This Is… Our Future?

Elena Mukhina (Russia)
Eco-generation Prize

Air. Three letter word that means so much for everyone across the Earth. We start our lives with a breath of air and with the same horrific assurance it all can end if we no longer can get one. Still people around the world do so little to save air from pollution; however the consequences can be felt even now, which surely makes global community pay attention to the coming catastrophe that can possibly lead to the end of all life on our planet.
From school and parents we all know that air we breathe with is polluted because of transport, factories, different industries and etc. The more we talk about this problem the more we think that it is widely understood and almost solved. In fact, solutions that were found and actions that were taken are still not enough to deal even with a small part of air pollution. Furthermore, some people strongly believe that this problem is overrated and there is nothing dangerous in it at all. Unfortunately, it is completely diametrically opposite.
There are lots of cities that can be examples of destructive consequences of air pollution, but let’s start by taking a closer look at one of the most polluted cities on Earth – Delhi, India. Level of air pollution here is even worse than in Beijing, China which is mostly known for its permanent smog. That happened because of huge amount of old and harmful for ecology cars, enormous quantity of different dumps and coal based power plants. All of this leads to increasing numbers of people that suffering from various diseases and even deaths. One study declares that air pollution is the 5th largest death factor in India and Delhi is one of the cities where this problem is critical.  However, all terrible facts stated above are not the only dangerous consequences that air pollution can cause. This example still describes local problems that vary from city to city, when there is a bigger and even more horrifying monster waiting to destroy our planet.
Global warming. This two words sound not as scary as Kraken, for instance, but indeed it is more real and frightening danger for Earth and every single human on it. Global warming is one of the worst and scariest consequences of air pollution. For the great majority of people this is the problem which one day will cause another Great Flood. This scenario is surely probable in future, but one cannot deny there are more possible crises to happen. Some of them are more obvious, some less, but humanity should be prepared for all of them.
Air pollution is the reason for global warming; global warming is the reason of climate change and climate change is the reason for migration of miscellaneous species. This point of chain is where the possible disaster takes its beginning. Migration can lead to different problems: some species can disappear because they will not be able to find food, some will not be able to find new homes and some will not be able to migrate at all, which will cause their immediate extinction. However, problems can affect people too. One should not forget that migration possible not only for animals, but for insects as well. Also we all must keep in mind that some insects are dangerous due to their ability to spread deadly diseases. People can retrain these fevers on specific territories, where dangerous insects have their habitats, but it is about to change. As insects will spread all over the world the possibility of the most deadly pandemic will get higher and higher. Mostly all tropical fevers are still cannot be cured which will put in danger millions and even billions around the globe. Can you imagine West Nile fever epidemic in Siberia? It sounds not so ridiculous and unimaginable even now.
The problem is clear now, but what are the solutions? There are different levels of dealing with air pollution: for governments and for everyone. It is crystal clear that politicians must start caring more about air quality all over our planet; some important actions are needed: all factories must be turned to eco-friendly in nearest future, public transport must become absolutely emission-free everywhere and owners of harmless for ecology private transport must get their benefits from government. Nevertheless, one should accept that solving global problems is about everyone. Every human on Earth must be more responsible about environment, step by step we should give up old cars and change them for new and emission-free, we must avoid companies that do not care about our planet and we should use every possibility to make our air a little clearer. Even small. Stop smoking, for example.
Earth is in danger and there is only one possibility to save our planet. If we save it.
If not, imagine…
Imagine the place, where people buy clean air in special bottles. This is Beijing, China.
Imagine the place, where the snow is black. This is Norilsk, Russia.
Imagine the place, where parents forbid their children to play outside. This is Delhi, India.
Imagine the place, where average life expectancy is close to Upper Paleolithic period - 42 years. This is Dzerzhinsk, Russia.
Imagine the place, where you open the window without checking your air quality app. This is… our future?