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#China #problem #solved #airfixedinchine #5years
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00So in 2024, IQI released their annual list of the world's most polluted cities.
00:05You know what's crazy?
00:07Out of the 100 most polluted cities globally, 94 are in India.
00:1194.
00:13But let me zoom in on one city in particular.
00:15Delhi, our capital.
00:17Did you know that 15% of all deaths in the city are linked to air pollution?
00:22That's literally 1 in 7 deaths.
00:25Delhi's IQI hit an insane number last November.
00:28I'll tell you what it was in just a second.
00:30So if you didn't already know, an AQI of 0 to 50 is good.
00:3451 to 100 is also somewhat fine.
00:36Beyond that, till 200, people who are physically sensitive start to struggle.
00:40200 to 300, everyone struggles.
00:43300 to 400, serious health effects stack up through prolonged exposure.
00:48And 400 to 500, that is emergency conditions.
00:51The scale was designed to stop at 500 because scientists thought surely,
00:55surely no city would let it get worse than that, right?
00:59Except IQI reported Delhi's AQI to be 795.
01:04And at one point, it even peaked at 1,700 in some parts of Delhi.
01:10Weather apps literally show a scull emoji now.
01:13And no, I'm not joking.
01:15Right now, as you are watching this, there are kids in Delhi whose lungs literally look like they belong to
01:2140-year-old chain smokers.
01:23And they've never touched a cigarette.
01:25They're just breathing.
01:27Studies show that a child born in Delhi today will lose 8 to 10 years of their life just from
01:33breathing this air.
01:34If we can't fix pollution in our capital with all its resources, all its visibility, all its political power,
01:41do any of the other cities have any hope left?
01:44Is this an unsolvable crisis?
01:46No, not really.
01:48It's happened before to many, many cities.
01:51Just look at the case of Beijing 2013.
01:54Their pollution metrics went off the rails.
01:57Their AQI was over 750 or so.
02:00The international media literally called it airpocalypse.
02:03People wore gas masks to buy groceries, hospitals overflowed, visibility dropped to 20 meters.
02:09You couldn't even see across the street.
02:11And in 2024, Beijing recorded its cleanest year ever, with the number of heavy pollution days reduced to single digits.
02:20No, seriously, Beijing fixed it in less than a decade.
02:23Meanwhile, what's Delhi doing?
02:26They're sprinkling water onto the pollution monitors in hopes that it don't make the list of most polluted cities this
02:32year.
02:32See, I'm not saying the entire government is corrupt or incompetent.
02:37But something is deeply wrong when Beijing can reverse a crisis in 10 years while we're still here watering down
02:44the damn problem.
02:45Literally.
02:46If Beijing could do it, we can too.
02:49But this is a complex issue.
02:50So first, we need to understand the science and politics behind why Delhi's pollution is so catastrophic.
02:55And then, I'm going to show you exactly what China did so we can see their learnings and borrow from
03:01them and see how we can fix this crisis.
03:04So let's dive in.
03:06So, Delhi sits in what scientists call a geographical bowl.
03:10Now, a lot of you might already know this, but pay attention because we'll also show you how China faced
03:14the exact same issue and how they solved it.
03:17So, to the north of Delhi, you have the Himalayas, 8,000 meter peaks forming a massive wall.
03:22To the south and west, the Aravali Hills.
03:24Now, every pollutant released in this region gets trapped.
03:27Think of it like a prison and the prisoners are these microscopic particles called PM 2.5.
03:32These are basically particles smaller than 2.5 micrometers.
03:36To understand how small that is, human hair is about 70 micrometers wide.
03:39These particles are 30 times smaller.
03:43They're literally so small, they bypass your nose, throat and even your lungs' natural defenses.
03:48They enter your bloodstream directly.
03:50Now, there's also PM10.
03:52They're slightly larger particles but still tiny enough to get deep into your lungs.
03:56Then, you have nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide, ozone, carbon monoxide.
04:00It's essentially a toxic cocktail.
04:02So, all of these particles that we just spoke of get trapped in this wall and in winters, it gets
04:08even worse.
04:09So, in winter, something called temperature inversion happens.
04:12Now, normally, the sun heats the ground and the ground heats the air near it.
04:15Now, that hot air rises up and carries pollutants up and away.
04:18But in winter, what happens is, everything gets flipped.
04:21The ground cools rapidly at night.
04:23So, the air at ground level becomes colder than the air right above it.
04:26And beyond that warmer layer of air will be another cold layer of air.
04:30Basically, it's like a sandwich.
04:32Now, unfortunately for us, the warm air in between also acts like a lid.
04:36Nothing escapes through it.
04:38Now, what does that mean?
04:39This basically means the pollutants that are trapped below it don't get carried up and away.
