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Corporate pricing is boosting inflation — but we’re still buying

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On <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/tyson-foods-beats-revenue-estimates-higher-meat-prices-2022-02-07/">recent earnings calls</a>, massive corporations have <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/19/procter-gamble-plans-more-price-hikes-for-tide-and-other-products-.html">posted huge profits</a> and promised <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/kraft-heinz-beats-sales-estimates-higher-prices-robust-demand-2022-02-16/">continued price increases</a>, even as inflation continues to rise to rates not seen in decades.
For example, Starbucks celebrated a 31 percent increase in profits at the end of 2021 — but it still plans to hike prices this year, the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/01/business/starbucks-prices.html">New York Times</a> reported earlier this month. Tyson Foods, the meat processing behemoth, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/tyson-foods-beats-revenue-estimates-higher-meat-prices-2022-02-07/">raised its prices 19.6 percent overall</a>, driving record stock prices for the company.
Inflation, meanwhile, hit a <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/cpi.pdf">four-decade high</a> in January, with the consumer price index increasing 7.5 percent over the past year, before seasonal adjustment. Although prices dropped in the energy sector for goods like gasoline and fuel oil, every other sector — including medical care, apparel, transportation, food, and shelter — saw increases, resulting in the largest overall 12-month increase since 1982.
Some of that’s to be expected: With Covid-19 still <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/10/24/22743104/supply-chain-inflation-shortages-2022">throwing kinks into the global supply chain</a>, the challenge of getting goods and materials where they need to be translates into increased prices for both companies and consumers. Meanwhile, consumers have increased purchasing power due to wage increases and stimulus benefits like checks, child tax credits, and low interest rates — and at least in the US, they’ve proven willing to pay higher prices. At its core, those are the necessary ingredients for inflation — demand outstripping supply.
But some economists and politicians say that corporations are using inflation as an excuse to jack up prices beyond what’s necessary to account for their increased costs. More than just passing those costs onto consumers, they say, corporations are taking advantage of the unprecedented global economic circumstances to increase their profits, simply because they can.
Politicians like <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/03/business/economy/inflation-democrats-corporations.html">Sens. Elizabeth Warren</a> (D-MA) and <a href="https://twitter.com/SenSherrodBrown/status/1491809103340924928?s=20&t=i43TKaCd-dH54tjWwCzu2Q">Sherrod Brown</a> (D-OH) have recently drawn attention to what they say are outsized price increases made worse by <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/inflation-fears-biden-antitrust-efforts-could-doom-sanderson-wayne-chicken-deal-2022-01-31/">anticompetitive</a> corporate behavior.
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
"Here’s the truth about inflation—companies love it.
In reality, companies aren’t being forced to raise prices because of inflation. They’re raising prices because they can.”
You have to watch this video from <a href="https://twitter.com/DionRabouin?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@dionrabouin</a>. <a href="https://t.co/86n5AN9H3s">pic.twitter.com/86n5AN9H3s</a>
— Sherrod Brown (@SenSherrodBrown) <a href="https://twitter.com/SenSherrodBrown/status/1491809103340924928?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 10, 2022</a></blockquote>
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Economists like Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz see it too; in a recent column, Stiglitz pointed to the oil industry as a particularly acute example.
“What we are seeing today is a naked exercise of oil producers’ market power,” <a href="https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/inflation-causes-and-targeted-solutions-by-joseph-e-stiglitz-2022-02">Stiglitz wrote of rising energy prices earlier in February</a>. “Knowing that their days are numbered, oil companies are reaping whatever returns they still can.”
But there’s plenty of pushback, both political and economic, to this perspective. A survey of a number of leading economists by the <a href="https://www.igmchicago.org/surveys/inflation-market-power-and-price-controls/">Initiative on Global Markets</a> at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business showed that a majority of those surveyed — 67 percent — disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement, “A significant factor behind today’s higher US inflation is dominant corporations in uncompetitive markets taking advantage of their market power to raise prices in order to increase their profit margins.” Only 7 percent of those surveyed agreed or strongly agreed with the statement.
“I don’t see the logic: U.S. markets have been concentrating for decades but high inflation is [less than] one year old,” Massachusetts Institute of Technology economist David Autor wrote in response to the survey.
Biden administration economic advisers, too, are disputing that message; as the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2022/02/17/white-house-inflation-corporations/">Washington Post’s</a> Jeff Stein reported on Thursday, messaging about corporate concentration leading to higher prices is currently a live debate within the administration.
President Joe Biden himself, under immense pressure to address inflation, has pointed out market consolidation in a few industries, but hasn’t gone so far as to blame it for the longer-term inflation the US is experiencing. “This isn’t a new issue,” Biden said last month. “It’s not been the reason we’ve had high inflation today. It’s not the only reason. But, over time, it has reduced competition, squeezed out small businesses and farmers, ranchers, and increased the price for consumers.”
But critics of major corporate price increases aren’t arguing that the consolidation is the only force driving inflation; rather, that because these conglomerates hold so much of the market share, they are able to raise prices out of step with the actual price increases they’re incurring and passing on to consumers — essentially, that they’re using the current inflationary environment as an excuse to raise prices more than necessary because they don’t have competitors to drive them to keep prices down, in turn contributing to the problem of inflation.
What is clear is that, “we’re in a highly unusual context,” Gregory Daco, the chief economist at EY-Parthenon, a global strategy consulting firm, told Vox. According to Daco, companies are currently being rewarded for price hikes with higher valuations and stronger revenues, so there’s little incentive for them to stop doing so, even if the prices aren’t justified by increasing costs to corporations.
Some price raises are to be expected; there are increasing costs to supplies, transportation, and labor, but consumers don’t have a way of knowing how those increased costs factor into price rises — and that’s something we’ll likely never figure out, Daco said.
“I think it’s nearly impossible to disentangle what is considered a natural, if we can put that word here, a natural outcome from the Covid crisis, from the massive injection of fiscal stimulus that led to very strong demand, or very strong demand and recovery, and the fact that supply was slower to come back,” Daco told Vox, “versus an environment where market concentration is exacerbating these price pressures, because a few dominating firms have the ability to do so.”
