pollution in environment & Me

INTRODUCTION
My name is Hemant singla and I am from Jalal, Punjab, India. I am studying at Fraser

international college and enrolled in the arts and social sciences program. The geography of Punjab is best as compare to other states of India because the soil of Punjab is so fertile that any type of plant can grow in this soil. Even the other name of Punjab is a house of wheat. This name is assigned to Punjab because it produces the maximum amount of wheat in hole country. Usually, it is also said that Punjab is the best place to live in because of its weather conditions, economic development and agricultural fertility. My village that is located in the Bathinda district of Punjab state is also surrounded by beautiful fields and good environment. But due to the rise of pollution in the environment, the weather is changing at an unpredictable rate and due to this many farmers are facing many problems like unusual rains, droughts and so on. They suffered huge losses every year and many farmers committed suicide to get rid of these problems. Today, in my blog I would talk about the pollution that how I have seen this in my life and what I have done to solve these issues. In the past, I have done a lot of activities to solve these issues which are instructed by the teachers like planting trees and don’t use plastic bags.  I was doing the things in the childhood that what I am doing in some way it will have some impact on the other parts of the world. As the first law of geography is “ everything is related to everything else, but near things are more related than distant things.”  (Knox, P. L., Marston, S. A., Import, M., Nash., A. E. Human Geography: Places and Regions in Global Context 5CE)* As this law is true to a large extent because as we can see nowadays that with the increase of pollution in South Asian countries the ice is melting in north pole and with that level of water is increasing in oceans and flooded the various countries like japan, china, Srilanka, India, America and so on. So all the things are interrelated. So the places that I have visited like my home, school and various places are also facing various places and will let you know how I contributed to solving these problems.

Today we are going to talk about different places that are important in my life which have some impact and my activities also impacted that place. Places are specific geographic settings with distinctive social, physical and cultural attributes. Places provide different opportunities to people to grow in their life and some places limit their growth. Places also provide an arena for contesting social norms. (Knox, P. L., Marston, S. A., Import, M., Nash., A. E. Human Geography: Places and Regions in Global Context 5CE)*.Places have a special for some persons but for others, it doesn’t have a very special meaning. Even the ordinary can also have a special meaning for some persons like a playground or any vacation spot because of sometimes people have a memory with the place so places have a different meaning for different persons like in which we studied it have a special meaning for us but for others who didn’t over there for them it is a usual school like other schools.

Jalal ( my home)

Jalal is a small village with good environment and provides a good economic environment for people. For some people, they see this place as a source of income but for others, it is a place to live and for some persons, they see this place as a vacation spot to meet their relatives. I see this place as my home because I have taken birth at this place and I am living in this place. India is a land of festivals and as we all know that every person in India celebrates every event and festival with full of excitement and the popular festival in India is Dussehra  on that day load Rama killed Ravan the evil man so that Lord Rama can rove that truth and goodness always get victory and on that people meet each other and distribute sweets. As time passed people starting burning crackers and they started thinking that the festival should be celebrated in this way and more and more children burning crackers every year. In the initial years its impact was not so much but as trees are cutting down and because of that the level of pollution is started increasing for some years and it started showing its devastating impacts. Nowadays due to crackers, the smoke makes a cloud over the village and it is all showing yellow colour in sky and visibility was reduced to 2 metres and it was so terrible that people can able to breathe and people get infected with so many dangerous diseases. I was so shocked that why this is happening all around the state then I searched on google for reasons. I got to know that cutting down of trees is a major problem so on that day I made a promise that I will plant two trees on the days that are important to me as my birthday,  the birthday of my family members and on special festivals. Even I consulted with the local community helpers they formed the small organisation and its name is Jalal Sewa Trust and with the help of them, I raised some money through donations and planted trees in my town and in nearby villages. Even we also bought a water cooler machine that dispenses cool and clean water. We established at a place where all members of the village met so that they can drink fresh water. I also made a promise to myself that I will not burn crackers on these festivals I will use that money to plant trees and help needy children.  

