In a fog 'I can see the climate crisis unfolding before my eyes'

The most recent battle in a long history of battles in Oxford has been triggered by the low traffic neighbourhood scheme, a network of barriers and cameras being built in my area as part of efforts to reduce the air pollution linked to the deaths of one in 17 people who live in the city.

These measures are not extreme. The traffic planters leave the vast majority of roads unaffected. Yet these gentle restrictions have led to mass meetings full of rage and harrumphing. The rate of vandalism of bollards and planter barriers is so high that cameras will have to be installed.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the world in Delhi, where I spend half my year, an entirely different type of catastrophe is unfolding before our eyes. Forty years ago, the population was 6 million . Now, beneath the influx of refugees fleeing internal conflict, deforestation and the slow death of centuries of village life in rural India, it is growing so fast that by 2030 it is forecast to be the world’s most populous city , with almost 40 million residents.

As a child, I remember being able to look down the street on which we lived. Now, owing to vehicle emissions, brushfire burning and construction dust, visibility is 100 metres on a good day.