The inability to dismantle those two phenomena, though, is integral to the ability of certain businesses to <a href="https://groundworkcollaborative.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Corporate-Profiteering-Findings-22.02.04.pdf">continue increasing prices</a>, according to Lindsay Owens, the executive director of progressive economic policy organization the <a href="https://groundworkcollaborative.org/about-groundwork/">Groundwork Collaborative</a> and a former senior economic policy adviser to Warren.
“The preconditions for the price hikes we’re seeing today long predate the pandemic,” Owens told Vox via email. “Companies are able to take advantage of a crisis like the pandemic precisely because these foundations were set in place long before the crisis itself. And in corporate earnings call after corporate earnings call, executives are using inflation as a cover for egregious price hikes to boost their own profits.”
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
As you read today's inflation report, pay close attention to what the CEOs who set prices are saying. We got our hands on the latest batch of earnings reports, and it's a doozy. They're literally bragging about hiking prices while hiding behind "inflation." The receipts...(1/7)
— Lindsay Owens, PhD (@owenslindsay1) <a href="https://twitter.com/owenslindsay1/status/1491776417700491266?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 10, 2022</a></blockquote>
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Daco echoed that sentiment, saying, “We are, I think, in a situation where market concentration is exacerbating inflationary dynamics.”
Warren has highlighted the meat industry as an egregious culprit, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/us-senator-warren-calls-probe-soaring-poultry-prices-2021-11-22/">calling for a Justice Department investigation</a> into the industry’s practices. “Tyson is abusing their corporate market power and raking in record profits by jacking up meat prices,” <a href="https://twitter.com/SenWarren/status/1490824256782946306?s=20&t=L5EJwxUPgujDGmgSQnB82w">she tweeted</a> earlier this month. “I’ve long argued that we need to enforce our antitrust laws to break up monopolies and promote competition, and now it’s more vital than ever as a tool to fight inflation.”
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Tyson is abusing their corporate market power and raking in record profits by jacking up meat prices.
I’ve long argued that we need to enforce our antitrust laws to break up monopolies and promote competition, and now it’s more vital than ever as a tool to fight inflation. <a href="https://t.co/KIbMUbM6B4">https://t.co/KIbMUbM6B4</a>
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) <a href="https://twitter.com/SenWarren/status/1490824256782946306?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 7, 2022</a></blockquote>
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The Biden administration has also planned to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/lack-competition-us-meat-industry-amounts-exploitation-says-biden-2022-01-03/">inject $1 billion</a> into smaller, independent meat processors to drive “meaningful competition” in the meat market, after a White House Economic Council analysis found gross profits of the top four meat processors <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/blog/2021/12/10/recent-data-show-dominant-meat-processing-companies-are-taking-advantage-of-market-power-to-raise-prices-and-grow-profit-margins/">soared 120 percent</a> over the course of the pandemic.
“Capitalism without competition isn’t capitalism. It’s exploitation,” Biden said during the January unveiling of the plan. “That’s what we’re seeing in meat and poultry industries now.”
In the short term, corporate price hikes aren’t going anywhere so long as people are still willing to pay higher prices, Daco told Vox. “It’ll last and be sustainable as long as there is no pushback from consumers,” he said. “Essentially, if the price increases that are being passed on to consumers don’t weigh on demand, then businesses will continue to push up on prices.”
For the time being, that likely means the Federal Reserve will have to act to address inflation. Over the past year, the Fed has repeatedly signaled that the stimulus measures it put into place to aid in the recovery from the pandemic — buying up government bonds and keeping interest rates low — would have to be reversed to counter inflation and get it back to the central bank’s target rate, 2 percent.
Now, starting in March, the Fed is widely expected <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/fed-raise-rates-three-times-this-year-tame-unruly-inflation-2022-01-20/">to start raising interest rates</a>, with two more potential hikes coming later in the year, and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/fed-officials-lean-against-large-increase-kick-off-rate-hikes-2022-02-18/">even more by March of next year</a>. That move tamps down on inflation by making credit — everything from mortgage payments to gigantic corporate loans — more expensive, thus decreasing purchasing power and demand. Slackening demand caused by a tightened monetary supply would send a fairly immediate signal to corporations that it’s time to arrest ongoing price hikes.
Other central banks, such as the UK’s Bank of England, have <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/03/business/economy/bank-of-england-rates.html">already begun to raise interest rates</a>; Daco says the Fed is lagging because it was caught a bit off guard by just how much the Covid-19 pandemic affected the economy.
“I think the Fed was working under the impression that the pre-Covid world would return very rapidly — that we would very rapidly return to a world where the inflation dynamics would be fairly soft, therefore inflation would come back down toward 2 percent, where you would have ongoing labor market gains, where those would not stoke major inflationary pressures,” he told Vox. It’s clear now, he said, that the Fed needs to act — but very carefully.
“An excessively rapid or disorderly tightening of monetary policy could have more negative effects than desired,” Daco said. “In the end, what the Fed wants to do is essentially proceed to the so-called ‘soft landing’ of monetary policy, where it brings inflation back in line with its mandate; it needs to allow the labor market to grow, and the economy to move toward maximum employment — and [do] so without creating recession.”
Some <a href="https://apnews.com/article/business-new-york-economy-inflation-john-williams-ac4435cccc8f26565fbd9c4be6c80646">Fed officials</a> have echoed this sentiment recently, saying that a major initial rate increase isn’t warranted. And however interest rate increases proceed, Fed officials will have to weigh making a move that tightens the money supply across the board and decreases demand, without tightening so far and so fast that, for example, businesses decide they can’t afford to hire or keep workers on, leading to a recession.
That doesn’t completely negate concern about what Stiglitz calls the “supply-side” problems contributing to inflation — both in terms of fixing the supply chain and in terms of addressing corporate consolidation.
For example, Robert Reich, a former US Labor secretary, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/feb/19/white-house-biden-inflation-corporate-power">warned in a Guardian opinion</a> piece on Sunday that, absent addressing anticompetitive behavior and other supply-side issues, “responsibility for controlling inflation falls entirely to the Federal Reserve, which has only one weapon at its disposal — higher interest rates,” Reich wrote. “Higher interest rates will slow the economy and likely cause millions of lower-wage workers to lose their jobs and forfeit long-overdue wage increases.”
Such fixes, however, would likely be a long-term project, while the Fed has the power to act now. And absent some action, corporations will likely continue to hike prices, because they have the ability and the desire to do so. As New York University economist Thomas Philippon <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/03/business/economy/inflation-democrats-corporations.html?partner=slack&smid=sl-share">told the New York Times last month</a>, that’s because the current, unprecedented moment is just a manifestation of an underlying reality: “The firms were always greedy,” he said.
 
