According to the 2016 annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, more than 5.5 million people worldwide die prematurely every year due to air pollution. India and China account for 55% of these deaths. This does not account for the millions of people who suffer from heart failure, strokes, asthma, lung damage, and myriad other diseases caused by the simple act of breathing.
As a Chinese-American who has lived and traveled extensively in China, and who currently resides in India, these findings are alarming, and sadly, not too surprising.  Just last summer, traveling from Shanghai to Beijing on the train (a 1,200 kilometer ride along the eastern seaboard), I did not see the sun peeking through the smog even once. There are children in coal mining towns in China who have never seen the sun against a blue sky. How does one begin to fathom the psychological effects on a person who has never seen the sun?
My friends living in Beijing complain that their lives and those of their children are dictated by the Air Quality Index monitor. After years spent under the dome, of China’s smog, I am woefully accustomed to air pollution.

Then I moved to Delhi.

I flew right into the thick of Delhi winter smog this past December. Looking out that first evening, admiring the setting of the blood-orange sun behind what seemed to be a hill in the distance, I was filled with excitement to explore this vast and ancient metropolis. I drove past the “hill” the next day, and it turned out to be the city’s landfill, and it was constantly burning. My heart sank.

New to the city, I soaked everything in. The magnificent monuments to the kings, the tantalizing temples to the gods, the vibrant markets with mesmerizing colors and perfumes, long stretches of lush parks, along with exhaust, smoke, fumes and dust. It is difficult to fully appreciate the beauty of the city when you are gasping for breath. A nice morning auto-rick ride along the Yamuna river towards the Red Fort is a peaceful start to the day, until it is rudely interrupted by choking and lightheadedness from sitting in traffic. 
PM2.5 is like that loud obnoxious guest that’s ruining the party for everyone. But we need not be held captive by this rude intruder - we can kick this unwanted guest out, if we all join in and help!

The World Health Organization has declared air pollution to be the world’s largest single environmental health risk, and called for a global plan to clean up the air. Countless initiatives are being carried out to combat air pollution. Lessons are learnt across the globe to collectively resolve this dangerous predicament. Transformations can happen. Cities like Los Angeles provide a remarkable glimpse into what a staunchly systematic and collaborative effort can do. The story of air pollution can have a happy ending.
There are small steps that we can all take together. I was elated to be introduced to Care for Air in Delhi. Care for Air is a team of volunteer professionals dedicated to raising public awareness of air pollution by advocating for cleaner and more breathable air in their communities, and ultimately, to affect change. We can kick this unwanted guest out if we all join in and help!

Ye Sheng
Ye is an international development professional. She has worked on public health issues relating to safe drinking water, malaria and HIV in China and Africa, and has spent the past 5 years working with journalists in China on improving the use of data in reporting, especially in the environment sector. Ye is an avid runner, and hopes to run a marathon one day in Delhi, when the air is cleaner.

