ecologies and atmospheres

This assembly of charts and maps shows the material-semiotic categories through which "Delhi air pollution" can be visualised. Land-locked. Temperature inversion. Stubble burning. Dust. Thermal emissions. Vehicle exhaust. Hazardous. Delhi's air comes into existence in relation to mapping flows of wind, fire, dust, and rain. Without referring to agricultural burning practices in neighboring rural areas, or emphasising that there is a natural component to this man-made problem, Delhi's air cannot become truly hazardous. It is not sufficient to point to local sources of emissions. Scalar relations must be drawn between plains and mountains, between megacities and the shadows they cast, between slow exposure and urgency. Ecologies and atmospheres are being sketched out to place Delhi's air.