Srinagar, Dec. 2 -- I have spent years speaking about waste, water, mining and the slow poisoning of our rivers. But I never thought I would wake up one day and worry more about the air in Kashmir.

I live with the idea that our land is under stress, though the numbers I saw this past week forced me to sit down and breathe a little slower.

A friend from Budgam called me with data that felt unreal: the Air Quality Index touched 426 near the DC office on a cold Saturday morning.

Another message told me that Khawaja Bagh in Baramulla touched 450 the next day. Srinagar had been hovering between 160 and 175.

This is our home, a place people discuss as a valley of clean winds and open sky, and the monitors now say we are breathing hazardo...