04:44Now, Delhi's mixing height, that's basically how high pollutants can rise,
04:48drops from 1,000 meters in summer to just 100 meters in winter.
04:52Same pollution but 1 tenth the space.
04:55Because of which, the concentration of pollutants multiplies by 10x.
05:00Now, adding to this is the seasonal winds.
05:02So, between October and February, north-westernly winds sweep in from Punjab and Haryana.
05:07They pick up smoke from crop fires, dust from the Thar desert, industrial emissions from Panipat
05:13and Sonipat, and deliver everything straight into Delhi's bowl.
05:17More prisoners flooding into an already overcrowded jail.
05:21And once they arrive, they multiply because Delhi has around 1.2 crore registered vehicles.
05:27That's more than Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata combined, by the way, pumping out tons of PM 2.5 every single
05:34day.
05:35And these vehicles aren't just polluting through their exhaust.
05:37Every time when drives down the road, it kicks up dust.
05:40So, every vehicle resuspends around 10 to 15 grams of dust per kilometer.
05:44And to make things worse, you have construction.
05:47Studies indicate that over 6,850 metric tons of construction and demolition waste is generated every single day.
05:55Sites are supposed to be covered with green nets, sprayed with water, and materials need to be transported in covered
06:00vehicles.
06:01But the compliance rate for this, less than 30%.
06:04Most sites just don't bother.
06:07And finally, the one contributor that everybody loves to blame, stubble burning.
06:11Between mid-October and mid-November, farmers in Punjab and Haryana burn approximately 35 million tons of paddy straw.
06:19It's a direct unintended consequence of 1970s Green Revolution policies.
06:24Basically, state-level groundwater conservation laws ban farmers from planting their crops early,
06:29which meant that the window from their rice harvest to preparing for their next sow shrank fatally to just 10
06:35to 20 days.
06:36So, the only economic choice left for the farmers during this period is stubble burning.
06:40You know what's crazy?
06:42Recent NASA satellites from 2021 to 2024 has recorded yearly fire counts ranging from 40,000 to 90,000.
06:51On peak burning days, this alone contributes up to 40% of Delhi's PM2.5.
06:57The smoke drifts south, settles into the bowl, that is Delhi, and it's there to stay.
07:02All of this now adds up to an undeveloped city that was once a glorious cultural benchmark.
07:08Now, let's look at another city.
07:11Beijing also, like I mentioned earlier, sits in an almost identical geographical trap.
07:17Yan Mountains to the north, Taihang Mountains to the west, same bowl effect.
07:22Same temperature inversion in the winter, same mixing height drops from 1500 meters to under 200 meters in winter.
07:28A topographic study found that Beijing's terrain amplifies local emissions by 50 to 150% during winter.
07:36Their geography is actually worse than Delhi's.
07:39They also have seasonal agricultural burning.
07:41Farmers in Habe and Shandong provinces burn crop residue every autumn.
07:45On top of all of this, Beijing also gets sandstorms from the Gobi Desert that can reduce visibility to 50
07:52meters.
07:52So, if you look at all the issues that Delhi faced, Beijing also faced the exact same problem.
07:58Geographical goal? Check.
08:00Temperature inversion? Check.
08:01Agricultural burning? Check.
08:03Seasonal wind patterns? Check.
08:05Beijing literally had all of it.
08:07And in 2013, their PM2.5 peaked at 755 micrograms per cubic meter at a point.
08:14Their annual average was about 9 times the limit set by WHO.
08:18But today, their annual average has plummeted down to about 29.
08:22The sky is blue, people jog in parks without masks, cafes have outdoor seatings, children play outside,
08:29and the babies born in their hospitals take a deep breath and sigh in relief.
08:33So, what did Beijing actually do to solve the problem?
08:36They created a 5-year action plan with specific measurable targets.
08:41Then, they executed step 1 that shut down the biggest polluters.
08:45They closed 2,000 factories in Beijing permanently.
08:49Shoyang, one of China's largest steel companies, was relocated from Beijing to Habe province.
08:54The cost? $15 billion.
08:57The number of jobs that were lost? 80,000.
09:00They just did it because it was necessary.
09:03Step 2, they launched a massive subsidized program to replace millions of household coalstuffs with electric or gas heaters,
09:09with the government covering the vast majority of the cost.
09:12Step 3, build and improve public infrastructure.
09:15Beijing underwent one of the most rapid transit expansions in history,
09:19exploding its subway network from just two lines in 2000, which is 54 km of track, to nearly 1,000
09:26km of track today.
09:27China now also dominates the global electric bus market,
09:31deploying hundreds of thousands of them across its city, making clean public transport the easy choice.
09:36They basically made polluting more expensive and clean alternatives cheaper and easier.
