Link to article: https://apnews.com/article/pakistan-smog-unicef-children-toxic-air-0c152d787769389b9e7c17ced01dd9a4
For the last month, toxic smog has blanketed Punjab, a province located in Pakistan, and Northern India, resulting in over 40,000 people requiring treatment for respiratory ailments. On Monday, November 11th, The UN Children’s Agency issued a warning of the dangers this poses to the health of the 11 million children under the age of 5 in Punjab. Previously, 12 percent of deaths in children under the age of 5 could be attributed to air pollution, but as UNICEF’s Pakistani representative, Abdullah Fadil, stated, the amount of pollution in the air has doubled and tripled to record-breaking levels over the past year, consequently tripling its effects on young children. Since Monday, Pakistan authorities have shut down all public parks, museums, and schools until at least November 17th, and has ordered face masks be worn as the air quality readings climb to 800, 300 and above being considered hazardous to health. Authorities have also been urging Punjab citizens to limit unnecessary travels in the hope to reduce illnesses.
There is a history of smog surrounding South Asia, specifically in Eastern Pakistan and Northern India, but the levels have gradually increased over the years, worsening every winter, and finally reached record-breaking levels of toxic smog this year. The smog is mostly the result of biomass burning, the burning of wood and crop wastes to produce fuel, but India is also the world’s third largest emitter of greenhouse gases, which contributes to both the smog levels and climate change as a whole. This article is important to display how bad the toxic smog in India and Pakistan has gotten, and how citizens, specifically children under the age of 5, are paying for it with their lives.
Theoretically, it would be logical for both Pakistan and India to cut down on biomass burning in order to decrease smog levels, but I doubt that would actually be an option considering it is such a critical resource of energy. It is likely that the UN Children’s Agency will act in some way since they have already called attention to the dangers for children under 5, and seeing as the levels are the highest they’ve ever been, the effects on children will also be the worst they’ve ever been. The Pakistani government has already shut down schools and restricted travel, which I expect they will continue to impose until conditions improve.
Relating to the topics we have discussed in class, the smog in Pakistan and India is an issue of global cooperation in terms of primarily global health, but global warming as well. The UN has already issued warnings surrounding the health of Pakistani and Indian citizens, but it is difficult to enforce the limitation of biomass burning and pollution because of a lack of world government. Additionally, it would make sense for both countries to reduce the amount of burning in order to benefit both smog levels and global warming, but again, there is no world government to enforce this.