There has been a great deal of noise over deteriorating air quality of Bangladesh. Multifarious reasons are to be blamed for the dismal situation. The most crucial one is emission from the burning of fossil fuels. The key to reduction of emission is highly dependent on people’s understanding about the issue and consequent actions.
Every year, a day has been earmarked for observing as “Zero Emissions Day” with the purpose of ‘giving our planet one day off a year’. This year it was observed worldwide on September 21 in a befitting manner.
In 2008, the day was initiated by environmental activist Ken Wallace in Nova Scotia, Canada. Campaigns are organised for raising awareness about our carbon footprint and how to keep it at a minimum level, while encouraging the public to try and avoid it as much as it will be feasible. We are aware that avoiding emissions one day of the year out of three hundred and sixty-five days is not sufficient enough to get rid of the menace. So, emphasis has been given on creating sufficient awareness among the people to potentially do better on their day to day lives.
The initiative first began with workshops held in schools to educate the students about their daily carbon footprint and its long-term effects. Having an impact on the younger generation will uproot generations worth of wrong doings to the environment as they start these monitored practices from an early age. It gradually spread worldwide and broader ranges of campaigns for people of all age groups and backgrounds have been put to practice.
According to Macrotrend’s yearly statistics, the Greenhouse Gas (GHS) emissions of Bangladesh in 2020 was found to be 206,570.35, which was a 2.63% decline from the year 2019. There has been a clear decline in greenhouse gas emissions from 2018 onwards, but it is far from the significant increase it had in the years prior, which has been found to be 218% from the year 1990 up till 2017. This shows that even though the situation is far from being solved and brought down to a manageable standard, we are moving forward to a better understanding and implementation of the measures to eventually do so.
These awareness raising initiatives are resulting in an improvement from the small-scale levels. But the industry level authorities are not aware enough of these emissions. Even though it affects not only the environment and people residing near the sites, but also the workers involved in these industries, and they are well aware of the laws against the excessive “business-as-usual” system, they continue to solely focus on profit levels and economic growth. This mentality will be the cause of substantial growth in the percentage of GHGs in Bangladesh’s air.
Bangladesh is rich in agriculture, especially livestock and rice production. As much as it is a significant part of our heritage and economic health, these agricultural practices are also large sources of Methane (CH4), which is a very strong GHG. According to the Worldometer, Bangladesh had produced 74,476,230 tonnes of Carbon dioxide from fossils in 2016. All these emissions literally go nowhere but up in the air, the one thing that is in dire need of purification and protection.
All these emissions, besides contaminating the air quality of our country, have a number of health effects as well. It causes cardiac diseases, lung infections, respiratory tract infections, damaged brain capacity, anaemia, asthma, and countless more diseases. All emissions that fall under the PM2.5 category or smaller is capable of getting into the blood stream and directly affecting multiple organs and their functions, be it effective immediately or gradually with time. The more severe victims to this are the more vulnerable population, children, pregnant women, elderly people.
In the November 2021 Climate Change summit by the United Nations (UN) in Glasgow, Bangladesh reiterated that it will reduce 22% of carbon emissions by the year 2030. Bangladesh has claimed to take the initiative of cutting down on 96.1% its energy sectors such as transport, power, household, industry, forestry, agriculture, brick kilns and fugitive emissions. And cutting down on agriculture and livestock, forestry, and municipal wastes and wastewater are supposed to bring the remaining 3.9%. But this will require not only the knowledge being spread amongst the country’s population but also commitments and assistance from economically larger, developed countries.
Observing annual days like Zero Emission Day might only be an excuse to promote these issues and encourage movements and campaigns like this, but the impact it holds the potential to have on not just our country, but also our dearly beloved planet that we are so desperately claiming to try and protect. Clear pictures know that we are well aware of the damages we have caused to our own home, our land and air. That means with the right influence and substantial economical support as no one will be willing to give that up, we too can overcome our damaging deep-rooted habits and collecting put our hands forward to protect the earth.
Starting from small initiatives like workshops, reading and writing pieces like this article, educating our younger ones, to more noticeable ones like taking up these studies as a career, investing in good causes towards these initiatives and practicing and maintaining carbon footprint responsibility; all of count towards a better possibility at a longer and healthier survival of the planet. Changes in personal life behaviours can bring about a great deal of differences. Besides this, authorities need to start taking bigger steps too. It takes a lot of influence and higher authorities’ willingness to make changes to factor like this. Zero Emission Day should not only be observed for the sake of it annually, but practiced genuinely on daily basis if it is in our intensions to really bring about any positive alterations.
[The writer is Chairman, Department of Environmental Science, Stamford University Bangladesh]