Susan Perez
Susan Perez is a global health advocate and activist. While her expertise has primarily been in the areas of HIV, tuberculosis and reproductive health, she has become more interested and concerned about the impact of air pollution on health. Currently Susan runs her own global health consulting firm.
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With the onset of summer in Delhi and the hottest months of the year approaching, concerns about air pollution recede into the background. We have other things to worry about – the approaching scorching heat, water and electricity shortages many still face, flies and open piles of rubbish spreading germs; yet air pollution still shrouds us, our invisible, deadly companion.
The problem is no longer as visible, no longer the in-your-face, eye-stinging, throat-inflaming  smog we used to kindly - and incorrectly - refer to as the winter fog. Yet it is still present, just less visible.
As I sit and write this the sky looks a lovely shade of blue and PM 2.5 numbers are hovering just below 198 microns per cubic meter, or even up to 290 depending on which monitor one tracks! That is over 20 times more than the “acceptable” exposure of PM 2.5 of 10-15 microns per cubic meter or less deemed ok for humans by the World Health Organization (WHO). 
We have become so used to the horrifically polluted, smog-filled days, month after month from October to February, that when we see anything that seems remotely normal and “clear”, we fool ourselves into thinking the problem has also cleared. That somehow, the bad air, full of noxious gases and deadly PM 2.5 has miraculously blown away.
Well, perhaps some of it has, but definitely not all. It’s the same kind of wishful thinking that has us believing that exposure to pollution builds our immunity or that pranayama and yoga asanas will release the toxins from pollution in our bodies. All untrue and recklessly misleading. I am shocked when time and again I see leading health organizations, doctors and RWA’s make these claims. There is no science to support this. Exposure to air pollution kills in the long term, and creates health problems in the short term. 
Air pollution is undoubtedly the major health and environmental issue of our time. It is not only a Delhi issue, but a national emergency.  The World Health Organization’s 2014 study of 1,600 cities across 91 countries found 13 of the world’s 20 most polluted cities are in India; and six of the remaining seven are in our backyard (Pakistan and Bangladesh).  Honors no one would desire or hold with pride.
Here in Delhi, talk of air pollution finally gained some ground this past winter. The media covered the problem extensively. Politicians tossed around ideas, new committees were formed, even as we experimented with odd/even schemes for some vehicles.
It’s a start - but there is so much more to be done.  Recognition, awareness and education: three important areas, along with long term institutional action in our beautiful capital and beyond.
According to a recent study,PM 2.5 in Delhi is generated from a fragmented mix of contributing factors: Waste burning is 27.5% ; industries add another 13% and diesel gensets contribute 14.6%.  Transport certainly does play a large role contributing 22.7% of PM 2.5 generation. As a citizen, I wonder where and how we are addressing each of these areas in order to effectively lower air pollution in New Delhi? In the past year, we’ve only heard of limited vehicle restrictions with odd/even for mere weeks, but no longer term plan has emerged. 
Even more worrying is the lack of conversation around our other 12 most polluted cities? What of Patna, Gwalior, Raipur, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Firozabad, Kanpur, Amritsar, Ludhiana, Allahabad, Agra and Khanna? What of the millions of people who live in these cities? They remain as invisible as the air pollution will seem to so many Delhi residents this summer as they remark on the beautiful clear skies.
So as we enter the summer season, let us remember the problem of air pollution has not gone 
away. It hides in the shadows, less visible, but very much still there.

Spring has sprung. Lodhi Garden is grinning with flowers and bees. And along with the new leaves budding from trees and tender shoots sprouting from the earth, spreading a green veil over dusty Delhi, there are falling leaves. Everywhere. Simply everywhere. Each road, neighborhood, garden and alley has that conspicuous mound of fallen leaves, swept up by a conscientious muncipal worker (an oxymoron, but never mind!).
Delhi residents can take pride in the city being among the greenest metros in the country (there's so little we can take pride in, that this is precious indeed!), but the downside is these mounds leaves that no one knows what to do with. If I got paid for every time I've seen these leaves being set on fire by gardeners, muncipal workers, I would be rich. But instead, I'm poorer, at least in health, as the smoke from the burning cause the PM2.5 levels of particulate matter to rise sharply, adding to the already high levels that Delhi air comprises of, contributed by other sources like vehicular and thermal power emissions, brick kilns and regular trash, biomass and crop burning. What is extra frustrating is that unlike the other sources, over which we have even lesser control, burning of leaves, at least those in our own gardens or neighborhood is definitely something we can actively change. If we had the time and the inclination.
I have the latter, but like most of us, its the former, super-precious resource of time to research the solution to composting leaves that I've been struggling with. 
When I lived in California, composting and mulching were key to garden health and I even recall taking a weekend composting class at the local community gardens, an emerald oasis in the concrete suburbia of a small West Coast town, on one side of a road named – what else! - Embarcadero. Suburban farmers tried to grow organic lettuce and tomatoes and learnt the benefits of vermicomposting, breathing in clean air as they dug, watered, hoed, sprinkled and shovelled.
When I moved back to New Delhi, I looked for materials and advice on composting - and drew a complete blank. There were one-off classes on composting for terrace and kitchen garden farmers, some vague literature on urban farming, but nothing substantial. Until I found The Daily Dump, where leaf composting was one piece of the larger solution around recycling and waste management.
But it was another two years before I would find myself drawn again and again to their composting solutions as the simplest and best. And it would be another year before I would get to touch their eco-friendly, mostly terracotta products – at my daughter's new school! -  where it all came together.
So here's something I've been researching – because I feel that telling people not to burn leaves or biomass, without offering them an alternative isn't really very effective. Or very fair. You come off sounding like a prescriptive, faintly insolent, psuedo-knowledgeable, semi-paranoid I'm-better-than-you sort of clueless person. And so, I'd like to share with everyone reading this post why I've been recommending leaf composting through The Daily Dump, a Bangalore-based design-led company which aims to reduce waste, improve material recovery and enable better livelihoods through voluntary collective action of urban citizens in an organic and enabling manner. 
I like that the Dump helps imagine and re-engineer alternative scenarios that can wholistically and mindfully change behaviour for decentralised waste management in homes, communities, offices and public spaces. I like that their videos are simple and easy to follow. I like that it was started by a woman. I like that that Bangalore-based woman's elderly father was manning her stall at a Delhi school supporting his daughter and the environment at the same time. What was there not to like? Their range of segregation products, composters, books and services reflects their mission to enable all to harm less – and treats waste as a resource.
So if you're serious about your (and your children's) lungs and cognitive function and want to do your drop-in-the-ocean bit to bring down PM2.5 levels, at least in your own vicinity, here's what you need to do.
Go to the Daily Dump website, (http://www.dailydump.org) check out their leaf composting video, if you like its simplicity and feel you can do it, order one – or several (for your neighborhood) from one of the 70 partners they have all over India (there are multiple outlets in Delhi and Gurgaon) and begin. Now. Or this weekend. Or by the end of this month. But soon. Then tell others about it. Maybe convince your school to adopt it. Or your Residents Welfare Association.
And if you have any other options for leaf disposal that you're already using and that have worked well for you – please share! Write to us at careforair.org or just simply comment on this blog post.
We are crowdsourcing simple, workable solutions to begin our own journeys towards reducing PM levels in the cities we live and breathe in. Join us. 

