It Took The Deadliest Wildfire In 100 Years For San Francisco's Air To Be As Polluted As Delhi

Right now, the wildfires in California are ravaging the state's forests. Camp Fire, as it's called, has resulted in 63 dead so far and 631 people missing.

But even far away from the actual forests, the smoke from the fires is choking nearby cities like San Francisco.

Image courtesy: Joshua Apte/Twitter

For instance, take a look at the University of California, Berkeley up there. Those are people students and faculty walking around in masks to protect their respiratory systems from the particulate matter clogging the air. Ironically, as air quality scientist and assistant professor at the University of Texas Joshua Apte points out, his lecture on air quality in India was cancelled because of the air quality in the city.

Also Read: 13 Images Show How The Deadly California Fire Gutted A Historic Town In Less Than A Day

In fact, he goes on to mention another India-related point in the tweet we all need to pay attention to. Those people in the photo are walking around with masks because the PM2.5 (particulate matter smaller than 2.5 micrometers) levels in the city of San Francisco reached 281. Only, that's just a little more than the 261 PM2.5 levels in Delhi almost year-round.

That feeling when your @UCBerkeley seminar on air quality in India has to be cancelled due to poor air quality in Berkeley. Ironic. pic.twitter.com/b5tPnz02KI

¡ª Josh Apte (@joshapte) November 16, 2018

Yeah, it took a massive forest wildfire in California for the place to even begin to resemble the annual average pollution levels in Delhi.

And that's a problem that should really scare us. In a study on the air quality in Deli (that has yet to be peer-reviewed) Apte and other team members at the University at Texas in Austin show that fixing Delhi's air isn't an easy task by far.

A window into Delhi¡¯s deadly pollution: Reuters set up a camera on top of our bureau in the Indian capital, capturing hundreds of images over October-November and presenting a bleak picture of conditions in the city of 20 million https://t.co/unLc3DoD4y pic.twitter.com/50sld8VOm1

¡ª Reuters India (@ReutersIndia) November 9, 2018

While a large amount of the particulate matter in the air is the result of pollution in NCR, they confirmed a massive amount also comes from stubble burning, festivals, and other pollution sources further north. But because Delhi is usually swept by north-westerly winds, all of that is flowing down to the nation's capital.

Also Read: Images Of The Pets That Were Caught Up In California Fire Are Truly Heartbreaking

That's why localised attempts to reduce pollution will fail. Rectifying Delhi's oversaturation of automobiles will do nothing on its own, and the same for cutting down on Diwali crackers. By the looks of it, only a concentrated effort from a vast swathe of the North Indian region will ever have a chance to let Delhi breathe easy again.