 
source <a href="https://www.vox.com/2022/2/20/22943257/inflation-corporations-price-hikes-consumer-price-index">https://www.vox.com/2022/2/20/22943257/inflation-corporations-price-hikes-consumer-price-index</a>

vox Corporate pricing is boosting inflation — but we’re still buying

On recent earnings calls , massive corporations have posted huge profits and promised continued price increases , even as inflation contin...

DC Authorities Mulling Reinstallation of Fences as US Capital Braces for ‘Freedom Convoy’ Protests

After three weeks of demonstrations against sweeping COVID-19 vaccine mandates, authorities are pushing back against a trucker-led movement by towing lorries and arresting some 100 protesters. Meanwhile, American truckers with parallel beliefs reportedly intend to recreate the convoy demonstration with 1,000 trucks in Washington, DC on February 23.
Familiar fencing may once again be erected in Washington, DC, as authorities prep for ‘The People’s Convoy,’ a collection of US-based truckers demanding rollbacks on COVID-19 vaccine mandates and related masking requirements.
The United States Capitol Police (USCP) acknowledged the planned protest in a Friday statement, noting that the demonstration—slated to begin on February 23—will likely coincide with US President Joe Biden‘s first State of the Union (SOTU) address on March 1.
“Law enforcement agencies across the National Capital Region are aware of plans for a series of truck convoys arriving in Washington, DC around the time of the State of the Union,” read the USCP memo.
The USCP pledged to “facilitate lawful First Amendment activity,” with assistance from local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies, including DC’s Metropolitan Police Department, the US Park Police, US Secret Service, the DC National Guard, and additional allied agencies.
Capitol Police and the Secret Service are collaborating to draft a contingency plan and preemptive measures that can be taken to ensure the demonstration does not mirror the situation in Canada.
“The United States Capitol Police and the United States Secret Service have been closely working together to plan for the upcoming State of the Union,” the USCP said in a same-day, follow-up statement. “The temporary inner-perimeter fence is part of those ongoing discussions and remains an option, however at this time no decision has been made.”
Authorities throughout the US have recently been put on high alert concerning the possibility of some truckers launching an anti-vaccine mandate demonstration.
<div class="61rq9PlF"><a href="https://www.infowarsstore.com/winter-sun-vitamin-d?ims=pabks&utm_campaign=wintersunhero&utm_source=Infowars+Hero&utm_medium=banner&utm_content=wintersunhero" target="_blank"><img src="https://api.directus.libertycdn.com/uploads/_/originals/WINTERSUN-hero-385.jpg" /></a></div>
While DC is the present venue, some far-right protesters attempted to organize a convoy to descend on Super Bowl LVI in Inglewood, California, but were unable to draw the necessary crowd on short notice.
“The Canadian convoy was pretty organic when it happened,” Maureen Steele, a national organizer of the US-based effort, told Newsweek. “Ours, they had a month’s notice, so our concern is disruptive groups coming in. We’re trying to just prepare for counter-protests and to take safety precautions for that.”
She detailed that the group is expected to include some 1,000 trucks, and will amass more demonstrators as the convoy advances via Interstate 40, from Barstow, California, to DC.
“Safety precautions” are being taken in preparation for expected counter-protesters, Steele said.
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<a href="https://battleplan.news/watch?id=621050dd1d2f0412637e40ff" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Shocking Scenes As Trudeau’s Martial Law Implemented In Canada</a>
 
 
source <a href="https://www.infowars.com/posts/dc-authorities-mulling-reinstallation-of-fences-as-us-capital-braces-for-freedom-convoy-protests">https://www.infowars.com/posts/dc-authorities-mulling-reinstallation-of-fences-as-us-capital-braces-for-freedom-convoy-protests</a>

news DC Authorities Mulling Reinstallation of Fences as US Capital Braces for ‘Freedom Convoy’ Protests

After three weeks of demonstrations against sweeping COVID-19 vaccine mandates, authorities are pushing back against a trucker-led movement ...

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news New Zealand Great Reset Tyranny

The new tyranny is finally rearing its ugly head as the graduates of the World Economic Forum’s Young Leaders are forcing tyranny onto th...

