ignored. The common citizens role is to persuade his/her political leaders to come up with a solution.
Importantly, we need online pollution monitoring with data that is publically available (like China, yes China) so that we can all get on the same page.
One Last Quick Solution!
Solar Panel should be placed on all government buildings and public should be encouraged for placing solar panel over their house roof and using electricity wisely.
