Totally Winded
Pollution: Is it just the environment?

Hey, it’s Catty and until now, I was all fun and games. But doesn’t everybody have a serious side? In this -as people commonly use the term- ‘gas chamber’, fun and games isn’t exactly possible. As you know, I am going to talk about the poison that is spreading through the northern belt of India. Pollution. Not very nice, is it?
As you may have noticed in the title, I asked you a question. Do you know the answer? Well, it is no. The only reason we are forced to shut our homes and cut off other people from our shell, is our own foolhardiness. We are not only polluting the environment; we are polluting our own hearts. We are bursting crackers-which in my view, is not foolhardy, it is stupid- and are polluting the environment even more than we already have. If not for ourselves, think of those animals who suffered day and night after we had about five seconds of fun with our firecrackers on Diwali and then said, “Let’s go home.” We have ruined the festival of lights and made it the festival of non-visibility. Very funny. But crackers don’t hold up as much as a well, cracker to the main reason. Greed.
A certain company that actually lobbied for a law in Punjab and got it passed is the root of this problem. That company is Monsanto. About a decade ago, Monsanto petitioned for delayed growth of rice in the state of Punjab. The government passed a law, called the Punjab Preservation of Subsoil Water Act of 2009, which forced the farmers to grow rice later in the year and grow BT cotton first. The primary benefactor of the growth of BT cotton was, you guessed it, Monsanto. Now let me explain a phenomena to you. The monsoon winds come from the west first and then, in about mid-October, the directions change and start coming from the north. Now, due to the late growth of paddy, the clearing of paddy also gets delayed. The farmers use a method called slash and burn agriculture. They cut up the stubble and then they burn it. The burning is carried out late, and by then, the winds would have changed their direction, coming from the north and carrying the entire amount of smoke and dust with them.

Did you know the AQI on Sunday the 3rd of November stood at 817? I mean, if that can’t bring sense into us, then I don’t know what can. We are readying ourselves to soon join the species that is known as extinct.
I’ve heard enough people drone on about the ‘sixth mass extinction’ and such, and I am not in concurrence with them. They believe it can be stopped; I do not. The thing I do believe is we can stop the most idiotic mass extinction. The animals who died in the first five; they were helpless as they did not have support. But we, we are developing new technologies every day to battle severe problems like climate change and such. But these days, what are we interested in? Definitely not this. The world is in denial of what it will face. That is the reason for the pollution. Not us bursting crackers or farmers burning stubble. Our blindness towards the truth will kill us, and it will not be pretty.
I end this by saying, thank you, Wikipedia, for the info, and thanks readers for being there along the one-year journey I have made. Yes, I am now a year old, as my birth occurred on the 12th of this month last year. So, hope to see you again and here’s a humble request: Stay with me. Because this was the best journey I’ve made.
References
Wikipedia