How to clear the air in the most polluted cities on Earth

The atmosphere <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/beijing-winter-olympics-china-changed-2008-2022-rcna12047">has changed</a> in Beijing since the Chinese capital’s last Olympics in 2008. While the Summer Games 14 years ago were meant to be a forward-looking celebration of China taking its place on the world stage, the 2022 Winter Olympics have a markedly dourer tone, hamstrung by Covid-19 and <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2022/2/4/22917558/beijing-winter-olympics-2022-opening-ceremony-politics">political controversy</a>.
But one aspect of Beijing’s atmosphere has clearly improved: the <a href="https://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/2022/0208/Blue-skies-in-Beijing-China-s-air-quality-shows-improvement">air itself</a>. While the 2008 Games were marked by <a href="https://today.oregonstate.edu/archives/2009/jun/athletes-spectators-faced-unprecedented-air-pollution-2008-olympic-games">some of the worst air quality</a> in Olympic history, China’s “<a href="https://aqli.epic.uchicago.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/China-Report_FEB2022-2.pdf">war against pollution</a>” has advanced so much since that Olympians this month could glimpse the previously smog-enshrouded mountains surrounding the city. Air pollution in the capital has <a href="https://aqli.epic.uchicago.edu/news/pollution-in-beijing-is-down-by-half-since-the-last-olympics-adding-four-years-onto-lives/?mc_cid=00e47d13a1&mc_eid=000d4eaa54">decreased by 50 percent</a> since the 2008 Olympics, which if maintained will lead to four years of additional life for the average Beijing resident.
<figure class="e-image"><picture class="c-picture" data-cid="site/picture_element-1645365618_6996_1565909" data-cdata='{"asset_id":23250166,"ratio":"*"}'><source srcset="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/emvJMK4r1i7x5QEFXx-iRYg_qlI=/0x0:4969x2859/320x0/filters:focal(0x0:4969x2859):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23250166/GettyImages_1370708542.jpg 320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/BeAAI-IVPbr2Xw3pfP64los01bY=/0x0:4969x2859/520x0/filters:focal(0x0:4969x2859):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23250166/GettyImages_1370708542.jpg 520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/vQzrstr4fmRNCBGtrpgXf3GA_8Q=/0x0:4969x2859/720x0/filters:focal(0x0:4969x2859):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23250166/GettyImages_1370708542.jpg 720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/8GLm7a1vcbVtjnyI5yRCTmQaf0o=/0x0:4969x2859/920x0/filters:focal(0x0:4969x2859):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23250166/GettyImages_1370708542.jpg 920w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/eUHHJUErIYMoaGrf2TQFcAKecZY=/0x0:4969x2859/1120x0/filters:focal(0x0:4969x2859):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23250166/GettyImages_1370708542.jpg 1120w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/i_FoFS_9a_5pQuXVX0hNhjn10JQ=/0x0:4969x2859/1320x0/filters:focal(0x0:4969x2859):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23250166/GettyImages_1370708542.jpg 1320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/25bLUYGhNeumacmXbbflU_iqagg=/0x0:4969x2859/1520x0/filters:focal(0x0:4969x2859):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23250166/GettyImages_1370708542.jpg 1520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/NDzSHr1Nlns0vjKFDzjzkqZRQ20=/0x0:4969x2859/1720x0/filters:focal(0x0:4969x2859):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23250166/GettyImages_1370708542.jpg 1720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/o7U8pShpxJTNUUKtxq8UO3b9e84=/0x0:4969x2859/1920x0/filters:focal(0x0:4969x2859):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23250166/GettyImages_1370708542.jpg 1920w" sizes="(min-width: 1221px) 846px, (min-width: 880px) calc(100vw - 334px), 100vw" type="image/webp" /> <img alt="A snowboard slope is next to the towers of a former steel mill." data-upload-width="4969" sizes="(min-width: 1221px) 846px, (min-width: 880px) calc(100vw - 334px), 100vw" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/cEXkFJarbxBLwa8nxvADK04PJnA=/0x0:4969x2859/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:4969x2859):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23250166/GettyImages_1370708542.jpg" srcset="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/kRlLWlEdqPXjoXqBKPFl40G-7mg=/0x0:4969x2859/320x0/filters:focal(0x0:4969x2859):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23250166/GettyImages_1370708542.jpg 320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/t2YQIhsiobRsiJTWZB7IGZBJYao=/0x0:4969x2859/520x0/filters:focal(0x0:4969x2859):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23250166/GettyImages_1370708542.jpg 520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/sRaPscAFDR7x6n5ZfDlBsAMy1Nw=/0x0:4969x2859/720x0/filters:focal(0x0:4969x2859):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23250166/GettyImages_1370708542.jpg 720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/kXBpW_hnvZF7i76BnpJRtEnj2mo=/0x0:4969x2859/920x0/filters:focal(0x0:4969x2859):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23250166/GettyImages_1370708542.jpg 920w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Z4C7jbvRZq7jvl2eWrRwSusdfQU=/0x0:4969x2859/1120x0/filters:focal(0x0:4969x2859):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23250166/GettyImages_1370708542.jpg 1120w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/m8SU6K4-DkwYS1d35dAjqEDVIO8=/0x0:4969x2859/1320x0/filters:focal(0x0:4969x2859):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23250166/GettyImages_1370708542.jpg 1320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Hzg6N7QWDUWgjMrKX1BqyuncGgk=/0x0:4969x2859/1520x0/filters:focal(0x0:4969x2859):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23250166/GettyImages_1370708542.jpg 1520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/zabQRt9t7ZjE7WKp0Yscx7CIENM=/0x0:4969x2859/1720x0/filters:focal(0x0:4969x2859):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23250166/GettyImages_1370708542.jpg 1720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/UMy8pnTK3m4LjEdu9BvomlGm6Vc=/0x0:4969x2859/1920x0/filters:focal(0x0:4969x2859):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23250166/GettyImages_1370708542.jpg 1920w" /></picture>
<figcaption>A 2022 Olympics snowboard slope sits next to a former steel mill.</figcaption>
<cite>Jean Catuffe/Getty Images</cite></figure>
But the progress seen in a city that was once synonymous with the term “<a href="https://www.npr.org/2013/01/14/169305324/beijings-air-quality-reaches-hazardous-levels">airpocalypse</a>” is still far too rare. Thousands of miles away in Delhi, air pollution has remained at pervasively high levels for the past few months. The Indian capital’s winter air pollution spike is coming to an end, but the annual cycle — <a href="https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2019/11/8/20948348/delhi-india-air-pollution-quality-cause">driven by cooler air, cooking and heating fires, seasonal agricultural burning, and the Diwali festival</a> — will persist without further action.
Winter in Delhi is accompanied by a pervasive smell of toxic smoke, by coughing and nausea indoors and outdoors, and by <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/16/soaring-pollution-has-delhi-considering-full-weekend-lockdown">increased hospitalizations</a> for respiratory and cardiac-related illnesses. This past November, Delhi even <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/16/soaring-pollution-has-delhi-considering-full-weekend-lockdown">instituted</a> a partial lockdown for non-Covid reasons, shutting down schools and <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/arvind-kejriwal-after-meet-on-delhi-air-crisis-schools-to-be-shut-for-a-week-government-offices-to-work-from-home-2609655">construction</a> for several days and imposing a work-from-home order for <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/delhi-news/delhi-air-pollution-delhi-government-employees-to-work-from-home-till-nov-21-2614302">government employees</a> in an effort to reduce air pollution. Throughout the winter into January, Delhi’s Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal <a href="https://twitter.com/ArvindKejriwal/status/1477968434981863426">tweeted</a> the city’s bad air pollution levels every day, raising awareness about the issue.
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Air pollution in Delhi comes from nearly every source possible: power plants, vehicle emissions, construction dust, agriculture, and the burning of coal for home cooking and heating. All of these activities create particulate matter — minuscule air pollution particles that contribute to <a href="https://www.who.int/health-topics/air-pollution#tab=tab_1">cancer, lung and cardiovascular disease</a>, and even <a href="https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v43/n23/david-wallace-wells/ten-million-a-year">cognitive decline</a>.
