Air Pollution: Cause, Consequence and Circumvention

Air pollution

Air pollution is a formidable problem. Air pollution puts our lives in danger. Various components of aur are required in one or the form for the very sustenance of life, so it is of utmost importance to keep keep our atmosphere clean. We should minimize pollution so that people can breathe pure air.
Already we are struggling with various problems including dowry system, caste system, illiteracy, unemployment etc. which have not been eradicated completely till date. One important problem amid all these problems is Air Pollution. Not only India but almost the entire planet is suffering from this universal problem called Air Pollution.  Thousands of people have to face death due to air pollution. We all know the Major or better known as Big Cities of India -Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai. You would be surprised or most probably shocked to know the fact that the total number of vehicles in Delhi is approximately equivalent to the total number of vehicles in the rest of the big cities, i.e., Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai.  The smoke emanating from those vehicles damages our lungs, and can even become a prominent cause for death. One solution to this problem can be broadening and magnifying the use of 'CNG'.  It has been in use in various foreign countries for more than 30 years. The speciality of CNG is that more gas can be filled in less space, so that vehicles can travel more distance. Some vehicles use Liquefied Natural Gas that is produced by purifying and cooling natural gas to 2600° F. 

There are two types of gases:
1. Compressed Natural Gas {CNG}
2. Liquefied Natural Gas {LNG}

Both these gases are used as fuels in vehicles. CNG is prepared in a special compressed cylinder at a pressure of 3000 to 3600 pounds per square inch whereas LNG is produced by purifying and cooling natural gas to 2600° F as already discussed.

Benefits of CNG

CNG is less expensive. Air pollution can be reduced by CNG. There are about 80 CNG pumps in Delhi. Common citizens who own vehicles are also getting their vehicles converted to CNG because of the benefits they are getting from it.

Limitations of CNG

The Government has taken many concrete steps to curb air pollution. But there are some flaws with this. One, the equipment of CNG is expensive and due to insufficient CNG pump, people have to stand with their vehicles for several hours. Nevertheless, this is a step that can reduce the amount of pollution in the atmosphere. Compressed Natural Gas is the consequence of the changing human thinking.

COVID- 19 Lockdown, Cleaning Air

The situation remained unchanged even after the completion of almost 28 years of Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit 1992, but the Lockdown in the world implemented because of the COVID 19 Pandemic has allowed the environment to recover. The poison of the air has waned and the water of the rivers has been purified.The Ganga, for which cleaning missions had been running for 45 years in India, and had seen modest success even after spending about 20 thousand crores in the last five years, has been cleaned just by the three-week Lockdown.

Not only this, the Himalayan peaks of Himachal Pradesh started to be seen from Chandigarh.  The rate of industrial income has definitely fallen from seven and a half per cent to two per cent and the economy is in danger. But this is the time when the whole world is thinking about the environment and development as seriously as dealing with the Corona Crisis.

Such a changed environment scenario lines of vehicles on the road, smoke-blowing factories and dusty construction had become the hallmarks of the development of our cities. We all know how poisonous the air of our cities and how polluted the rivers are. Now see the improvement that has been made in this lockdown.  According to the latest data from the Central Pollution Control Board, New Delhi, good signs of environmental improvement were also seen during the Janata Curfew on 22 March. The air quality index (AQI) on that day in Delhi was between 101 and 250.

Due to the stoppage of vehicles on the roads on March 22, the Janta Curfew Day, a dramatic decrease of 34% and 51%  was marked in the amount of harmful and poisonous gases, nitrogen and sulphur oxides respectively, as compared to the previous day of March 21. Although the situation of Noida and Ghaziabad was found to be as good as in the National Capital Regions or NCR, the air pollution in Gurgaon and Faridabad did not show as much improvement, hence the role of local causes in air pollution cannot be ignored.

Conclusion

We have seen how air pollution, along with other environmental problems has become a major issue of concern all over the world. Air Pollution is itself causing many unwanted and harmful problems along with certain death- causing diseases. We learnt about the benefits and limitations of CNG as a fuel. CNG and other alternatives of fuels such as petroleum and coal are useful in eradicating this problem but in the long run we still need some concrete solutions for this global issue. At last we saw how the immediate step of Lockdown due to the worldwide COVID- 19 Pandemic has been changing and minimising environmental problems. This can be a good solution depending on how we learn from and grasp this opportunity.

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