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Why the U.S. Embassy Releases Pollution Data in Beijing But Not in Delhi
NEW DELHI — The United States government measures air quality levels in both its Beijing and Delhi embassies, but it only publicizes the results from its Beijing monitor. Why?
In 2008, the decision by the American Embassy in Beijing to publicize the readings from its pollution measure changed the debate about air quality in China. Those readings made international news and eventually led to the establishment of dozens of other air monitoring stations around Beijing and the rest of China by the Chinese authorities.
Air quality is now a crucial issue among middle-class and wealthy Chinese, and high readings often make national news and lead the government to take drastic measures like shutting down major highways. To this day, the United States Embassy’s readings are often cited in stories about Beijing’s poor air.
But in Delhi, where the problem is worse and the awareness of it lower, the United States Embassy refuses to make public similar readings. On Sunday, the Times published a story showing that Delhi’s air is roughly twice as bad as Beijing’s when measures of one of the most toxic pollutants are compared.
The Times’s story led to an outpouring of similar stories in Indian media, including front-page articles in The Times of India and the Hindustan Times. But the shock of the Times’s revelation was palpable not only among Indians but among many of the Americans living in India.
A State Department spokeswoman in Washington explained that “much of the air quality data published in Beijing is not in English. Obviously, the U.S. Embassy Beijing makes that data more accessible. There is no such challenge in Delhi.”
The spokeswoman said that the government in Delhi “has provided detailed air quality data to the public for some time.”
But some of the data provided by the Delhi Pollution Control Committee are unreliable, with long gaps and sometimes sudden and inexplicable spikes in the data provided. Parthaa Bosu, India director for Clean Air Asia, said he has long suspected that Delhi’s reported numbers are seriously flawed, perhaps purposefully.
The embassy does provide its air quality measures to administrators at the American Embassy School, who use those measures to determine whether to allow children’s outside activities to be conducted. But parents who do not work at the embassy cannot see those measures for themselves.
The United States Embassy in Beijing provides hourly Twitter updates of its measurements, making them far more easily accessible than those of the Delhi Pollution Control Committee. More than 35,000 Twitter users have registered to receive such updates.
The State Department spokeswoman further explained that the Delhi monitor “is for the embassy compound only and does not monitor anywhere outside that area.” This is also true of the monitor in Beijing.
The United States has tended to be more sensitive to government concerns in India, which it has assiduously wooed for more than a decade, than it tends to be in China, which is increasingly seen as a rival emerging power in Asia. A diplomatic kerfuffle over the arrest of an Indian diplomat in New York City in December has also strained relations between the United States and India.
http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2 ... =blogs&_r=0
[ Last edited by Lopemann on 2014-2-20 at 15:02 ] |
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