Extracts from an article
''Scientifically Illiterate Thinking behind Diwali Restrictions''by Anil Suri,
pointing out the fallacies and questionable court rulings regarding the burning of crackers on Diwali:
''if controlling air pollution was the aim of the SC, what exactly did it mean by allowing fireworks into the late night on Christmas and New Year? If you have concluded fireworks are a truly bad source of pollution, should you not ban them outright on these two occasions, when they are not essential to the celebrations at all? That late into the winter, and so close to midnight, all the emissions from the fireworks will hang in the air for hours, choking the public as it sleeps! And are all those cute furry pet dogs, cats and birds suddenly OK with midnight fireworks? Make no mistake: this is secular monkey-balancing at its worst.''
-
''Harsh Vardhan also claims his "green" crackers will use much lesser sulphur. If 20 grams of fireworks are burnt per person in a day, and if 20 per cent of that is sulphur, it's just 4 grams! No wonder, the CPCB's own data for Delhi last year showed the sulphur dioxide levels did not exceed acceptable levels. And after the monsoons, and ahead of the sowing season, I would say that's a superb round of fumigation for public health, with one of the . It is now an acknowledged fact that like malaria and dengue. Then, the sulphur dioxide will also lead to the control of pests ahead of the sowing season, as I . I am not sure the novel, low-sulphur "green" crackers will have the same effect. So effectively, these "green" crackers will be all emissions, and no benefits at all! It is silly, and almost certainly dangerous, to think that you can better what is the end-result of centuries of accumulated traditional knowledge with a few months of superficial tinkering in the lab.''
-
''no-one has actually tried to answer the critical point, for all the demonizing and negative propaganda, does Diwali actually make even a measurable contribution to air pollution? The facts, if acknowledged, are fatal to the narrative being peddled''
The article details the spurious reasons for imposing the fire-work curfew. The full article is in the online journal 'India Facts' [via the external link]