St. Xaviers high school

The best part of life is childhood and children spent their childhood in schools and so they have great emotions attached to the school. I spent my childhood in st. Xavier’s high school, rampuraphul. Its the most reputed school in its locality and I had great fun when I was in this school. This school taught about different subjects and also taught me about our environment and pollution. The incidence that I am going to share with you is about pollution. In the October season, farmers near my school cut the rice that they have planted and then they burn down the land to clear the land because another mean of clear the land was very expensive and was not easily available so they burn down the farm. It was a cheap method as economically and didn’t need any special types of equipment. So because of this the children in the school start getting infected by this pollution as many farmers at one point of time burn down the large acres of land and that pollution makes the cloud into the sky and it affects the body of the persons especially the children who were studying in the school even some children’s get infected by asthma and some children’s has to take leave for long weeks because they cannot able to handle that much level of pollution. Even I also took leave from school because I was not able to take breathe. So facing all these problems the administration of the various schools get in tension because they were not able to cover the syllabus of children and getting harm to studies so they decided to take action. Our principal made contact with the superintendent of police that this is a problem and please deal with it. Even the group of schools come together and organised the rally that went through the city. In that rally, we try to explain the harmful impacts of burning land pollution. I was also part of this rally as I was trying to contribute to the action against pollution.

The superintendent of police consulted with the senior officers and ministers and they learned the impact of pollution and they decided to pass the law that the farmers will not be able to burn their farms to clear their lands. At the same time the govt. provided the farmers with the technologies that can clear farms a lot and easily without creating pollution. The burning of farms is reduced to a large extent in Punjab. Even the govt. Decided to penalize the farmer who caught in burning their farms. This law helped a lot to Punjab. This law is also acted as an inspiration for other states and countries who were not able to deal with these problems so also passed this law in their countries as well as states. The farmers are also happy because they are able to get the latest technology which is only available in western countries that cab\n clear lands without taking so much time and do not create pollution. They also get these technologies ate reduceable rates or on rent so that this technology didn’t cost so much to farmers. 

New Delhi ( my venture)

In everyone’s life, one point came when the people have to leave their homes especially students to study in the big cities and that point came in life when I was 19 years old and I was planning for various competitive exams. To study for these exams generally, Delhi is considered as a hub of education so I also started my journey to New Delhi. I was hoping that Delhi would be very beautiful and clean as it is the capital of our country but what is happened was totally strange. The city was full of traffic and they were creating huge pollution that was seemingly beyond control. In the festival seasons, it was very to take breathe even Delhi was considered amongest top 10 countries as most polluted in this world. Trees were cut down at large scale to expand housing and markets and every house has 4 cars to ride for their family members and no one using was using public transport. As I have studied a lot about pollution and their negative outcomes like the cars emit the many harmful greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide which raise the temperature of the earth and due to which many floods are coming across the world. So I was so disturbed when I saw these things but then I made a promise to myself that I will something at my own level that can help the environment to reduce pollution. On that day only I consulted with some NGOs that spread the message to reduce pollution so I joined that NGO started raising a donation. Even we organised rallies at various important locations in new Delhi so to catch the attention of the public to spread awareness and raise donations. As we have collected enough money that we planted so many trees at various locations in the city and also established free water filters at public spots so that people can able to drink cool and clean water. Even we wrote a letter to the govt. of Delhi about various pollution problems in the city and the garbage is not properly separated as it should be separated and all the garbage just goes in one bag. So the implemented certain policies and it was very effective like firstly the govt. Established the two garbage bins that are of different colours so that the recyclable and non- recyclable material goes in different bins. The govt. Planted the trees in huge numbers and it increased the greenery in the city. The big step that is taken by the govt. Was that they passed a law that was even and odd law. According to this law, the law 2 last numbers of the number plate if we add them up and if it makes odd number then it can run on one day, not on next day then on next day the cars with even numbers will able to drive the city. So it helped the lot because so much traffic was reduced in the city. The people also started using transport service as they are not able to drive cars daily so they start using public transport like cars, metro, train and so on. I also feel satisfied and proud as I was thinking I have contributed somewhat in the mission to reduce pollution.

