To Reduce the Adverse Impact of Fossil Fuels on the Environment in Indian Context

Abstract

Over the past quarter century, we have come to realize that there is more to life than material goods and services, that "some of the best things in life are free." The pleasure we derive from breathing fresh air, drinking pure water, and enjoying the beauty that nature has provided is priceless and must not be sacrificed. Moreover, losing them will lead directly or indirectly to incalculable economic losses. We have come to appreciate the importance of our environment. Much has been said and written about environmental problems with nuclear power, and they will be discussed at great length in this paper. But in this paper, we consider the wide variety of environmental problems in burning fossil fuels like coal, oil, and gas. They probably exceed those of any other human activity. The ones that have received the most publicity in recent years have been the "greenhouse effect," which is changing the Earth's climate; acid rain, which is destroying forests and killing fish; and air pollution, which is killing tens of thousands of citizens every year worldwide, while making tens of millions ill and degrading our quality of life in other ways [1]. We will discuss each of these in turn, and then summarize some of the other problems that have drawn lesser attention. But first we must begin with some basics.

Keywords: Fossil fuel, Air pollution, Indian Cities, Climate change mitigation