Word: narain
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Melting ice caps didn't figure into the fight Sunita Narain and Bhure Lal led to build the world's cleanest public-transport network. They had more pressing concerns. "New Delhi was choking to death," says Narain, 43, director of India's Center for Science and Environment. "Air pollution was taking one life per hour." Adds Lal, 63, then a senior government administrator: "The capital was one of the most polluted on earth. At the end of the day, your collar was black, and you had soot all over your face. Millions had bronchitis and asthma...
...1990s, Narain filed a lawsuit to force Delhi's buses, taxis and rickshaws to convert to cleaner-burning compressed natural gas (CNG). In July 1998, the Supreme Court ruled largely in her favor and adopted many of her proposals. It ordered a ban on leaded fuel, conversion of all diesel-powered buses to CNG and the scrapping of old diesel taxis and rickshaws. But busmakers and oil companies--supported by government ministers--objected loudly. So the court formed a committee, led by Lal and Narain, to enforce its judgment...
...unlikely duo immediately ran into roadblocks. Bus companies took vehicles off the road, stranding angry commuters. Mile-long queues of rickshaws formed at the handful of gas stations with CNG pumps. Oil companies trotted out scientists who claimed that CNG was just as polluting as diesel. But Narain and Lal fought back. By December 2002, the last diesel bus had left Delhi, and 10,000 taxis, 12,000 buses and 80,000 rickshaws were powered...
Although air pollution in Delhi has stabilized, the fight for clean air is far from won. Some 400 to 600 new private cars roll onto the city's streets every day. Narain and Lal don't claim to have slowed global warming. But their efforts have attracted requests for advice from as far away as Kenya and Indonesia. "Delhi leapfrogged," Narain says with a grin. "People noticed." --By Alex Perry/New Delhi...
...contagious illnesses. The battle against disease isn't over, but the medical response to the tsunami is shaping up to be a surprising success story for the field of emergency public health. "The situation is still evolving, still dynamic, but I think we are well prepared," says Dr. Jai Narain, the WHO's Southeast Asia regional adviser for communicable disease. "Even if an outbreak occurs, we would be able to respond to it very effectively...