INDIA-CLIMATE WARMING-UN-COP21

To go with Climate-warming-UN-COP21-India,FOCUS by Trudy Harris In this photograph taken on November 14, 2015, trucks queue to enter the Indian capital New Delhi at the Badarpur toll plaza in Faridabad. It is estimated that about 80,000 trucks transit through the heart of the city every night from 8 pm to 6 am. India's capital, with 18 million residents, has the world's most polluted air with six times the amount of small particulate matter (pm2.5) than what is considered safe, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). The air's hazardous amount of pm2.5 can reach deep into the lungs and enter the blood, causing serious long term health effect, with the WHO warning India has the world's highest death rate from chronic respiratory diseases. India, home to 13 of the world's top 20 polluted cities, is also the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases behind the United States and China. In Delhi, the air pollution is due to vehicle traffic including cargo trucks running on low-grade diesel, individual fires that residents burn in winter, crop being burnt by farmers in neighboring states, and construction site dust. Burning coal in power plants is also major contributor that is expected to increase hugely in the coming decades to match electricity needs of the ever-growing city and its booming satellite towns. AFP PHOTO / Money SHARMA (Photo credit should read MONEY SHARMA/AFP via Getty Images)