The Indian capital\u2019s notorious air pollution hit \u201cemergency\u201d levels again Wednesday, coinciding with a visit by Britain\u2019s Prince Charles.<\/p>\n
New Delhi has been choked on and off for weeks, as industrial and traffic pollution \u2014 combined with smoke from crop stubble burning \u2014 cast a toxic pall over the metropolis.<\/p>\n
For the second time in 10 days, the amount of 2.5PM \u2014 the deadly tiny particles that get into the bloodstream and lungs \u2014 hit \u201cemergency\u201d levels, nearly 20 times the safe limit set by the World Health Organisation.<\/p>\n
With the government facing new criticism over steps taken to counter the pollution, Prince Charles visited the Indian Meteorology Department as part of his two-day visit to India.<\/p>\n
Charles, frequently outspoken on green issues, was briefed on the crisis by Sunita Narain, a leading environmental activist.<\/p>\n
She did not reveal details of her royal talks, but in a commentary last week said: \u201cEvery breath we take is poison.\u201d<\/p>\n
Narain has called for faster moves away from coal and other \u201cdirty fuels\u201d as energy sources and said authorities are doing \u201ctoo little too late\u201d.<\/p>\n
Car rationing could be extended <\/strong><\/p>\n India\u2019s Supreme Court joined criticism of the government on Wednesday saying authorities had made \u201clittle constructive efforts\u201d to curb pollution.<\/p>\n The court has ordered a new clampdown on stubble burning \u2014 in theory already banned \u2014 on farms in states surrounding the capital. It was acting because the problem \u201caffects the vast majority of Indians.\u201d<\/p>\n Research released this year said the toxic smog across northern India cuts short the lives of around one million people each year.<\/p>\n The Delhi state government has taken measures including banning construction and only allowing cars on the road depending on whether the registration is an odd or even number.<\/p>\n The road rationing is meant to end on Friday, but Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said it could be extended.<\/p>\n India has 14 of the world\u2019s 15 most polluted cities, according to the WHO.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Indian capital\u2019s notorious air pollution hit \u201cemergency\u201d levels again Wednesday, coinciding with a visit by Britain\u2019s Prince…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":603487,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7708],"tags":[7709,7730,7731,1760,7710,519],"class_list":{"0":"post-603486","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-royals","8":"tag-british-royal-family","9":"tag-charles","10":"tag-charles-iii","11":"tag-king-charles","12":"tag-royal-families","13":"tag-royal-family"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115639092916073115","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=603486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/603487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=603486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=603486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=603486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}