ENGLISH
By- Ashmita Singh
Class- 11 C
Statement of Purpose
This report has been prepared as a part of the “Ek Bharat
Shreshth Bharat Movement” initiated by Honourable Prime
Minister Mr Narendra Modi wherein Chandigarh has been
paired with another fellow union territory Dadra and Nagar
Haveli.
The following report covers information regarding Climate
Change and how it affects our lives, the various steps taken by
the government to conserve the environment, and the steps we
can further take to prevent climate change.
Acknowledgements
I would like to express my gratitude to my teacher, Ms. Jasleen,
who taught and guided me through the project. I would also like
to thank my family and friends for supporting me. Lastly, I’d
like to thank the principal of Stepping Stones Senior Secondary
School, who gave me the opportunity to work on this project
and learn from it.
"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- whether 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 it 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 of different perfumes and
even in Refrigerators. We can’t just remove all of these things
from our daily lives. But there are 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 aims 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 the 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 of small things to help, like using
our vehicles less, using environmentally 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 deserves a future
that is not plagued by the repercussions of Global Warming.
We need change, and we need it now.
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