Being a youngster and attending parties always gets one question hurled at me more often than I had imagined: ‘Do you smoke?’ and if I happen to be in a metropolitan city of India, my answer is always ‘Yes, but unwillingly’.
We read hundreds of air quality reports, get enraged about delayed flights due to lack of visibility, see foreign cricketers wearing masks while playing in our country and watch viral videos of cars piling up on freeways with more injuries than NASCAR; but are we only recipients of news or something worse comes our way?
One fine morning, as I flipped open the daily newspaper and skipped past a couple of pages with only ads in it (fortunately I don’t have to wait 5 seconds to skip these ads), the first page seemed to shock me. ’14 of world’s 15 most polluted cities in India’, said one headline. ‘Taj Mahal turning green due to pollution’ read the other. Now I am not a big fan of metaphors, but we really seem to be in the eye of the storm in this case. That which can cause a discoloration of a marble structure can surely cause deadly diseases in the human organs too, and most definitely the tender lungs!
We are with pollution right now, where we used to be with cigarette smoking during the 60s in terms of seriousness. The only difference is, we have a fair bit of knowledge about the ill effects of this silent killer. During the 60s in developed countries, youngsters, even teenagers were smoking rampantly along with parents. We were allowed to smoke in flights and it was a lifestyle choice rather than a vice. Then came along studies which showed adverse health effects and diseases found through decades of research; proving it to be a carcinogen. Tobacco lobbies tried hard and long to sustain but better sense prevailed. The youngsters growing up in developing countries like India seem to be going through that hellish phase again, only this time it is not the 6 inch deadly stick, but the 6 foot carbon emitting vehicle and unchecked industrial pollution, all being justified by hiding under the veil of ‘necessary evil for development’ in our third world nation.
A few decades down the line, we might get deadly reports of long exposure to Particulate Matter (PM) inhaled by the present youth, showing its effects later in life. But it will be too late by then. We already have results of safe Air Quality standards being a boon to people and home air filters selling like hot cakes. Global Warming is no new subject either. We have all read it in our Environmental Science books as school children, and even though it is difficult to imagine the decline of global civilization due to rising temperatures, it is not so difficult to realize what it does to our body mechanisms in short term.
So, the question is, what can we do? Our bit can’t be quantified, but here’s what can make a difference even if we don’t see it straight away – We can definitely shun private vehicles for public transport, switch to electric vehicles and solar energy and permanently throw away the mentality of flicking out our garbage anywhere we like (out of the car, on the road, out of our apartments, on trekking sites etc.). We can boycott plastic usage to protect our rivers and not be afraid to shame/educate anyone who doesn’t seem to care about this overlooked matter. After all, our generation will be the first guinea pigs to show carcinogenic signs, and based on these, prevention laws will be passed. But we don’t want to lay down our lives for civil laws, do we?
