Selecting My Research Topic
When brainstorming an international news event to compose my research essay on, I did not have the slightest foresight into what topic to explore or what my final product would look like. Then while I was listening to a lecture on atmospheric trends in my environmental science class, my teacher directed the discussion to the calamity in India that led me down the rabbit hole of discovery: the South Asian Brown Cloud. I was no stranger to the devastating degree of air pollution generated in rapidly-developing countries, but I suddenly found myself intrigued by this physical manifestation of mankind's consumptive culture. As I browsed through the internet in hopes of piecing together the full story behind India's toxic smog, I came across several photographs that further compelled my investigation. The most disconcerting of these visuals, however, was a series of a satellite images depicting an apocalyptic haze looming over the Asian continent, harking back to the smoke-filled skies of Europe during the Industrial Revolution but also featuring cyclonic imagery reminiscent to the outbreak of Hurricane Florence during mid-September. While I knew that the circulation of air particulates from the South Asian Brown Cloud would have an immediate impact on rural agriculture, India additionally contained religious significance to me as birthplace of Buddhism. Every Vietnamese New Year, my family visited our local temple where we walked through a glimmering gallery of white monuments built in commemoration of the life of Buddha. After viewing statue after statue, I became enthralled with the culture that arose from this smog-stricken country, and these influential experiences along with my studies in environmental science inspired my research on the agricultural industry of India.
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Composing The Essay
Before I started my research, my initial speculation was that the South Asian Brown Cloud would devastate India's food cultivation since foreign contaminants could infiltrate and disrupt biological processes occurring within the crops, ultimately costing the industry millions in repercussions. Along the way, though, I uncovered a hidden variable that presented another level of intricacy into the interplay between biology and economics: the regional geography. Although my working hypothesis asserted that urban industrialism was a prominent factor behind agricultural decline, I adapted the essential question to not only explore the downstream effects of air pollution on farming but to expound upon the country's inescapable landscape that leave these hazardous substances land-locked. One obstacle I encountered during my research was the sheer scarcity of relevant publications on the recommended databases, which forced me to peruse through various web articles updated within the last six months. Despite this minor complication, the previously advised note-taking strategies enabled me to evaluate the credibility of these sources with confidence by going through the procedure of identifying the speaker in context. Much to my dismay, there were no major developments concerning the South Asian Brown Cloud, but in the end I was very pleased with the depth of discussion presented in my essay. While India has yet to ascent into a society free from the withering clutches of air pollution, the potential outlook for government involvement is a national venture sure to appear on the horizon.
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