• AstroStelar [he/him]
    ·
    11 minutes ago

    I heard once that it gets so bad in November in large part due to farmers in Punjab and such clearing their fields by burning the dead crops on it, something like that. Is that true?

  • Babs [she/her]
    ·
    1 hour ago

    A few years back it once hit 500 where I live cause of wildfires. The smoke was blocking the sun giving the sky a spooky orange glow. There were warnings not to go outside, and the air would give me terrible headaches. I had to abandon my apartment because it was seeping through the cracks and I'd wake up sick (actually my first time living with my bf, cute). Air filters sold out everywhere and we had to make due with wet towels.

    All that to say, how tf you still alive?

    • jackmarxist [any]
      hexagon
      ·
      38 minutes ago

      Didn't even see the sun today 💀.

      All that to say, how tf you still alive?

      I'm kind of dying because the pollution has made my bronchitis go crazy and I legit have trouble breathing.

  • Utter_Karate [he/him, comrade/them]
    ·
    19 minutes ago

    I'm seeing the color gradient go from orange to red and then I read the numbers and understand that the scale was not supposed to go this high. This is terrifying. This scale was designed to make Sarajevo look like an emergency.

  • FnordPrefect [comrade/them, he/him]
    ·
    2 hours ago

    "Hey Boss, what color should we use to indicate that one city is literally 5x the next worst?"

    'Uh...I guess just use the color and opacity of the air itself at that point'

  • Acute_Engles [he/him, any]
    ·
    edit-2
    3 hours ago

    I literally do asbestos abatement and I'm thinking I'm not going to go to India without my whole suit.

    Stay safe comrade

  • miz [any, any]
    ·
    5 hours ago

    if Delhi is so great, why isn't there a New Delhi?

  • Mokey2 [none/use name]
    ·
    edit-2
    4 hours ago

    Everything about India sounds so miserable, like imagine if they went communist like the Chinese did.

    @jackmarxist@hexbear.net

    Can you share any good or promising things about India? What I can see from social media seems very bleak.

    • BashfulBob [none/use name]
      ·
      2 hours ago

      imagine if they went communist like the Chinese did

      They were Soviet Aligned for most of the Cold War. But the division between Hindus and Muslims eventually created a wedge that western capital could leverage to break the leftist tendencies of the earlier governments, ending with Chaudhary Charan Singh. By the 80s, they'd begun a full transition to neoliberal governance.

    • loathsome dongeater@lemmygrad.ml
      ·
      2 hours ago

      Are you asking this from the point a tourist? Or generally in terms of the direction the country is headed in?

      If you wanna travel then I don't good advice but Kerala and the Himalayas are very beautiful, though the latter spills over to Nepal.

      For the other question I would say the outlook id overall pessimistic.

    • Esoteir [he/him]
      ·
      4 hours ago

      iirc kerala is pretty cool, they regularly elect marxist communists and while it's not a socialist state by any means, they've done good things working in the confines of the liberal framework with stuff like the highest minimum wage in india and a strong protest scene

      • Achyu@lemmy.sdf.org
        ·
        2 hours ago

        Kerala has done decently well.
        The current govt has aimed at eradicating extreme poverty from Kerala by the end of the next year.
        https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/kerala-rolls-out-plan-to-eradicate-extreme-poverty-by-2025-2422621-2023-08-17

        It may not be according to Western standards, but it's still a very cool initiative.

        There's also the Nava Kerala mission
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nava_Kerala_Mission
        Nava means New in Malayalam, the main language used in Kerala.

      • Wertheimer [any]
        ·
        3 hours ago

        And their maternal mortality rate is lower than it is in many U.S. states (Georgia, Texas, etc.)

      • jackmarxist [any]
        hexagon
        ·
        4 hours ago

        Kerala is run by a Communist Party and they're the most literate state in India. Plus communal harmony is also the best in Kerala.

    • miz [any, any]
      ·
      4 hours ago

      while we're asking questions where can I find a historical materialist examination of the whole Operation Blue Star incident and the leadup to it.

      • Dolores [love/loves]
        ·
        4 hours ago

        herzegovina tyres built different. built to disintegrate

        actually tho belograd also being on there its probably something about the valleys and local weather in the balkans rn?

        • GrouchyGrouse [he/him]
          ·
          3 hours ago

          Yeah its in a big valley iirc, like a bowl. There's footage of the shelling of the city during the war where they had artillery more or less pointing directly at shit below them instead of lobbing shots into the air. Indirect fire becoming direct fire.

  • FuckyWucky [none/use name]
    ·
    5 hours ago

    hey, selling gasoline powered cars and scooters increases the GDP. who cares if you get lung cancer. shrug-outta-hecks

    • jackmarxist [any]
      hexagon
      ·
      3 hours ago

      Way too expensive for me honestly. Plus the air purifier lobby has pretty much blocked easy access to other filter types like MERV13 which are a far cheaper alternative to HEPA and can be used for cheap DIY setups.

  • btbt [he/him]
    ·
    edit-2
    4 hours ago

    Have you tried holding your breath until this blows over?

    • btbt [he/him]
      ·
      edit-2
      4 hours ago

      But jokes aside I hope you’re ok and that you’re able to make it through this. Also, this is the highest PM 2.5 score I’ve ever seen by miles, what’s going on in Delhi that’s making the air this bad?

      • jackmarxist [any]
        hexagon
        ·
        3 hours ago

        Zero regulations. No oversight on industrial pollution, construction related pollution and so on.

        And farmers in the Punjab area specifically burn their crop stubble around this time and all that raw pollution is carried to Delhi by the winds but leaves slowly due to the terrain.

    • jackmarxist [any]
      hexagon
      ·
      5 hours ago

      Have to blow away the smog with my hands first.