Man’s irresponsibility is the major cause of haze.

Discuss

India. Indonesia. China. Malaysia. These are just a few places on note which
have hit the headlines year after year due to the nefarious nebula of dust
particles, carbon monoxide and sulphur dioxide among its other components
which are detrimental to our health – haze. In our national curriculum for Biology
and Chemistry in upper secondary schools, textbook writers point fingers at
mankind as the leading culprit of this heinous crime towards the environment.
However, while I give my assent to the fact that man’s irresponsibility is the major
cause of haze, it must be justified that there are other henchmen lurking in the
shadows which have contributed greatly to this form of aerial pollution. Besides
man’s irresponsibility in waste management and fuel emissions, Mother Nature
itself has a part to play with its dry weather.

Man’s irresponsibility manifests itself in various forms, one which is in waste

management. Improper waste management is one of the primary reasons which
cause haze. In Saddleworth Moor, between Sheffield and Manchester, it was
bonfires which caused such a ravenous fire that it took three weeks and more
than 100 firefighters to put out the blaze. The smoke caused by the horrific
flames were clearly visible on satellites, charting a high air pollutant level of 8
upon a scale of 10 in nearby counties, and a much higher rate in the moor itself.
Closer to home, various palm oil companies in Indonesia order their workers to
burn their palm oil plantations instead of felling them to save costs, causing the
annual haze that looms over the Straits of Malacca, affecting not one but three
countries including their own, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. Ironically,
despite numerous talks between the three countries, it took many years for the
Indonesian government for concede to a stricter implementation on
environmental protection laws in the country. Despite this, certain estates have
not given up on their selfish ways, and their workers, out of habit and
encouragement from superiors, continue this irresponsible matchstick-striking
year after year. Although haze caused by this can be easily curbed by taking
more environmentally-friendly measures to dispose of agricultural and domestic
waste, man often choose to seek the easy way out by playing with fire. Fire, like
words, is a double edged sword, but our materialistic money-makers see it as an
economical device of disposal instead of a destructive weapon which kills not
only the environment, but themselves as well. Sadly, they do not pay the price
alone, instead inducing suffering and disruption all round.

In addition to this, man’s irresponsibility extends to fuel emissions in developing

countries and developed countries. fuel emissions come from various sources,
such as factories gaseous emissions of sulphur dioxide and carbon dioxide and
vehicular emissions of the deadly carbon monoxide. Take for example India,
where the traffic menace in densely populated cities such as Delhi play a big role
in contributing to the hazardous smog, giving it the undesirable title of most
polluted city in the world of 2018. In Beijing, China, heavy industrialisation causes
its infamous smog every year, which was so intense that when the Beijing
Olympics were held in 2008, drastic measures had to be taken by temporarily
moving factories to the outskirts of the city to reduce the air pollution in the
sporting arenas. Looking back in history, London’s signature pea-souper smog
during the Industrial Revolution springs to mind, to the extent that it had become
a staple feature of literature of the era, such as Dickens’ Oliver Twist. Man has to
shoulder the blame for all these choking fumes, for their inventions of fuel-driven
cars, plastic and other synthetic inventions of the last century did not come with
solutions to balance the toil taken on the environment with the benefits they
reaped from these conveniences. Today, with environmentalists cooking up
solutions to filter and cleanse these fuel emissions, many still choose to do
without them, an irresponsible choice for which they will suffer the consequences
for later in life.

Apart from man’s irresponsibility in the aspects above, dry weather,

uncontrollable by Man’s hands, play a significant part in inducing haze. The toxic
combination of dry climates and intense temperatures lead to forest fires in
California and bushfires throughout Australia naturally and annually. Australia is
especially prone to bushfires due to its extensive eucalyptus plantations with high
oil content, rendering them highly flammable hazards in the dry seasons. In the
year 2018 alone, forest fires have accounted for 1 million acres of destruction in
California alone, and the raging fires still burn are we speak, with the casualty
counter rising rapidly. Needless to say such infernos cause enormous clouds of
smoke as a direct result of burning, which result in looming haze days and weeks
after the fires have been extinguished. To further illustrate the truth that man’s
irresponsibility is not completely to blame, allow me to call to your attention the
Paris Agreement 2015, a global pact to reduce greenhouse gas emissions which
was signed by all countries save the United States of America. However,
statisticians predicted that even if all signatories cooperated fully by reducing
their carbon emissions by the pledged percentage, the global carbon footprint will
only be reduced by 0.02% by the year 2020. Thus, man’s irresponsibility may be
a major player in the contribution towards carbon footprint, but its effects no
matter how huge are only a dent in the Earth’s shield, and there are greater
forces at work.

In conclusion, man’s irresponsibility is indeed the major cause of haze, but

nature’s dry spells playing into the field have to shoulder some blame as well.
The government should take measures to enforce environmental preservation
laws, as well as educate the general public on the damaging effects on haze, not
simply through school children’s textbooks, but through age-transcending
platforms such as mass media and public awareness campaigns. We as
educated members of the public should also play an active role by making a
change by installing fuel catalysers in our cars, and calling out acquaintances to
make this small change to become more responsible towards the environment.