PM2.5 — the smallest version of these particles, measuring 2.5 microns or less in diameter — can cause the most damage. While no level of air pollution is considered harmless, the Air Quality Index (AQI), which translates PM2.5 concentration into a 0-300+ <a href="https://aqicn.org/scale/">EPA scale</a>, <a href="https://aqicn.org/faq/2013-09-09/revised-pm25-aqi-breakpoints/">classifies</a> 0-50 as healthy. For the month of November, when the partial lockdown took place, the <a href="https://aqicn.org/city/delhi">air quality in Delhi</a> ranged from “unhealthy” (starting at 151) to “hazardous” (300+). In 2020, Delhi had more than <a href="https://www.iqair.com/us/world-most-polluted-cities">twice</a> the average annual PM2.5 concentration of Beijing and over 5 times the average PM2.5 concentration of Los Angeles.
But it’s not just winter in India. Air pollution is a pervasive global problem, cutting short billions of lives <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/5/8/17316978/india-pollution-levels-air-delhi-health">across India</a> and other developing nations.
<a href="https://ourworldindata.org/air-pollution">Millions of deaths</a> per year are attributed to air pollution, and it reduces average global life expectancy by <a href="https://www.axios.com/air-pollution-global-life-expectancy-report-fb6a821c-95aa-4671-8005-caac8be0e69b.html">2.2 years</a>. Air pollution is one of the most pressing public health problems in the world, and one of the most neglected, as Vox’s Dylan Matthews <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/22691558/air-pollution-deaths-mortality-pm-25-soot-particulate">has written</a>. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, poverty, <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/malaria">malaria</a>, <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/health-meta">pneumonia, and diarrheal disease</a> deaths were on the decline, along with <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/maternal-mortality">maternal</a> and <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/child-mortality">child</a> mortality rates; air pollution, on the other hand, was getting worse in many places.
According to the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC), global air pollution <a href="https://aqli.epic.uchicago.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/AQLI_2021-Report.EnglishGlobal.pdf">has decreased since 2011</a>, but that drop is mostly concentrated in China. Most countries across South Asia, Southeast Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa have experienced steady or increased air pollution in recent decades. The situation is especially bad throughout much of India: As of 2020, nine of the world’s <a href="https://www.iqair.com/world-most-polluted-cities">10 most polluted cities</a> were in India, and people throughout the Indo-Gangetic plain could expect to live <a href="https://aqli.epic.uchicago.edu/the-index/">as much as nine years longer</a> if pollution was reduced to the WHO guideline numbers.
<figure class="e-image"><picture class="c-picture" data-cid="site/picture_element-1645365618_3048_1565910" data-cdata='{"asset_id":23250189,"ratio":"*"}'><source srcset="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/n-imIb-ERVAOZbMKgpiW5OyKdMQ=/0x0:6166x4111/320x0/filters:focal(0x0:6166x4111):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23250189/GettyImages_1205494974.jpg 320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/fB4bYDWjIpUhV1T1ItI2LUP2DmM=/0x0:6166x4111/520x0/filters:focal(0x0:6166x4111):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23250189/GettyImages_1205494974.jpg 520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/k7OwxfU6fefLLpDhqdYR4t5MpkY=/0x0:6166x4111/720x0/filters:focal(0x0:6166x4111):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23250189/GettyImages_1205494974.jpg 720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/waMJsV2fbBM5LMAE2FZ0ok09szA=/0x0:6166x4111/920x0/filters:focal(0x0:6166x4111):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23250189/GettyImages_1205494974.jpg 920w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/w4SYr0hgnMW2Dda9JLQVmLTJxWk=/0x0:6166x4111/1120x0/filters:focal(0x0:6166x4111):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23250189/GettyImages_1205494974.jpg 1120w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/jAHcAPyz7NtUmaoCBFHHWlEZmyo=/0x0:6166x4111/1320x0/filters:focal(0x0:6166x4111):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23250189/GettyImages_1205494974.jpg 1320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/7NhWzQhIQhsz30cFvpGgxaRgQ1U=/0x0:6166x4111/1520x0/filters:focal(0x0:6166x4111):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23250189/GettyImages_1205494974.jpg 1520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/HAdx6ZqNCmybc5i8jl7ScVr5Qs8=/0x0:6166x4111/1720x0/filters:focal(0x0:6166x4111):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23250189/GettyImages_1205494974.jpg 1720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/3a7gK24faBNewELpOfvu58YMv-M=/0x0:6166x4111/1920x0/filters:focal(0x0:6166x4111):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23250189/GettyImages_1205494974.jpg 1920w" sizes="(min-width: 1221px) 846px, (min-width: 880px) calc(100vw - 334px), 100vw" type="image/webp" /> <img alt="View from inside a vehicle siting in traffic in New Delhi." data-upload-width="6166" sizes="(min-width: 1221px) 846px, (min-width: 880px) calc(100vw - 334px), 100vw" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Y2xcy0uSDQPZRYwqgVefd0zOd6k=/0x0:6166x4111/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:6166x4111):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23250189/GettyImages_1205494974.jpg" srcset="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/TeAU65z7VcaaCgm7gbbhMhw4O_8=/0x0:6166x4111/320x0/filters:focal(0x0:6166x4111):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23250189/GettyImages_1205494974.jpg 320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/D0swRerZatoYb_Ghel4m5JRd3uo=/0x0:6166x4111/520x0/filters:focal(0x0:6166x4111):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23250189/GettyImages_1205494974.jpg 520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/d_o5QZ2CEepTannxL2L_edixjVs=/0x0:6166x4111/720x0/filters:focal(0x0:6166x4111):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23250189/GettyImages_1205494974.jpg 720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/DJKbuYIcuNmQcHy6fRpXtLSnq6s=/0x0:6166x4111/920x0/filters:focal(0x0:6166x4111):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23250189/GettyImages_1205494974.jpg 920w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/YNbZEib3PnyvO9j8cBAEJUWO7zo=/0x0:6166x4111/1120x0/filters:focal(0x0:6166x4111):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23250189/GettyImages_1205494974.jpg 1120w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/i_BwHI31inngyIetYoyVq7XLbWU=/0x0:6166x4111/1320x0/filters:focal(0x0:6166x4111):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23250189/GettyImages_1205494974.jpg 1320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/wXF7vm_PQyzpphwX0eY9Cm_nKWc=/0x0:6166x4111/1520x0/filters:focal(0x0:6166x4111):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23250189/GettyImages_1205494974.jpg 1520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/MncLpfOBmK-psx0FoTjqg-TyyTw=/0x0:6166x4111/1720x0/filters:focal(0x0:6166x4111):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23250189/GettyImages_1205494974.jpg 1720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/jT6HhOST18SslTT637pRFOWDC7A=/0x0:6166x4111/1920x0/filters:focal(0x0:6166x4111):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23250189/GettyImages_1205494974.jpg 1920w" /></picture>
<figcaption>Traffic in New Delhi, India.</figcaption>
<cite>Getty Images/iStockphoto</cite></figure>
To some degree, the increase in air pollution is a byproduct of economic development: more <a href="https://www.ibef.org/industry/india-automobiles.aspx#:~:text=Overall%2C%20domestic%20automobiles%20sales%20increased,vehicles%20being%20sold%20in%20FY20.&text=Indian%20automobile%20exports%20stood%20at,April%202020%20to%20June%202020.">cars</a>, more <a href="https://www.iea.org/reports/india-energy-outlook-2021">energy</a>, more <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.KD.ZG?locations=IN">growth</a>. But severe air pollution isn’t an immutable law of nature. From 2013 to 2019, China reduced its particulate pollution by 29 percent by using a suite of policies, <a href="https://aqli.epic.uchicago.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/AQLI_2021_Report_-English.IndiaVersion.pdf">including</a> implementing new and better-enforced emissions standards for coal plants, limiting the building of new coal plants, restricting vehicles on roads in large cities, and increasing renewable energy. “If these reductions are sustained,” states <a href="https://aqli.epic.uchicago.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/AQLI_2021_Report_-English.IndiaVersion.pdf">an EPIC report from 2021</a>, “China’s people can expect to live 1.5 years longer.”
Policies enacted in China, the US, Europe, Japan, and elsewhere have effectively reduced air pollution, demonstrating that progress can be made in the regions hardest hit — that is, if governments can effectively enact and enforce policies that may have trade-offs for different groups of people.
