1. I see traffic(vehicles) as one of the biggest contributors to the pollution and it’s just not the air pollution. Alternative feul vehicles or Green vehicles can help reduce it drastically. No more than 2 vehicles should be allowed per household (particularly in metro cities). Also, the signals and roads must have a lot of trees planted around them.
2. Factories emitting harmful gases and other substances and releasing the waste into the rivers, lakes, or into other sources of water must be penalized. The factories should be installed far away from the residential areas where there is minimum or no exposure to the waste.
3. In cases when cutting trees is inevitable, for every single tree that’s being cut at least 2 trees must be planted otherwise as much as you can. And as long as there are no strong policies/ laws, these things will never stop the pace they are running at.
4. Another biggest contributor is plastic and everyone is well aware of it. It’s everywhere and it has blemished the oceans, the lakes, the mountains, the roads, the streets, and the list just goes on. There are numerous alternatives (biodegradable materials) but they’re not being brought into the use for whatever reason and they won’t be until we abandon using plastic completely.
The first and the foremost thing that is needed is people to be aware of the seen and the unseen damage that they’re doing. Their disregard and negligence about this matter is the biggest hurdle. It should not be just government’s or any other organization’s responsibility. It’s should us, everyone of us.
And if looked at closely the population is another big factor to this. More population need more resources to survive which ultimately leads to people exploiting things to the extent that can’t be reversed and recovered. Educating kids right from their childhood to revere and protect the environment is very important. We should make it as a regular practice in our routine life like any other activities and not just talking about it on the Earth day or Environment day. Because environment doesn’t need us(humans), we need it.