English

Topic- Environmental Conservation and Climate Change Resilience

(You may include various climatic changes, their effects on the
environment, measures taken by the govt to conserve the environment
and your suggestions to improve the situation)

"We deserve a safe future. And we demand a safe future. Is that really
too much to ask?" -Greta Thunberg during Global Climate Strike in
New York on 20 September 2019. Climate change is one of the
biggest challenges threatening our future. And it’s not affecting just
humans, but all other forms of life on our planet, too. All of us hear
about Climate Change on a regular basis. Everyday there’s a new
article in the newspaper about Climate Change- weather it be Glaciers
Melting, Entire Species going extinct, or an unnaturally high amount
of toxins in the air causing lung problems. And it’s a problem we
need to solve soon. According to the United Nations, Climate change
is defined as “long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns.”
And for a long time, the climate of earth has always changed naturally
and gradually. But since the start of the Industrial Revolution, human
activities are massively contributing to Global Warming, and
impacting all sorts of life on earth.
The concentration of Greenhouse gasses is at its highest concentration
in the last 2 million years. These gasses trap heat from the sun and
stop them from escaping the atmosphere. As a result, the Global
Temperature rises. On Average, the Earth is now about 1.1°C warmer
than in was in the 1900s. And this doesn’t just mean higher
temperatures, because everything in nature is interconnected. Because
of a warmer climate, the glaciers and ice caps will melt, causing the
sea levels to rise which means a catastrophe of storms and floods.
Places that already have a warm environment will face severe
draughts. A huge number of wild animals and plants will go extinct.
According to scientists, today’s extinction rate is hundreds, or even
thousands, of times higher than the natural baseline rate. All the
chemicals in the Atmosphere cause health problems in humans and
animals alike. These chemicals also cause Acid rains, a phenomenon
in which the chemicals mix with the rain water, causing acid to pour
down. The ozone layer of the atmosphere is thinning because of
CFCs. All of this is going to have huge adverse effects on the planet.
We need change, and we need it now.
To understand how to prevent climate change, we need to understand
how it occurs first. The biggest source of all these harmful pollutants
is the burning of fossil fuels. They are burnt to produce electricity in
power plants. They’re used in every industry, in the millions of
automobiles on the roads, and even domestic fires. All of these
contribute to global warming. A lot of the products we use contain
harmful chemicals. For example- CFCs are found in a lot different
perfumes and even in Refrigerators. We can’t just remove all of these
things from our daily lives. But there is a lot of other things we can do
to prevent climate change.
The government of India has launched a series of acts to help prevent
climate change. These Acts include- The Air (Prevention and Control
of Pollution) Act (1981), that aims at checking air pollution via
pollution control boards. The Wildlife Protection Act (1972) that
aiming at rational and modern wildlife management. The Forest
(Conservation) Act (1980), which aims at checking deforestation and
diversion of forest land. The Environment Protection Act (1986), in
which the environmental legislation in India provides a single focus in
the country in order to protect environment and aims at plugging the
loopholes in the existing legislation, and more. In addition, the
government has also launched a lot of programmes like the Green
India programme under which trees are planted to prevent
deforestation. On an International level, The UN reached a
breakthrough in the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris- The
Paris Agreement. The goals of The Paris Agreement include:
substantially reducing global greenhouse gas emissions to limit the
global temperature increase in this century to 2 degrees Celsius while
pursuing efforts to limit the increase even further to 1.5 degrees;
Reviewing countries’ commitments every five years; and Providing
financing to developing countries to mitigate climate change,
strengthen resilience and enhance abilities to adapt to climate impacts.
It came into force on 4th November 2016. A total of 192 Parties,
Including India, have joined the Agreement.
There is no doubt a lot of measures have been undertaken to prevent
climate change. But they are not enough. We still have a long way to
go in the battle against Climate Change. We at a personal level, can
do a lot small things to help, like using our vehicles less, using
environment friendly products, reusing and recycling items, and a lot
of other minor things. But we can only do so much at a personal level.
That isn’t to say we shouldn’t because every drop counts. But the real
change has to be on an industrial level. Industries should have proper
regulations and guidelines so as to reduce harmful emissions and
wastes, and the government should take proper precautions to ensure
that the guidelines will be followed. As fossil fuels grow scarce, we
should focus on producing energy from renewable resources, like
solar energy. Another big thing we can do is switch from fuel
powered cars to electric cars.
The future is ours to save. If current policies presently in place around
the world are left unchanged, the global temperature will increase by
2.7°C above pre-industrial levels by the next century. We cannot let
that happen. Everyone deserve a future that is not plagued by the
repercussions of Global Warming. We need change, and we need it
now.