Air pollution reduction is expensive; by some estimates, China’s war on pollution cost <a href="https://aqli.epic.uchicago.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/AQLI_2021-Report.EnglishGlobal.pdf">almost $400 billion</a>. But countries looking to make progress against air pollution must balance these upfront costs with the long-term human and economic toll of air pollution. In 2019, India lost an estimated $<a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5196(20)30298-9/fulltext">36.8 billion</a> due to premature deaths and morbidity as a result of air pollution; globally, air pollution costs an estimated <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/pollution#1">$8.1 trillion a year, or 6.1 percent of global GDP</a>. The right medium- and long-term policies on air quality can balance economic growth, health, and cost — and save lives.
For decades, public health officials have known that bad air quality can increase the risk of conditions like <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/air-pollution">heart disease</a>, stroke, lower respiratory infections, lung cancer, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), <a href="https://lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v43/n23/david-wallace-wells/ten-million-a-year">dementia</a>, mental illness, premature births, and more. But the true extent of the problem — such as the fact that air pollution <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2017/11/10/health/delhi-pollution-equivalent-cigarettes-a-day/index.html">can be worse</a> for health than heavy smoking, for example — is only now becoming clear, as is the full extent of the threat.
A study <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5196(21)00350-8/fulltext">published in the February 2022 edition of The Lancet</a> found that 86 percent of the world’s urban population — some 2.5 billion people — are being exposed to air pollution levels roughly seven times greater than WHO guidelines. Based on data from 13,000 cities over two decades, the researchers conservatively attributed 1.8 million deaths in 2019 to urban air pollution, roughly the same number as estimated excess deaths from Covid-19 in 2020.
“Most of what we know about the impacts of air pollution on health are from short-term exposure studies, so these are studies that take advantage of daily or weekly or sometimes quarterly differences in air pollution concentrations,” says Michael Greenstone, director of EPIC, whose AQLI (Air Quality Life Index) tracks reduced life expectancy from air pollution. Yet, he adds, “the reason we regulate it is to change people’s long-run exposure to air pollution.”
The AQLI estimates are based on a <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/110/32/12936.full.pdf">2013 paper</a> that used a home heating program in China to approximate years of life lost by air pollution. From the 1950s to the 1980s, the Chinese government provided free coal for winter heating for households north of the Huai River, but not south of it. That policy created a natural experiment: Villages north and south of the river were mostly the same, save for increased indoor air pollution in the north because residents could afford to burn more coal there.
Life expectancies in those households north of the Huai River fell by an estimated 5.5 years. The researchers used this data to isolate the effect of air pollution from other potential causes of reduced life expectancy, and created the AQLI index to calculate the impact that different levels of particulate concentration can have on lifespan. Policymakers and the general public can use the <a href="https://aqli.epic.uchicago.edu/the-index/">AQLI</a> to track how air quality has been affecting life expectancy in different countries and regions over the last 20 years. They’ve discovered that while air pollution shortens lives around the world, its main effects are concentrated in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa.
While air pollution in Delhi has been bad for decades, the last 20 years have seen air pollution worsen in other areas of India and South and Southeast Asia, as economic growth has translated into increased <a href="https://aqli.epic.uchicago.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/AQLI_2021-Report.EnglishGlobal.pdf">vehicle and fossil fuel use</a>. In the Central Indian states of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, according to EPIC’s <a href="https://aqli.epic.uchicago.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/AQLI_2021_Report_-English.IndiaVersion.pdf">2021 annual report</a>, “the average person ... is now losing an additional 2.5 to 2.9 years of life expectancy” relative to the early 2000s due to air pollution. “Eighty-three percent of the country, by one estimate,” says Santosh Harish, South Asian Air Quality program officer at Open Philanthropy, “breathes air that is worse than the national standards,” which are themselves <a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/india/air-quality-new-who-norms-now-almost-entire-india-polluted-7528266/">more lenient</a> than the WHO recommendations.
In neighboring Bangladesh, the average person is losing <a href="https://aqli.epic.uchicago.edu/the-index/">5.4 years</a> of life expectancy due to air pollution, much more than 20 years ago. <a href="https://aqli.epic.uchicago.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Indonesia-Report.pdf">Urbanized regions of Indonesia</a>, such as Jakarta, face similar burdens on life expectancy due to vehicle-related pollution and coal-fired power plants. <a href="https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/indonesia-10-million-children-risk-air-pollution-due-wild-forest-fires">Forest and peatland fires</a> for <a href="https://www.worldscientific.com/doi/pdf/10.1142/9789813203921_0001">agricultural clearance</a> related to palm oil production in Kalimantan and Sumatra affect air quality across Indonesia and throughout <a href="https://aqli.epic.uchicago.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/AQLI_2021-Report.EnglishGlobal.pdf">Southeast Asia</a>.
Air pollution is a <a href="https://aqli.epic.uchicago.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/AQLI_2021-Report.EnglishGlobal.pdf">severe health threat</a> in Nigeria, Ghana, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In Nigeria, home to over 200 million people, air pollution has reduced life expectancy by 1.5 additional years compared to the early 2000s, <a href="https://blogs.worldbank.org/africacan/air-pollution-silent-killer-lagos">caused by</a> vehicles, industrial emissions, waste burning, port pollution, and the operation of diesel generators that are used because of the country’s unreliable electricity supply. As energy consumption in sub-Saharan Africa has grown, air quality has decreased throughout the region, <a href="https://aqli.epic.uchicago.edu/the-index/">according to the AQLI</a>.
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<figcaption>AQLI change in Africa, 1999-2019.</figcaption>
<cite>The Air Quality Life Index</cite></figure>
And that’s the crux of the problem. Since the fuel sources that produce air pollution also provide necessities such as electricity, vehicles, factory-made goods, and heating, policymakers face tough decisions on how to deal with air pollution-related health concerns while not eroding well-being in other ways. The good news is that many countries that have undergone the same economic transition in the past have eventually succeeded in curbing the worst of their air pollution. And so could the affected countries today — with the right set of policies.
According to Wei Peng, an air pollution researcher at Penn State’s School of International Affairs, the best way to think about which air quality policies are likely to work is in terms of incentives. That means identifying what different people and organizations want — whether that’s a company’s drive to cut costs, farmers’ need to clear their fields, or the public’s desire for the health benefits of clean air — and how to fulfill them in a way that works for everyone.
So while a country may decide to put strict policies in place, enforcement can be difficult if people or companies have strong reasons not to comply. For example, <a href="https://scroll.in/article/1006227/pollution-has-north-india-had-any-success-in-controlling-stubble-burning">penalizing crop stubble burning</a> — which heavily contributes to winter outdoor air pollution in Delhi and surrounding states — is nearly impossible to enforce unless farmers have better alternatives for clearing their fields. Measures that focus on reducing pollution at the source of power generation — like <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/116/49/24463">flue gas desulfurization</a>, which removes the pollutant sulfur dioxide (SO2) from power plant exhaust — can run into resistance from coal plant companies concerned about their bottom line.
Transitioning to renewable energy can help reduce air pollution and fight climate change, but it <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/research/working-to-turn-ambition-into-reality/">won’t happen</a> if people have to pay significantly more for cleaner electricity. It’s not enough to put restrictions in place if they can’t be reinforced, and they can’t be reinforced without buy-in. That makes it important to identify which policies at a given moment in a given place are not only effective but are also politically feasible, and at the same time work to bolster public demand for clean air.
