What do Children Think of Air Pollution?

It is a truth seldom acknowledged that children rarely get to make their own choices.

Consider the following:

Children’s books, children’s special programmes on TV, colorings books for children, children's’ clothing, etc.

Do children actually have a say in deciding what they’d like to read or wear or watch? Not likely. Adults choose what kids should get, and mostly for the right reasons.

However, at Devic Earth, we thought we’d actually get to know what children thought about a few things. We’re constantly speculating ways of addressing air pollution, and this time we wanted to do it a little differently. We went about asking children a few questions about what they thought of air pollution, and how they would like the future of their planet to be. If this writer is going to be honest, the answers were unexpected and thought-provoking.

Most of the children we interviewed seemed to have a hands-on idea of what air pollution is. This was impressive on the one hand, and on the other, a rather grim reminder of what we have come to as a world.

Anyway. We asked the kids questions about air pollution and how to tackle it, and they responded with alacrity.

1. How do you want the air to be?

We want the air to be clean.

A lot of places don’t have good air, and we need to breathe clean air.

We see so many pollutants flying around in the air, like dust and plastic bags. It should be clean, notes Jhanvi.

2. Okay, if you say air should be clean, why should it?

We breathe air to stay alive.

The human body and the lungs will be affected by breathing bad air, says Abhilash.

If you breathe dirty air, you will fall sick. Having cough and cold will not let us do what we want to.

Pradyumna, 10, notes that when air pollution happens, coronavirus also happens.

3. What kind of a world do you want to live in?

We want to live in a world where there’s no pollution. There should be lots of plants. Plants should grow.

Air is for every life form. If we don’t have air, we won’t exist on this planet.

4. How do you think we can make the situation better?

We shouldn’t use vehicles for nearby places. We should either walk or cycle.

No need to burn things, instead you can recycle them. Also don’t smoke, it’s not good for the air.

We get more oxygen when we plant trees, since plants take the carbon dioxide from the air.

Harnoon, 8, says cars operating on electrical and solar energy are the answer. Vehicles should be checked regularly so that they don’t emit dirty pollutants. Use CNG gas for cars so they don’t pollute.

Factories should be built far away from cities, says Reyansh, 9. And they should always have long chimneys.

Oxygen helps your lungs breathe, declares Pradyumna. Day by day, factories pollute the air. We should take care of our environment. I planted some seeds last week, and they need water so that they can grow.

Hear it from Daksh, 11: Air pollution causes diseases like bronchitis, lung cancer, and even blood problems. It affects many body parts. Air pollution affects not just humans, plants and animals, but can indirectly affect the economy.

(Whoa. This one’s an Einstein in the making.)

5. How does clean air help achieve our goals?

We need to be alive in order to achieve our goals.

If we don’t take action now, the future will be even worse.

Thus spoke Ishaan Kumar, Hardik and Kirthika Kashyap: Oxygen is important for us, we need to breathe clean air. Breathing clean air makes the world better. There’s no life without it.

Air is our life, we should not pollute air.

(We know. We’re in adoration as well.)

It is universally acknowledged that children love trees. Image Courtesy: launchgood.com