​Jyoti Pande Lavakare
Jyoti Pande Lavakare is an independent columnist, financial journalist and writer who has lived and worked in Britain, the United States and India, writing for international and Indian publications. In a past life, she produced youth programs for radio and television and her children's fiction appeared in Hachette anthologies. She has a Masters in Economics and currently lives in New Delhi with her husband, teens and a wilting kitchen garden.

Take a deep breath.
Can you smell it? It’s the scent of death.
Until a few months ago
Even I didn’t know
That the sky was so grey,
That the 13000 litres of air I was breathing  every day
Was so poisonous, so polluted
And that this particulate matter was rooted
In my lungs, seeping into my blood stream
When I found out- I wanted to scream.
Because all those frequent headaches I got
Was because of the air which left me so distraught.
Lung cancer, stunted organ development, respiratory diseases
All because we drive our Mercedes’??
Yes, you heard that right.
Cars cause 60% of the pollution - just because our sight
Is not designed to see these invisible particles
Doesn’t mean we should ignore those articles
In the newspapers- which talk about how 
Every day in the city that seems so pretty- is somehow
Bringing us closer to bad days.
But this is OUR city. We’re not going to run.
Instead of feeling sorry and scared for our sons
and daughters and mother and fathers,
We can find a solution
​For this terrible terrible air pollution.
Trust me its possible - but only if we work together.
Seeing everyone gathered here, despite the cold weather
Is a step itself, to make a change.
It gives me hope, that someone, somewhere wanted to arrange
An event like this.
           
                                                                  ********

Good morning everyone, my name is Naina Durga. I am a 16 year old girl who has decided to take 
ownership of the air I breathe. I’ve already talked about how poisonous the air is and how I’ve been 
affected by it. It’s time now to talk about what we can actually do, so that my generation doesn’t suffer in the future.

There are 3 levels of these solutions;

1. At an individual level: the first thing we, as individuals can do is to inform ourselves. Delhi’s air 
has started to gain recognition by the media- READ those articles, read blogs, listen to the radio, 
watch the news. The more informed you are the more you can spread the word. Know what the 
safe level is and what the actual pollution level is so you can plan your day ahead. If its red air 
pollution day- try to stay indoors, go to the gym instead of the park. Did you know that between 
12-4 the air outside is the best? The second thing to do is protect ourselves. Wear pollution masks which have a rating of N-95 or N-99 (They can be anywhere from 85 rupees to 4000 rupees) 
Disposable surgeons masks DO NOT have any effect whatsoever in filtering pure air. Buying air purifiers, while they are expensive, will help in the long run. A less expensive way to reduce indoor air pollution is to use plants such as areca palm, spider plant, or snake plant.

2. At the communal level: attending protests and rallies – like this one - which push for sustainable 
development or greener public transport can be beneficial for the environment. Apart from that, joining environmental NGO’s, signing petitions banning crop burning or even bringing up the topic of air pollution in daily conversations can be of help. 

3. At the government level: push for policies which keep environmental sustainability in mind. India uses Euro III or Euro IV fuel, rather than the much greener Euro VI fuel (which is used in the U.S.)  because it’s a much cheaper option. The odd even rule - which may not have been completely  effective - was at least a sign that the government was finally giving air pollution some thought.

