Let's be honest, pollution masks are a stop-gap measure; they're what we can do to protect ourselves right now. What the medium and long term objective requires is a commitment to fundamentally changing our way of creating energy and our transportation modes, as these are the dominant forms of pollution in the world today. Clean, renewable energy replacing dirty, fossil fuel-based energy must become the primary focus moving forward. Cars and vehicles capable of running on electricity are already a technology that provides substantial clean air benefits – and this is true even when the source of their electricity comes from dirty coal, as the overall pollution generated is less than if burning fossil fuels directly in a vehicle's engine. The energy returned on energy invested is simply far higher, cleaner, and more efficiently used with electric drive than with internal combustion, even when factoring in the total energy cycle, including the electricity generation. And as combustion engines become dirtier with age, electric vehicles become cleaner as more and more renewables sources of electricity come online and are brought into the grid.
Renewable and clean solar, wind, geothermal, wave, and hydropower are all energy sources that have an essential role to play as we find our way forward. Until then, mask up in critical environments, and support and encourage efforts to transform energy generation and personal mobility in our societies.
A final note: where agricultural burning is still practiced, such as on the Indonesian islands and elsewhere, it must come to an end.