Some believe that the panacea to all global environmental issues is raising the price of fossil fuels of private vehicles. I completely disagree with this argument as this would only reduce the effects of global warming. In my opinion, a more holistic approach to solving the current ecological crisis is by educating people to adopt more sustainable practices in all spheres of life.
Global warming, arising from the high carbon emission rates of cars and other personal vehicles, has significantly been responsible for several issues, such as harsh climatic changes and melting of Arctic-Antarctic ice glaciers. Furthermore, smoke from private vehicles has considerably degraded the air quality of metropolitan areas, leading to respiratory diseases like asthma. For instance, since the recent surge in the number of cars, the world has witnessed drastic variations in climatic conditions and numerous natural calamities such as hurricanes, cyclones and tornadoes. Therefore, measures such as increasing the cost of fossil fuels and shifting to alternative fuels like solar energy is crucial to mitigate the effects of global warming.
However, in my opinion, increasing the price of car fuels alone would not sufficiently solve all nature’s problems. A more effective strategy would be to enhance people’s understanding of the current situation, prompting them to adopt sustainability over convenience. For example, in India, dumping of untreated industrial wastes into water bodies has critically dropped the quality of the water, killing massive number of fishes and algae, disrupting the ecological food chain. Similarly, cutting down of trees for constructions, burning of plastics, and so on, have severe effects on the environment. Hence, to effectively approach the ongoing global crisis, government authorities should raise national awareness and educate their citizens through campaigns, advertisements and leaflets, leading to an overall shift from destructive ideologies and selfish activities that harm the nature. This would urge people to voluntarily migrate to alternative fuels, save water and plant more trees.
To conclude, while increasing the cost of petroleum fuels can help reduce air pollution and the repercussions of global warming, it cannot adequately meet all the environmental problems worldwide. Educating people to rethink their current practices through governmental intervention would be a more holistic approach to encourage change and adopt sustainability.