The world impact on me:

The world has impacted me a lot in the sense that it helps me to realize how much it is important to preserve our ecosystem, biodiversity and environment. It looks so beautiful, relaxed and satisfied when we get in touch with beautiful diversity where the air is clean and no pollution is there and no noise. I realized this satisfaction when I came to Canada for the first time. I realized that how much unfair I have done in the past with the environment as I polluted the environment and I was looking for happiness in that thing but real happiness was in this beautiful environment.
In India, I used to burn crackers on festivals and celebrate the festivals and I feel happy. Even I do thrilling activities like riding cars at full speed. It pollutes the environment and creating noise pollution. I got to happy but when I came to Vancouver I was amazed that no one rides the car at high speed and everyone follows the rules and signs. I made a promise to myself now on I will not ride cars at high speed.
The other thing I also get amazed was that majority of the people use public transport that is bus or sky train even the people who own their cars also use public transport so this was the biggest thing  for reduction in pollution in Canada but in India every house have 3 cars and most of the people use their personal vehicles so this was the biggest problem in increase of pollution. On my personal level, I was having a breathing problem in India and I was thinking that I have a problem in my body but I was wrong. It was due to polluted environment and when I came to Canada the problem is vanished on its own even without taking any medicine so this was the major impact of Vancouver on me.
Even in my hometown, we used to build large houses without making any place for gardens. When I came to Vancouver and start observing the things I noticed one pattern in every house that someplace is left for gardens in front of the house and even some houses left the place at the back of their house. Some people I noticed that they grow their own vegetables and food at the back of their house. This thing gave me a strong message and I gave this idea to my family and friends in my hometown and now on they also start leaving some land for nature. They also start planting small plants in front of their houses and start growing grass. Even some people who have lots of empty lands start growing their vegetables without and pesticides so they can eat fresh vegetables and remain healthy.

Causes of pollution and suitable solutions:

As I am discussing my contributions towards reducing the problem of pollution but I want to tell the major sources of pollution. In my geography class, I got a chance to learn about the various causes of pollution and suitable Solutions. The major problem is the burning of fossil fuels like wood, petrol, coal and so on. The burning of these fossil fuels creates air pollution and produces greenhouse gases which increases the temperature of the earth and also destroys the ozone layer. This thing gave birth to very dangerous health problems like asthma and cancer. The suitable solution for this problem is that the nations have to use clean energy resources which are renewable like wind energy, solar energy, hydroelectric plants and nuclear energy. Many countries are using these resources to reduce the amount of pollution like china, Denmark and so on. Another major arising problem which we cannot able to notice is that the rising consumption pattern of people. (Knox, P. L., Marston, S. A., Import, M., Nash., A. E. Human Geography: Places and Regions in Global Context 5CE)*. The people in different countries are demanding more and more resources like food, big houses, clothes and cars so to fulfil their demand the different companies using more and more resources and because of this the amount of pollution is increasing. The answer to this problem is that people have to stop overconsumption they have to demand the basic necessities of life, not the luxury products because to produce that demand the more resources are needed and it exploits nature. Lastly, the thing which is threating the global system but we are enjoying by saying economic development is globalization. Through this, the major industries of the world are establishing their industries in other cities of the world so to exploit the resources of that area d also to fulfil the demand of that area. The more and more people are demanding the more and more these industries are grown so to stop this growth people have to stop consuming the international products and with to the domestic because it didn’t cost like import and export and also boost the domestic economy.
The modern pattern of growth is sustainable development it stans for that people have to use resources in the way that they can save the resources for their future generations. It looks like we are using renewable resources, carbon markets, sustainable agriculture and so on. In this development very factor is looked upon like economic development. Environment protection and everyone gets the same amount of resources.
Its time to stand against the pollution because once the time is passed it will never get back and if we didn’t stand against the pollution at this time then the next step of the pollution is our death so we all should come together and start working on this goal so that we can save our mother earth and give a good and healthy planet to our children as we got from our ancestors.



Retrieved from: Knox, P. I., Martston, S. A., & Imort, M. (2015). Human geography: places and regions in global context. Toronto: Pearson Canada Inv.