When I had first received the project, it felt like a daunting task. Writing research papers has always been a struggle, not necessarily because of the "writing papers" aspect, but because of the research. The first challenge was choosing what to research. A general prompt always leaves me with what felt like too many options, too many directions to choose from, and no way to discern which path would be the right one for me. Fortunately, because of the summer reading for AP Environmental, I'd gained an interest in the environment. Once I knew I wanted an environmental topic, I just had to narrow down which ones were recent enough to fit the bill, and which country my paper should be focused on. China was an obvious choice, being one of the most polluted as well as most populated countries in the world, but India was, as well, and I felt that enough coverage went to China in the news. And there had been quite a stir about the Paris Accords after Donald Trump had declared climate change was a hoax and withdrew from it, so the Paris Accords and how they would affect other countries now that America was out of the equation seemed like an interesting topic. After some cursory research and determining that there was enough material online for me to work with, I posed the question, “To what extent will the Paris Accords affect India’s environment and general health?” and began my work.
At first, I’d expected it to be fairly simple. Pollution is an issue because of how it affects animals, the environment, and most importantly, people. It seemed logical to assume that many would report on things like how health statistics taken in such-and-such country during such-and-such time period compare to health statistics in previously-stated country post-industrialization. However, it didn’t seem like it was as interesting a topic to others as it was to me. I would think of an angle I could use, based on what seemed to be a logical assumption, then find that I had nothing to support it with. Eventually I resigned myself to a less specific thesis, stating what I felt was rather obvious and plain. Signing the Paris Accords will better India’s people’s quality of life and environment. I had to learn to content myself with simple answers, because not everything could be fantastic and brilliant, especially when working with a due date.
There were a few more challenges as I conducted my research. There seemed to be several new developments in India regarding its stance on pollution, and I had to frequently remind myself to check the date on sources to see how recent the data was. For instance, some sources said that India’s coal industry was booming and would eventually run India’s particulate matter through the roof, while more recent ones would claim that India was heading in a direction that was greener than ever. The stories developed as I researched, which would at times confuse me. Once I understood that the contradictions were not necessarily because of unreliable or biased sources, though, I managed to use the conflicting articles to my advantage and prove the extreme changes India has made in response to climate change were effective. But not every challenge ended in something positive. Sometimes I’d dig as deep as I could, only to find dead ends, or I’d realize I’d spent too much time on one point and had run out of time to find more research on another without deviating from my set schedule. I’d learned from my mistakes and bounced back from failures, and, in the end, finished everything I’d needed to do, despite the hurdles.
After the research was completed, the rest fell in almost naturally. Writing was fun, once I’d gotten the hang of in-text citations and signal phrases, and before I knew it, I’d written six pages on the Paris Accords and pollution in India. The ease seemed to come from the amount of research that I’d done, even if not all of it was used in the end. It all paid off. And, though I may not know my grade as of yet, I can’t help but feel pride in my work and the way I’d overcome my obstacles.