Peng found that in India the most immediately viable and effective <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S259033222100405X#tbl1">clean-air policy</a> could focus on an undercovered air-quality issue: indoor air pollution. The largest source of indoor and estimated outdoor air pollution in India comes from households burning firewood and cow dung for cooking, heating, and water heating, which is particularly salient in rural areas.
One proven way to reduce it is to provide alternative sources of fuel for cookstoves. In India, the government has implemented a program to increase access to liquified petroleum gas (LPG) cylinders, which reduce indoor air pollution from cooking — which disproportionately affects women — because households no longer need to use <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/business/economy-business/massive-cut-in-petroleum-subsidy-to-hit-domestic-lpg-consumers-947255.html">cow dung biomass</a> or <a href="https://scroll.in/article/988886/india-s-poor-were-struggling-to-refill-lpg-cylinders-now-with-record-price-hike-many-have-given-up">wood</a> to cook. The government has provided small amounts of <a href="https://science.thewire.in/environment/union-budget-air-pollution-quality-15th-finance-commission-ncap-lpg-subsidies/">LPG subsidies</a>, but that can be difficult to sustain — the allocation for subsidies was <a href="https://www.indiabudget.gov.in/doc/Budget_at_Glance/budget_at_a_glance.pdf">more than halved</a> for the 2021-2022 budget estimate, and prices of LPG cylinders <a href="https://www.iisd.org/articles/poor-receive-less-lpg-subsidy-india">rose</a> <a href="https://scroll.in/article/988886/india-s-poor-were-struggling-to-refill-lpg-cylinders-now-with-record-price-hike-many-have-given-up">sharply</a> between May 2020 and March 2021. Harish noted that while developing subsidies for alternative fuel sources is important, over time fuel substitution programs can become an ongoing cost for the government as people get used to receiving them.
A complementary approach might be market-based policies. “A great way to soften those trade-offs,” Greenstone told me, “is to use market-based regulations, which really minimize the regulatory costs and minimize the impacts on economic growth, and while doing that allow for robust improvements in environmental quality and ultimately people’s health.” The state of Gujarat in India, for example, started an <a href="https://epic.uchicago.edu/news/indian-state-launches-worlds-first-trading-program-for-particulate-air-pollution/">emissions trading program</a> for air pollution in 2019 in which the government sets an emissions cap and companies could <a href="https://thewire.in/environment/gujarat-air-pollution-emission-trading-cap-trade">buy and sell permits</a> to discharge pollutants, creating an incentive for them to reduce pollutants. This has cut air pollution by roughly 15-20 percent, according to Greenstone; with this success, the government is expanding the plan throughout Gujarat, and a similar program is being implemented by the Indian state of <a href="https://epic.uchicago.in/government-of-punjab-j-pal-south-asia-and-epic-india-launch-an-emissions-trading-scheme-to-reduce-industrial-air-pollution-in-the-state/?mc_cid=4c23deb35e&mc_eid=000d4eaa54">Punjab</a>.
End-of-pipe control measures — which mandate pollution reductions at the source — face some of the same challenges around incentives. These upgrades, which cut conventional pollutants like SO2, are <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S259033222100405X#tbl1">effective</a> at cleaning up the air — though they don’t reduce carbon pollution — without requiring an immediate transition away from coal. That’s important for countries like India where the energy supply is still <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/research/working-to-turn-ambition-into-reality/">dominated by coal</a>, and will <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/research/coal-in-india/">likely be so for years</a>.
Such policies have been highly effective at cleaning up the air in <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/116/49/24463">China</a> and Europe, as well as the US, but Peng notes that regulators pushing for cleaner air need to grapple with “the organized interests from the power generation companies that don’t want to do additional things to increase their costs.” That means governments have to spend time and money on the process of negotiation, along with monitoring and enforcement.
Cultivating public demand for clean air by warning people about its health risks can also drive action by governments and individuals across countries. Greenstone noted how large policy changes in other countries, like China’s “<a href="https://www.nber.org/papers/w28467">war on pollution</a>,” were influenced by public demand. In a best-case scenario, this can create a virtuous cycle of policymakers, researchers, and other actors — such as what Kejriwal was trying to achieve with his daily tweets on Delhi’s air pollution levels this winter.
Such warnings can pay off. <a href="https://www.nber.org/papers/w29637?utm_campaign=ntwh&utm_medium=email&utm_source=ntwg26">Recent research</a> from South Korea demonstrates that pollution alerts encouraging people to stay indoors, wear masks, and avoid strenuous activities reduced health expenditures in 2016-2017 by $28.6 million as Koreans took measures to minimize their exposure to bad air.
It would be challenging enough if states and nations only had to control their own air pollution, but smog, soot, and other pollutants don’t recognize borders. Delhi’s annual air pollution crisis is heavily affected by neighboring states and vice-versa. <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1309104220302038?via%3Dihub">Almost half</a> of air pollution in India overall crosses over the country’s 28 state boundaries.
<a href="https://www.epa.gov/international-cooperation/transboundary-air-pollution">The United States, Mexico, and Canada</a> all experience shared air pollution. In <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(16)31019-4/fulltext">Europe,</a> coal burning from nearby countries causes 1,200 premature deaths in France per year, while in East Asia, increased pollution levels in Beijing lead to <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/environment-and-development-economics/article/abs/transboundary-air-pollution-and-health-evidence-from-east-asia/0D860F2C78848893EED54832FE023306">fetal mortality increases in South Korea</a>.
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<figcaption>Firefighters try to extinguish peatland forest fires in South Sumatra, Indonesia.</figcaption>
<cite>Afrianto Silalahi/NurPhoto via Getty Images</cite></figure>
Solving international air pollution requires international cooperation, treaties, and enforcement — none of which is easy, as the case of Indonesia shows.
Indonesia’s economy is heavily reliant on palm oil production; to expand the area under palm oil cultivation, carbon-heavy <a href="https://www.worldscientific.com/doi/pdf/10.1142/9789813203921_0001">peatland forests are</a> burned every summer. This causes severe air quality problems in Indonesia and neighboring countries like Malaysia and Singapore. While an ASEAN agreement was ratified in 2003 and <a href="https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/The-Big-Story/Air-pollution-Asia-s-deadliest-public-health-crisis-isn-t-COVID">ratified by Indonesia in 2014</a>, it’s unlikely to be enforced. Cross-border <a href="https://www.worldscientific.com/doi/pdf/10.1142/9789813203921_0001">pollution and tensions</a> have only continued — Indonesia needs to expand palm oil production for people’s livelihoods while neighboring countries only experience its negative effects.
Asit K. Biswas and Cecilia Tortajada, researchers at the National University of Singapore, <a href="https://www.worldscientific.com/doi/pdf/10.1142/9789813203921_0001">note</a> that there are ways for Indonesia to expand palm oil production and reduce smoke generation, such as ensuring expansions are limited in peatland and forest areas. But for Indonesia to want to implement these policies, which will be more costly than the current methods of peatland burning, the researchers write that “it is imperative that the Indonesian public and policymakers be convinced beyond doubt that haze is bad for them,” including both health and economic impacts.
Clean air doesn’t have to be a pipe dream. At the Beijing Olympics, aerial skiers competed at the Big Air Shougang venue against the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/sports/inspired-or-dystopian-beijings-big-air-venue-sparks-social-media-debate-2022-02-07/">backdrop of shuttered steel mills</a>, an unmissable symbol of the work the Chinese capital has put in to leave its polluted past behind. Countries like India, Indonesia, and others could take on a similar trajectory, and in doing so, save <a href="https://lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v43/n23/david-wallace-wells/ten-million-a-year">billions of dollars and millions of lives</a>.
 