09:41Oh, they also planted 54 million trees around the city and created many new jobs, trying to maintain these trees
09:48every 5 years.
09:49Step 4, was tackling agricultural burning strategically.
09:53They didn't just ban it, they made it economically stupid to burn.
09:56Farmers could sell crop residue to biomass power plants at guaranteed profitable rates,
10:01or they could use subsidized machines where the government covered 80% of costs to incorporate stubble into soil.
10:08Burning basically was no longer economically strategic, and within just 3 years, agricultural fires dropped by 70%.
10:16Step 5, was monitor and enforce all of these steps ruthlessly.
10:21Satellites were monitored for fires 24-7.
10:24You detect a fire, local officials had two vars to extinguish it or face penalties.
10:30It literally took them less than 10 years to do all of this.
10:33So, the question here is, why can't we do the same thing?
10:38I ended up this segment to share some important news with all of you.
10:40So, two and a half years ago, we started a video editing school around the thesis that video editing and
10:46content creation are going to become long-term viable careers.
10:49Because as products become easier to build, distribution will become the moat,
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10:58As of now, we have trained 3,500 students, and turned out somewhere our thesis was right.
11:04Don't take my word for it.
11:06Check this out.
11:06I'm quite sure you also talk to your friends and family.
11:09Sure.
11:09Definitely you talk about your career.
11:11Yeah.
11:11So, what is that conversation like now?
11:15It's very different now.
11:16What has changed?
11:17Since I'm a cinematographer, I've gotten the opportunity to meet various founders.
11:21The biggest example is Satya Nadella.
11:22Seriously, we worked with this branch.
11:24We worked with NVIDIA.
11:25We worked with Google.
11:26The part of the video creation was that this conversation started with a conversation in an office and now it
11:31has so-and-so million views of it and comments.
11:33So, I think that dopamine hit makes me want to come to office every day.
11:38Parents, if you talk to my friends, they have seen it.
11:39Everyone's cold content right now.
11:40They've seen the work.
11:41I am really happy.
11:42Every day I wake up and I'm like, I'm going to do something creative.
11:46Not just the folks you saw just now.
11:47There are more.
11:52So, yes, editing and making videos is a viable career option in 2025.
11:58You know, from creators to companies, you will see everyone is looking for an editor, a video producer, motion designer
12:04and a lot more new roles in Gen AI and content economy which are just emerging.
12:08I'm not exaggerating.
12:10We have more recruiters than students sitting for placements as of now and getting packages higher than engineering colleges.
12:17So, if you're a student, a job seeker, someone who is looking to get into this industry, we can help.
12:22We're doing a free masterclass where we break down everything about editing, video making and a lot more.
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12:36Put in the link in description.
12:37See you there.
12:38Let's start with the basics.
12:40In India, we can't even agree on where our pollution is coming from.
12:44The Ministry of Earth Sciences says vehicles contribute 41% of Delhi's PM 2.5.
12:49Safar says 39.2%.
12:51IIT Kampur says 25%.
12:53And they claim that road dust is the biggest culprit at 30%.
12:56Terry says no, road dust is at 35.6%.
12:59And another study claims it's at 65.9%.
13:02That's a 30 percentage point difference.
13:06These aren't just rounding errors.
13:07These are completely different conclusions.
13:10And it happens because every study uses different methods, sampling periods and even different emission factors in their models.
13:17And this confusion is fully weaponized as well.
13:20Every industry points to studies showing someone else is a problem.
13:23The automobile industry blames dust, construction blames vehicles, the government blames stubble burning, Punjab blames Delhi's local sources.
13:31Everyone has a study that proves that they are innocent.
13:34Meanwhile, the Supreme Court orders action.
13:36Crap stages 1, 2, 3, 4 get activated like levels in a video game.
13:40They ban construction, implement odd even, close schools, sprinkle water on roads.
13:44So when winter ends and the AQR drops to 200, we declare victory.
13:49Come next October, same script, the cycle repeats.
13:52Sure, yeah, there are attempts to come up with solutions.
13:55But those solutions seem to spring about their own subsets of problems.
13:59Just take a look again at stubble burning.
14:01The government's solution was something called happy cedars.
14:04Machine that can sew weight to stubble.
14:06Sounds great, no?
14:07Except the supply of these subsidized happy cedars reportedly falls catastrophically short.
14:13For each of them provided, a lot more remained without it.
14:16Making burning stubble their only option for the issue still persists.
14:21But why is that?
14:22Is it really that unaffordable an issue?
14:25Where is all taxpayers' money going then?
14:27Is there no authority investing any time into figuring out any solutions?
14:31Do they even think about how to protect the lungs of children who are unfortunate enough to be born into
14:35this city?
14:36Well, look at this.
14:38In 2019, India launched the National Clean Air Program.
