Students Suicides

GS PAPER-II

Context:Three students committed suicide in Rajasthan’s Kota, which is known as India’s education and coaching capital. Known for producing IITians, physicians, and engineers, Kota has been in the spotlight in recent years due to student suicides and despair.

What exactly is suicide?

• Suicide is the deliberate act of killing oneself.
• Mental and physical illnesses, drug misuse, anxiety and depression are risk factors.
• Some suicides are spontaneous acts motivated by stress (for example, financial or academic challenges), interpersonal issues (such as breakups or divorces), or harassment and bullying.
• Despite the fact that suicide is absolutely avoidable, India is losing more people to it.

What are the reasons behind these alarming stats of student’s suicide in India?

• Education in India has been considered as a route to job and livelihood rather than to knowledge.
• Many students and their families aspire to the coveted’sarkarinaukri’ (government employment) in order to escape their fragile social, caste, and class situations.
• Because the Union government has failed to strengthen the country’s educational infrastructure, exam-oriented coaching has become the standard.
• Taking advantage of the ‘hope for a brighter future,’ coaching centres have arisen as one of the most important sectors in the education sector. These centres, however, are increasingly perceived as prisons for the many young people who join them, where their bodies, spirits, and dreams are subdued.
• Students from marginalised groups are pushed further to the margins due to a variety of factors, including a lack of English-medium education, high fees charged by private institutions, poor quality education in government-run schools and institutes, rising economic inequality, graduates lacking the necessary skills to secure jobs, and caste discrimination.
• The emergence of neoliberalism as an economic and social philosophy has encouraged young people to blame themselves for not landing their “dream job,” while the government continues to shirk its basic duties.
• The neo-liberal agenda maintains pushing the view that it is not that hard to obtain success if one works hard enough, normalising the concept that the youth should blame themselves for their ‘failures’.

What are various solutions have been proposed?

• As the basic social unit of society, the family moulds the goals and desires of the youth. In the truest sense, family should be supportive.
• A deeper examination of structural issues of the educational system is urgently required. Instead, we take delight in devising Jugaad (improvised remedies) to handle events in the background, without addressing the underlying issue.
• Others, such as the instructions given by the Board of Intermediate Education in Andhra Pradesh in 2017 to relieve student stress, have proposed yoga and physical exercise sessions, as well as keeping a healthy student-teacher ratio.
• It is painfully obvious that the inability to address the greater issue of a punitive education system that is just not equipped to sustain or educate young brains for today’s economic realities persists.
• Not only does family play an important part in a student’s life, but so does society. As a culture, we must recognise the genuine meaning of life and not label kids as successful or unsuccessful. Instead, empathically assist them in reaching their full potential.

Conclusion

Scholars have long connected farmer suicides to India’s agricultural problem; now, civil society must see student suicides as a sign of a serious crisis in the country’s educational framework, encompassing institutional structure, curriculum, and the like. The combination of a huge population of young people with growing ambitions and a decreasing economy has resulted in a public health problem that demands immediate response.

Source: The Hindu

Data Protection Bill

GS PAPER-II

Background:

