<ul><li>Cities have a noise pollution problem, which is largely unaddressed.</li><li>Noise complaints regarding the high decibel levels of traffic, airplanes, and even helicopters are getting more frequent. All those engines are making city dwellers forget what 'silence' feels like.</li><li>Noise isn't just a temporary irritation but can lead to stress and problems like high blood pressure, and heart attacks.</li></ul>

Rising Noise Around Us

Most of the city planning is done so that the affluent neighborhoods are in quieter areas.However, this is also nullified when the ultra-rich who travel frequently stay close to the transit hubs (like Airports), being exposed to high decibels of noise.

Living In Noise

<ul><li>People put up with the noise in the cities and choose to stay there, even though the villages are having no noise pollution.</li><li>People are used to the hustle-bustle of the city, have friends and family there, and their home too, leading to inertia in moving to a quieter place.</li><li>Cities make you meet people more often while going out, something that villages lack. The city dwellers love this buzz of the city, leading them to stay there.</li></ul>

Choosing The City Life

... with anything exceeding 85 decibels resulting in hearing loss with continued exposure.Sound is a warning sign for us, as we can hear and get affected with noise even while asleep.

Noise Affects Us Physically

<ul><li>According to the United Nations, about two-thirds of the world's population will be living in cities by the next 30 years.</li><li>The World Health Organization recommends classrooms to be not louder than 35 decibels, which is never the case in big cities.</li><li>Children are facing disruption in their learning, and research points out that those who study in a noisy place are 11 months behind the ones who are studying in quieter places in the same vicinity.</li></ul>

Effect Of Noise on Children

Deep dives on cities, architecture, design, real estate, and urban planning. In London's Kew Gardens grows the Encephalartos woodii -a cycad brought from South Africa in 1899. It's the only member of its species ever found, but my thoughts about the threat to biodiversity from the climate crisis are quickly interrupted by yet another plane droning overhead.