Some of you may be wondering what I’ve done to pursue clean air - recently, I thought of setting up a clean air club in my school to inform children my age that air pollution wasn’t just something we read about in our textbooks - it is actually a problem. I know I’m running short of time- so I’d like to end by saying that I am CONFIDENT that we can reduce the air pollution. It may be difficult, but its not impossible.
Thank you.

(Excerpt from Delhi teen Naina Lavakare's Slam Poetry performance and speech  at the Help Delhi Breathe citizen rally held on January 17, 2016.)

Naina Durga
Naina Durga is a New Delhi-based high schooler who has volunteered to support Care for Air's school programs. Her interest in clean air evangelism grew with each CFA presentation she attended, culminating in the initiation of a Clean Air Club in her own school. She is in the process of recruiting volunteers across senior grades for her Club so that together, they can create a cohort of student ambassadors who will educate younger children to form the next generation of pollution warriors.

I have lived in Delhi for just over two years, and it’s incredible how the conversation about air pollution has changed since I first arrived in January 2014.
I remember very distinctly stepping off the plane at IGI into what looked and felt like the lingering smoke of some kind of explosion or fire, or other natural or unnatural disaster.
I’d only ever been to Delhi in May (the previous year) when the air seemed perfectly fine, so this was pretty alarming. My husband, who’d arrived a few months earlier, told me not to worry - “it’s the Delhi fog. It’s normal for this time of year”. But it didn’t look normal, and it didn’t smell normal either. I tried to relax, determined not to be an annoying, paranoid ex-pat. 
But the ‘fog’ lingered well into February, as did my concern. I started asking questions about why the air was like this. The most frequent answer I got was ‘dust’ – dust from Rajasthan, dust from construction, dust from unpaved roads. And at the time, that was reasonably re-assuring - ‘dust’ didn’t sound so bad. It certainly didn’t sound toxic. I tried to ignore my own sore throat, and my kids’ night-time coughing. 
Two years have passed and now I know it’s not just dust, and it’s not just fog, and it is toxic. I feel like every conversation I have these days, is about PM2.5, vehicle emissions, the burning of biomass and fuel standards - I am not alone in my journey 
And what’s happened between now and 2014?  Is the air really so much worse now?  I decided to take a look at the historical data on the US Embassy website (http://newdelhi.usembassy.gov/airqualitydata.html), and count the number of days that the PM 2.5 ug/m3 level went over 300. I looked at the month of January 2014 and then at January 2016. I wanted to get a general sense of whether there had been any big changes. The comparison doesn’t take into account the time of day the levels were over 300, or how long the levels stayed over 300, or how much over 300 they went, or the weather, or any other environmental factors. So, yes, it’s a flawed comparison. But still, bear with me and take a look at the numbers: January 2016 had 25 days during which (at some point) the PM2.5 levels went over 300ug/m3, and January 2014 had 23 - only two days less. 
So, what happened? Why did no one mention this to me when I specifically asked  both expats and Indians in May 2013, what it was like to live in Delhi? (They told me about the traffic and the heat.) How did the conversation change so dramatically? 
Looking back, there was the whole Delhi vs Beijing debate that was covered in local and international press around May 2014. That was a game changer. It’s not that everyone suddenly agreed we had a health emergency on our hands, but for the first time we had data that enabled us to link our own experience with global baselines.
Over the course of the year that followed, air quality made its way into conversations across Delhi, onto social media platforms, and into the courts. And then came odd-even (which may not have been very effective in the actual lowering of pollution levels), but by January 2016 it was impossible not to talk about air.
So in 2016 we find ourselves sharply more aware of the public health crisis in our city, and the government has moved from denial to promising solutions. It is still not clear that anyone is ready to face up to hard choices that are really needed to clean Delhi’s air, choices that will require action far beyond the capital. What we do know is that living in a toxic cloud is no choice at all, and now that we have the numbers, there can be no return to the ignorance of years past or to an acceptance that every citizen’s right to a clean air can be so severely curtailed.

Aurelia Driver
Aurelia Driver is a South African writer and filmmaker living in Delhi. It was a search for ways to protect the health of her two young children that first sparked Aurelia’s interest in issues of air quality, and led her to a broader investigation of Delhi’s pollution crisis and its possible solutions. She is excited about being able to use her experience in the visual media in working towards broad-based community awareness.