Pollution Due to Vehicular Emissions Case Study

Pollution Due to Vehicular Emissions - Case Study Example It changed from a colonial headquarters to a national capital. It was suddenly the most important and active center for governance, commerce, industry, culture and education. The consequent rise in population and economic activity resulted in the city's unprecedented growth. With civic amenities not being able to keep pace with the city's expansion in terms of population, vehicles, loss of green cover and so on, pollution rose and touched alarming levels. The state government along with non-government organizations and concerned citizens including school children has been aware for some time now about the urgency of keeping pollution under control. Some measures have been taken though the battle against pollution is still far from won. This paper examines the problem of pollution caused by vehicular emissions in the Indian Capital of New Delhi. The steps taken to control it, subsequent results and future intentions are discussed briefly. According to the White Paper on Pollution in Delhi, 1997, 67% of the total air pollution can be attributed to vehicular emissions. The phenomenal increase in number of vehicles in Delhi can be best appreciated when one is confronted with actual numbers. According to the same paper it is learnt that number of vehicles in Delhi rose from two hundred and thirty five thousand in 1975 to two million six hundred and twenty nine thousand in 1996! While in 1975 the number of vehicles in Delhi and Mumbai were about the same, by 1997, Delhi had three times the number of vehicles in Mumbai. Understanding the urgency of the situation the Ministry of Environment and Forests after much deliberation with concerned government agencies, NGOs, experts and citizens, produced a comprehensive Action Plan that prescribed a number of measures to combat Delhi's rapidly increasing pollution. It was quite clear that if the air in Delhi was to be cleared, vehicular emissions had to be addressed first of all in any strategy to control air pollution in the city. Earlier in 1995 the Centre for Science and Environment had succeeded in creating awareness among the people of the dangers of air pollution in Delhi. The CSE campaign called for a shift from use of diesel as fuel for vehicles in Indian cities towards Compressed Natural Gas. Eventually, in December 2002 the Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) program was implemented. All public transport vehicles had to run on CNG only. Air quality in Delhi improved perceptibly yet there was still much scope for improvement. Five years later, by November 2007, an alarm went up again with annual average levels of reparable suspended particulate matter showing an upward swing the previous year. It was believed that the gains from the CNG program had been lost with all first generation options having been exhausted. Sunita Narain, Director CSE said strict measures needed to be taken with a second generation of reforms that would address new challenges. The rate at which the city was adding new personal vehicles each day to its roads doubled that of the pre-CNG days. However, the gravity of the situation was not lost on at least some members of the government and the Chief Minister of Delhi, Ms Sheila

Should be banned or not smoking in the sociery Essay

Should be banned or not smoking in the sociery - Essay Example Some of these arguments are seen to include. Why Smoking should not be banned in Society Proponents of smoking point out that most societies accept that adults can be able to decide to cause some form of harm to their individual selves as long as such harm is not seen to extend to other individuals. As such, the imposition of smoking bans in public places is not essentially valid as passive smokers who do not wish to involuntarily inhale tobacco smoke should naturally avoid going to places where smoking has been allowed. Proponents of smoking point out that as a result of its being legal for individuals to be allowed to smoke, it is essentially not within the rights of governments to try and cause people to desist from smoking. Smokers are not a liability to anyone as they are able to find their own healthcare via the relatively high taxes that they happen to pay on tobacco and in any case, any efforts by the government to try and dissuade smokers from smoking would be extremely diff icult as heavy smokers are normally seen to be addicted to nicotine and cannot be able to give up on smoking easily. It is also pointed out that any attempts to ban smoking in public spaces would have the involuntary effect of driving most clubs, bars and pubs out of business as smokers would avoid going to such places. These businesses would also be seen to run the risk of generating less revenue by any bans on tobacco sales (Whittingdale 130). In most places, pubs are seen to be social communal centers that aid in bringing the members of a given community together and in addition to this function, they also provide ample job opportunities for individuals that might happen to be having relatively few job skills. As opposed to attempting to place a ban on smoking, pubs should be encouraged to set up non-smoking bars to cater for the needs of the non-smoking patrons. There is a relatively large number of non-smokers who are seen to be working in smoky environments and do not seem to mind it. Most individuals are of the view that it is better for them to be working in the smoky job environment as opposed to the unenviable option of not having any job at all. In the event that an organization happens to employ a large number of non-smokers, it is possible for the company to invest in the installation of ventilation fans to help in removing the smoke from the office. Why Smoking should be banned in Society Scientists have been able to show that smoking is fraught with a number of dangers as it can lead to cancer, heart disease and stroke. According to Hong, the use of tobacco is largely considered to be the single largest cause of cases of preventable cancer deaths across the world. Cigarette smoking is estimated to account for an approximated over 1 million cancer deaths in the world each year, with a staggering ninety percent of lung cancer incidents and mortality cases being attributed to smoking (386). In addition to this menace, smoking has been shown to not only harm the smokers, but also any people who might happen to be near the smoking individual in what is commonly referred to as passive smoking. Although the smoker makes the active decision to engage in smoking, the people around the smoker essentially do not make the decision to smoke in a passive manner and as such, a complete ban on smoking in society should be effected so as to effectively protect such individuals. The enforcement of a ban on smoking would serve to encourage smokers