• When the Department of Personnel and Training opened negotiations on the Right to Privacy Bill, 2011, the route toward data protection law began.
• The K. Puttuswamy ruling, 2017, provided a significant boost to the data protection case by establishing the “Right to Privacy” as a basic right under Article 21-right to life and personal liberty.
• Following the Puttaswamy decision, the government-appointed B.N Srikrishna committee began writing a data protection and privacy law. This resulted in the report of the Justice B.N. Srikrishna committee, which eventually resulted in the Personal Data Protection Bill of 2019.
• The Legislation Data Principles and the Data Fiduciary Data Principle have two key stakeholders: The person whose data is being processed is referred to as the data principles. While the Bill outlines the Data Principals’ “duties,” these have no influence on the realisation of the Bill’s rights.
• Fiduciary Data: This data is processed by an entity. The Bill’s drafters appear to be confirming that the Data Fiduciary is accountable for protecting the interests of Data Principals.
• What is Data Fiduciary: The term “fiduciary” is crucial when referring to a data processor. When one person owes a “fiduciary” responsibility to another, such as a trustee, beneficiary, guardian, or ward, the relationship between the two is guided by trust, assurance, and good faith.
• Obligations of data fiduciaries to data principles: In accordance with this concept, the remainder of the Bill specifies the Data Fiduciaries’ obligations to Data Principals, the latter’s rights and duties, and the legislative framework through which data would be processed.
• There are two significant components of the Bill.
• In addition to the basic requirements to prevent the abuse of the personal data of persons, the Bill has specified a category of Significant Data Fiduciaries, businesses that are expected to comply with specific steps to safeguard the personal data of individuals.
• This difference is critical since only enterprises that process large volumes of data or have a possible influence on the country’s sovereignty and integrity are required to implement such severe protections. Such approaches lower the compliance costs of early-stage businesses.
• Previous draughts of the Bill included onerous rules on “data localisation,” which required corporations to retain user data solely in India.
• The revised Bill allows the government to inform nations where data transfers may be approved. This is a big reprieve for various internet businesses, who have long warned about the infeasibility of the data localization provisions. A compromise has now been established between reasonable corporate needs and the protection of people’ personal data.

Where else does this measure require action?

• While the Bill is generally thorough. Section 25 and Schedule I, which deal with fines, need to be expanded. Section 25 specifies the monetary penalty that must be imposed on a person who fails to comply with detail-related requirements.
• The attention stays exclusively on the nature and degree of the infraction. Before applying sanctions, the proposed legislation does not take a company’s financial standing into account.
• The Bill must guarantee that the penalties levied are commensurate to the size and activities of a firm, to be successful, fines must not force enterprises into economic loss.
• A leaf can be taken from the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), amongst other similar regulations, which levies penalties in accordance with the total turnover of companies.

What distinguishes and comprehensive this bill?

• The Bill protects individual data while simultaneously encouraging collaboration between data fiduciaries and the government.
• While it relies on the best practises of foreign jurisdictions such as Europe and Australia, it has been tailored to India’s specific needs.
• Even the exclusions given to the Centre are quite limited and consistent with previous legal rulings and Article 19(2) of the Constitution.
• The Bill represents a substantial shift in the way legislation is drafted. Understanding a piece of legislation in India has traditionally been equivalent to being a member of an elite club; only legal practitioners, policy specialists, and a few politicians are able to grasp and interpret laws.
• This Bill represents a shift from legalese to legal simplicity; it recognises that it is in our best interests to ensure that all laws, particularly those with a substantial influence on residents, are accessible to all individuals, regardless of their professional or educational position.

Conclusion

The Bill protects individual data while simultaneously encouraging collaboration between data fiduciaries and the government. While it relies on the best practises of other jurisdictions, it has been written in a way that is specific to India’s needs. The exemptions provided to the Centre are quite limited.

Source: The Hindu

Uniform Civil Code (UCC)

GS PAPER-I

Context:The Law Minister told the Rajya Sabha on how states have been granted the right to draught personal laws that govern topics such as succession, marriage, and divorce in order to attain a unified civil code (UCC).

What did the Attorney General have to say?

• Personal laws such as intestacy and succession; wills; joint family and division; marriage and divorce are controlled by Entry 5 of the Constitution’s Seventh Schedule’s List-III-Concurrent List.
• As a result, states also have the ability to legislate on them.
• Furthermore, several states have included UCC adoption in their election manifestos.

Uniform Civil Code (UCC):

• A Uniform Civil Code would establish a single personal civil law for the whole country.
• This would apply to all religious communities in personal concerns such as marriage, divorce, inheritance, and adoption, among others.
• Article 44, one of the Constitution’s Directive Principles, states that the state must endeavour to ensure a Uniform Civil Code for citizens across India’s territory.
• These, as stated in Article 37, are not justiciable (no court can enforce them), yet the ideas they establish are vital in government.

