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A surprise improvement in air quality in South Asia in 2022 drove a decline in global pollution, with favourable weather a likely factor, a new report said Wednesday.

But the region continues to breathe the world’s most-polluted air, with its residents losing more than 3.5 years of life expectancy on average, the annual Air Quality Life Index (AQLI) warned.

Globally, most countries have either no pollution standards or are failing to meet what they have set, subjecting their citizens to air quality that causes a broad range of health problems.

For two decades, air pollution has increased annually in South Asia, but satellite data for 2022 — the most recent year available — showed a surprise 18 percent fall.

The declines were recorded in every country in the region apart from Sri Lanka, according to the report, produced by the University of Chicago’s Energy Policy Institute (EPIC).

“While it is difficult to conclusively determine what reduced PM2.5 levels across South Asia, it is safe to posit that favourable meteorological conditions may have played a part,” the report said, referring to tiny particulates that can travel deep into the body.

The widespread nature of the decline, along with the above-average rainfall across the region in 2022, lend support to that theory.

“Only time will tell whether policy changes are having an impact,” the report added, warning that people in South Asia are still breathing air eight times more polluted than the World Health Organization deems safe.

“Continued observations, efforts towards policy enforcement and monitoring impacts of policy interventions will be critical for understanding and sustaining these reductions,” the report said.

The decline in South Asia led to a nine percent global drop in air pollution, even as poor air quality spiked elsewhere, including in the Middle East and North Africa, with concentrations up 13 percent from a year earlier.

The report warned an ongoing lack of air quality data on the ground is hampering policy-making and implementation.

“Highly polluted countries that have little or no air quality data often fall into a bad feedback cycle where having little data leads to little attention or policy investment in the issue, which reinforces little demand for data,” said Christa Hasenkopf, director of EPIC’s Clean Air Program.

Earlier this year, the centre launched a $1.5 million fund to finance the installation of air quality monitors that offer open data worldwide.

Air pollution as a whole receives relatively little funding despite its outsized impact on human health.

For example, in some of Africa’s most-polluted nations, air pollution “is a more serious threat to life expectancy than HIV/AIDS, tropical diseases, malaria or water, sanitation and handwashing”, the report said.

There are bright spots, however, including China’s remarkably successful efforts to combat dirty air.

It took measures including restricting the number of cars in big cities, reducing heavy industry capacity and banning new coal plants from certain regions.

It has reduced air pollution by 41 percent since 2013, meeting its national standards and adding an average of two years of life expectancy for its citizens, AQLI said.

Still, even in China, pollution remains more than five times higher than WHO guidelines, and the benefits of Beijing’s measures are unevenly spread.

Air quality remains poor across several major provinces, and in some prefectures has actually increased since 2013.

One month after passing misogynistic remarks against renowned television anchor Gharidah Farooqi, Dr Omer Adil has publicly apologised.

On a podcast hosted by Zohaib Butt, Dil Ki Baat, in July, film critic and orthopaedic surgeon Adil claimed that female anchors in Pakistan’s media industry are “handpicked by a seth or somebody else to go and host a stupid program”, adding that they are treated extraordinarily in comparison to their male counterparts.

He made these comments during a segment of the podcast that primarily targeted Gharidah Farooqi and used derogatory language, including vulgar abuse. He further claimed that the producers had ‘no guts’ to criticise women anchors for their mistakes.

This was followed by a massive backlash from the journalist community across Pakistan, particularly women who are, time and again, subjected to harassment and sexist commentary. 

On August 6, Gharidah Farooqi updated on X (formerly Twitter) that Dr. Adil had been arrested by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA). 

On August 24, Dr Omer Adil posted an “unconditional, wholehearted and sincere apology” to Gharidah Farooqi.

https://youtu.be/xwsZl7WQBPQ?si=cjp81-JI-bChR-dK

But speaking with The Current, Gharida Farooqi revealed that it is not the first time that Omer Adil apologised to her.

“Dr. Umar Adil contacted me many weeks ago, shortly after he was granted bail following his arrest by the FIA after I filed a complaint. He called and apologised for about 20 to 30 minutes, insisting that he had been trapped and ended up saying things in the podcast that he did not intend.

He seemed to be playing the victim,” she recalls.

Gharidah then demanded that he issue an apology on his official YouTube channel for a duration equal to the time he spent making those offensive remarks on the podcast, to which he agreed.

The apology, however, was delayed due to alleged technical issues. During this time, he posted a brief video but then vanished again.

Although the case was receiving widespread attention, the FIA only detained Adil after Farooqi filed a complaint, which ultimately led to his public apology.

Fight against digital violence

Ghareeda Farooqi has long been subjected to online violence. From rape threats to even death threats, she has been targeted by “malicious campaigns”.

“I have been fighting against not just cyberbullying but cyberviolence against myself since 2014. I was the first female journalist who was made the victim of digital violence against women, as well as planned campaigns organised by political parties”, she says.

Women Press Freedom has documented at least a dozen organised troll campaigns against Gharida, reportedly the “highest number of organised digital violence we have ever documented against a journalist in the region” after Indian journalist Rana Ayyub.

“People have forged videos and pictures using my face, including pornographic content,” she recalls.

“So far, I have filed almost ten complaints with the FIA; not even one has been addressed, and no culprit has been arrested.”