14:4219,711 crores allocated.
14:45As of 2024, only 57% or so was utilized.
14:50That's around 8,000 crores just sitting in government accounts.
14:54And the money that was spent, nearly 64% went to dust control measures, sprinkling water on roads.
15:01A temporary fix that lasts 2-3 hours by the way.
15:03About 15% for biomass burning, 13% for vehicular pollution, and industrial pollution, 0.61%.
15:11These are national averages, but it paints a portrait that's not very efficient.
15:16Just look back at Beijing, okay?
15:18You know what they did first?
15:19They admitted that the problem was real.
15:22That is step zero.
15:23In January 2013, after PM 2.5 hit 7.55, Premier Li Kheocheng declared, and I'm quoting,
15:31We will resolutely declare war against pollution as we declared war against poverty.
15:38Not a campaign, not an initiative, war.
15:42They changed the entire incentive structure.
15:44Local officials' promotions became tied to air quality improvements.
15:48Miss your target?
15:49No promotion.
15:50Consistently fail?
15:52You're fired.
15:52The Central Environmental Protection Inspection held 18,199 officials accountable in its first round alone.
16:02Have we even taken step zero yet?
16:03Nope.
16:04Every year, we act surprised.
16:06Every year, we blame geography.
16:08Every year, we point fingers.
16:10We're stuck in a blame game while children's lungs collapse.
16:13And here's what really gets me, you know.
16:15I know the wealth cap issue is complex and it's widening,
16:18but in so many cities in India, the goddamn health cap is widening too.
16:23The rich have a way to shield themselves from pollution.
16:27Air purifiers in every room that cost 50,000 to 2 lakh each,
16:31cars with cabin filters, offices with central air purification,
16:35kids' schools with AQI monitoring and God knows what else.
16:39They've literally purchased clean air because they can.
16:42The air purifier market in Delhi has exploded, becoming a million dollar industry.
16:47We have literally commodified breathing.
16:50For the rickshawalas peddling through traffic,
16:52the construction worker building the metro,
16:55the security guards standing outside for 12 hours,
16:58the poor babies in their mother's arms,
17:00they are breathing everything.
17:02No filter, no escape, no choice.
17:05We are literally stealing over a decade of life from the regular people
17:08and we have normalized it.
17:10Look, I'm not an appointed committee trying to solve these problems.
17:14I'm a communicator of urgency at best.
17:17But am I missing something?
17:19Is this really an unsolvable crisis?
17:22Is there more to it that we don't understand?
17:25Is there more that you know?
17:26Please share your thoughts in the comments.
17:28Maybe there are angles, policies, on-ground realities that we haven't covered here.
17:33Maybe there's a lot I don't know.
17:34But here's what I do know.
17:37Beijing was able to solve it.
17:39And it wasn't because China is authoritarian.
17:42It's not because they can just order things and make it happen.
17:45In fact, in 2015, researchers ran an experiment in China.
17:49They publicly rated municipal governments on their environmental transparency.
17:53That forced transparency led to people within the city publicly shaming the municipalities.
17:59They then knew which high-polluting firms to direct their anger towards.
18:03And this outrage, by the way, it led to those companies cutting their violations by 37%.
18:09Ambient air pollution decreased by 8% to 10%.
18:13And this wasn't government-led.
18:15It was public accountability.
18:17A tool that any democracy could use if they only had the will.
18:22See, boycotting, shaming and embargoes have always been the most powerful weapons.
18:28And they're wielded by regular people, the masses.
18:30In Platschimada, Kerala, local villagers campaigned against Coca-Cola for depleting and polluting their groundwater.
18:38After years of protests and legal battles, the plant was shut down in 2004.
18:44They won.
18:45In New York, toxic emissions from residential heating oil were killing people.
18:49Public health advocates used data to shame polluting landlords and push for citywide reform.
18:54In 2010, the Clean Heating Law passed.
18:58Within a decade, emissions dropped by 65%.
19:02The Sataram River in Indonesia was once labeled the most polluted river in the world.
19:08Local communities united through grassroots organizing and public shaming of polluting factories.
19:14They pushed for stricter enforcement.
19:16Today, the river is recovering.
19:18Those Indonesian communities were fed up with the label of dirtiest river in the world.
19:22So they did what they had to change it.
19:25We have a label too, and it needs to change.
19:29A child born in Delhi today will lose 10 years of their life just from breathing.
19:34Beijing has proved that you can reverse this.
19:36In 5 years, they cut pollution by 35%.
19:40Just 5 years to add back years to people's lives.
19:44Solutions exist, the money exists, the technology exists.
19:48Beijing had the same geography, the same excuses, the same political complexity.
19:54They chose their children's lung over political convenience.
19:57What will we choose?