Uniform Civil Code vs. Right to Freedom of Religion:

• Article 25 lays down an individual’s fundamental right to religion.
• Article 26(b) upholds the right of each religious denomination or any section thereof to “manage its own affairs in matters of religion”.
• Article 29 defines the right to conserve distinctive culture.

Enacting and Enforcing Uniform Civil Code:

• Fundamental rights are legally enforceable.
• While Article 44 states that the “state should endeavour,” other articles in the ‘Directive Principles’ chapter use phrases like “in particular strive,” “shall in particular direct its policies,” “shall be the state’s task,” and so on.
• Article 43 states that the “state shall endeavour through adequate legislation,” yet the word “by suitable legislation” is missing from Article 44.
• All of this means that the state’s obligation is higher in other guiding principles than it is in Article 44.

Why need Uniform Civil Code?

• All citizens would have equal standing under the Uniform Civil Code.
• It would encourage gender equality in Indian society.
• UCC would cater to the expectations of the youthful generation imbued with liberal ideals.
• Thus, its adoption would benefit national integration.

Hurdles to Uniform Civil Code implementation:

• Because of India’s religious and cultural diversity, there are practical obstacles.
• Minorities frequently regard the Uniform Civil Code as an infringement on religious freedom.
• It is frequently viewed as the state interfering in the personal affairs of minorities.
• Experts frequently say that Indian culture is not yet ready to adopt such Uniform Civil Code.
• These are the concerns that must be addressed in the midst of the current uproar surrounding Uniform Civil Code.

Way forward:

• It should be the religious intelligentia’s responsibility to educate the community about its rights and duties in light of current liberal interpretations.
• The government must build a favourable climate for the UCC by discussing the substance and relevance of Article 44 in a confidential manner.
• Social transformations do not happen suddenly, but rather over time. They are frequently susceptible to media calamities such as fake news and misinformation.
• Priority must be given to social peace and the cultural fabric of our country.

Source: Indian Express

Draft Cybersecurity Strategy

GS PAPER-II

Context: The National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS) has developed a draft National Cyber Security Strategy to address the issue of national cyberspace security.

• The implementation timeframe and other specifics have yet to be announced. Concerning the National Cybersecurity Strategy
• Aim: It recommends establishing a distinct regulatory framework for cyberspace as well as establishing an apex agency to manage threats, replies, and complaints.
• The policy will emphasise threat assessment as well as reaction.

Need:

• The present legal and regulatory frameworks do not handle the growing threat scenarios or mechanisms to mitigate the cyber events.
• There is now no specialised body in charge of cyber security, and no one to whom you can hold accountable.
• Currently, cyber security issues may be addressed using the information technology act and the Indian Penal Code.

Other provisions:

• It intends to build a complete framework in which both state-owned and private firms must adhere to cybersecurity norms.
• It calls for a frequent cyber audit and suggests annual evaluations by the newly formed apex authority.
• A centre of excellence will also be established in Bangalore to foster further innovation in the field.

Reasons for a Rise in Cyber Attacks

Adverse relations with China:

• China is often regarded as a world leader in information technology.
• As a result, it is projected to be able to deactivate or partially disrupt information technology services in another country.
• With the recent border stalemate and violent occurrences between the two militaries, the hostility in relations is anticipated to bleed over into attacks on each other’s crucial information infrastructure.

Asymmetric and covert warfare:

• Unlike traditional warfare, which involves the loss of life and eyeball-to-eyeball combat, cyber warfare is covert warfare with the benefit of plausible deniability, which means that governments may deny their involvement even when caught.
• Similarly, a small country with modern technologies and competent resources may launch an attack on a larger power without worry of incurring huge losses.

Increasing dependency on technology:

• As we progress, more and more services are being moved to virtual space to improve access and use.
• The disadvantage of this development is that such systems are becoming more vulnerable to cyber-attacks.