 
source <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/22937366/air-polluted-city-smog-india-china-beijing">https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/22937366/air-polluted-city-smog-india-china-beijing</a>

vox How to clear the air in the most polluted cities on Earth

The atmosphere has changed in Beijing since the Chinese capital’s last Olympics in 2008. While the Summer Games 14 years ago were meant to ...

Video: Canadian MP CENSORED For Pointing Out WEF’s Corrupt Influence Over Trudeau’s Gov’t

A Canadian MP was shut down in Parliament Saturday after bringing up the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) influence over Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s cabinet.
Conservative MP Colin Carrie pointed out how WEF founder Klaus Schwab once bragged that his Young Global Leaders group had “penetrated” Trudeau’s government before he was abruptly cut off by the speaker of the House of Commons.
“I had a constituent who wanted me to ask a qustion about outside interference to our democracy. Klaus Schwab is the head of the World economic Forum and he bragged how his subservice WEF has ‘infiltrated governments around the world’, he said that his organization had penetrated more than half of Canada’s cabinet,” Carrie stated.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" readability="6.8417508417508">
On behalf of a constituent, Conservative MP Colin Carrie asks about the World Economic Forum’s influence on Canadian politicians. He gets cut off and NDP MP Charlie Angus says Carrie is spreading “disinformation.” <a href="https://t.co/LKWMPDyLFW">pic.twitter.com/LKWMPDyLFW</a>
— True North (@TrueNorthCentre) <a href="https://twitter.com/TrueNorthCentre/status/1495124955859668992?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 19, 2022</a></blockquote>
“In the interest of transparency, could the member please name which Cabinet ministers are on board with the WEF’s agenda? My concern is -” Carrie continued before the Speaker abruptly cut him off, calling the “audio” of his remarks “really, really bad.”
At that point, New Democratic Party (NDP) MP Charlie Angus accused Carrie of spreading “disinformation” for simply asking about this disturbing relationship between Trudeau and the WEF.
The fact is, Carrie’s remarks are 100% accurate.
WEF founder Klaus Schwab is on video bragging that his organization “penetrated” Prime Minister Trudeau’s government:
[embedded content]
Trudeau himself has met with the WEF founder numerous times over the years as Prime Minister, with Schwab even once bragging that Trudeau was more loyal to the WEF than to Canada.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" readability="4.5">
Klaus Schwab on Trudeau’s loyalty to the World Economic Forum & not to the Canadian people. <a href="https://t.co/8VaTKMAnb6">pic.twitter.com/8VaTKMAnb6</a>
— TheNo1Waffler (@TheNo1Waffler) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheNo1Waffler/status/1493702862471323661?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 15, 2022</a></blockquote>
Additionally, several members of Trudeau’s Cabinet are openly associated with the WEF, such as Finance Minister <a href="https://www.weforum.org/people/chrystia-freeland" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Chrystia Freeland</a>, who serves as a governing member of the globalist body’s board.
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img alt="" class="wp-image-159452" sizes="(max-width: 994px) 100vw, 994px" src="https://api-assets.infowars.com/2022/02/freelandwef248716789.jpg" srcset="https://api-assets.infowars.com/2022/02/freelandwef248716789-300x198.jpg 300w, https://api-assets.infowars.com/2022/02/freelandwef248716789-768x507.jpg 768w, https://api-assets.infowars.com/2022/02/freelandwef248716789.jpg 994w" /></figure>
Rather than openly discuss the clear conflicts of interest related to Trudeau’s relationship with the World Economic Forum, the liberal wing of Parliament instead resorted to their typical authoritarian method of censorship and gaslighting.
Remember, the WEF is the organization that claimed <a href="https://winepressnews.com/2021/08/27/agenda-2030-youll-own-nothing-and-be-happy/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">“you will own nothing, and you’ll be happy”</a> as part of its <a href="https://battleplan.news/watch?id=62101e63c24b640fceab2a5d" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Great Reset</a> “Fourth Industrial Revolution” initiative.
[embedded content]
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<a href="https://battleplan.news/watch?id=620c1b13f8b550051cb0bde1" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Trudeau’s Imminent False Flag To Crush The Canadian People</a>
 
 
source <a href="https://www.infowars.com/posts/video-canadian-mp-accused-of-spreading-disinformation-for-pointing-out-wefs-corrupt-influence-over-trudeaus-govt">https://www.infowars.com/posts/video-canadian-mp-accused-of-spreading-disinformation-for-pointing-out-wefs-corrupt-influence-over-trudeaus-govt</a>

news Video: Canadian MP CENSORED For Pointing Out WEF’s Corrupt Influence Over Trudeau’s Gov’t

A Canadian MP was shut down in Parliament Saturday after bringing up the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) influence over Prime Minister Justin T...

Are Cartel Journalist Killings A Model For America?

While America is distracted by one Democrat disaster after another, the scope of unchecked human trafficking on the southern border intensifies, the threat of terrorism accelerates, and the tsunami of drugs leaves a wake of the dead.
Meanwhile, we are merely 2 months into 2022 and already 5 journalists have been murdered, the deadliest murder spat of journos in over a decade.
There is an eerie parallel between the modus operandi of Cartel media propaganda in Mexico and the current state of U.S. propaganda due to the gradual watering down of the Smith Mundt act.
Mexican Cartels have installed assignment editors who disseminate what can and can’t be broadcast. Investigative reporters are hunted down and killed if they get too close to the truth, while Cartels regularly brainwash the public with reports of the Cartels benevolence.
This is similar to how propaganda currently works in the U.S., but the cartels are in Washington DC and Silicon Valley. 
The media works in favor of our corporate captors selling us a pre-approved narrative that no one is buying, while presenting our abusers as our saviors.
We are a third world Country in a First World husk.
<div class="EIK68KBa"><a href="https://www.infowarsstore.com/winter-sun-vitamin-d?ims=pabks&utm_campaign=wintersunhero&utm_source=Infowars+Hero&utm_medium=banner&utm_content=wintersunhero" target="_blank"><img src="https://api.directus.libertycdn.com/uploads/_/originals/WINTERSUN-hero-385.jpg" /></a></div>
 
 
source <a href="https://www.infowars.com/posts/are-cartel-journalist-killings-a-model-for-america">https://www.infowars.com/posts/are-cartel-journalist-killings-a-model-for-america</a>

news Are Cartel Journalist Killings A Model For America?

While America is distracted by one Democrat disaster after another, the scope of unchecked human trafficking on the southern border intensif...