Issues with Cyber Security:

• While India is regarded as a world leader in the technology industry, overall understanding of internet etiquette in India is poor.
• Third-party software may contain built-in back doors or malware linked to their installation files. Such vulnerabilities can be resolved by efficient user account management and vigilant system monitoring.
• The issue with such state-sponsored operations is that hackers have unlimited money to break into foreign networks.
• Cyber-attacks are inherently original and imaginative. They continue to adapt, and the next onslaught is more sophisticated than the last one.
• New difficulties continue to emerge in the IT sector as a result of the ever-changing and rapidly expanding nature of technology.

Way Forward:

• The government’s goal is to provide users with an open, safe, trustworthy, and responsible Internet.
• On a regular basis, the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) provides warnings and advisories about the newest cyber threats/vulnerabilities and countermeasures to safeguard computers and networks.
• CERT-In maintains the Cyber Swachhta Kendra (Botnet Cleaning and Malware Analysis Centre) to detect dangerous programmes and give free tools to remove them, as well as to assist people and organisations with cyber security guidelines and best practises.
• Security advice have been released for users to safeguard their PCs and mobile phones and to prevent phishing attempts.
• CERT-In and the Reserve Bank of India [RBI] collaborate on a cyber security awareness campaign titled “Beware and be cautious of financial scams” via the Digital India Platform.
• The Ministry of Home Affairs’ (MHA) Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) has been recognised as the central point in the battle against cybercrime.
• Pursuant to the United Nations General Assembly resolution 75/282: an ad-hoc committee to construct a ‘Comprehensive International Convention on Countering the Use of Information and Communications Technologies for Criminal Purposes’ was constituted with all the member nations.
• India, as a member of the committee, has suggested that cyber terrorism be criminalised under the stated Convention.
• The MHA has released National Information Security Policy and Guidelines to Central Ministries, State Governments, and Union Territories in order to avoid information security breaches and cyber intrusions in information and communication technology infrastructure.

Source: Indian Express

Global Analysis and Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking-Water (GLAAS) Report

GS PAPER-II

Context:The World Health Organization (WHO) and UN-Water recently issued the Global Analysis and Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking-Water (GLAAS) study.

Important Findings:

WASH:

• Climate-related extreme weather events continue to have an influence on universal access to safe and sustainably managed water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH).
• Less than one-third of nations reported having sufficient human resources to manage critical WASH duties.
• Every year, millions of people die as a result of a lack of access to WASH.

SDG 6:

• Many nations must accelerate efforts to reach the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) six — achieving universal access to water and sanitation by 2030.

National Water Goals:

• Only 25% of nations are on pace to meet their nationally set drinking-water coverage objectives, while 45 percent are on track to meet their national sanitation targets.
• Higher performing countries are more likely to have: higher utilisation of domestic capital commitments and tariff recovery of operations and maintenance (O&M) costs; regulatory authorities that carry out key regulatory functions; and human and financial resources in place to implement their WASH plans.

WASH and Health:

• The implementation of WASH policies and programmes in health care institutions, as well as hand hygiene, is hampered by a significant shortage of financial and human resources.
• The pandemic of coronavirus illness (COVID-19) has also served as a reminder of the need of hand cleanliness in health and infection prevention.

Climate resilience of WASH systems:

• Extreme weather events, which are becoming more frequent and intense as a result of climate change, continue to impede the supply of safe WASH services, endangering users’ health.
• Despite the World Health Organization (WHO) naming climate change as the greatest health threat facing humanity, the most recent GLAAS data show that most WASH policies and plans do not address climate change risks to WASH services, nor the climate resilience of WASH technologies and management systems.

Leaving no one behind:

• Monitoring and financial resources are lacking in efforts to reach disadvantaged groups and locations with WASH services.
• Governments must prioritise underserved groups and locations, such as individuals living in poverty or in rural or difficult-to-reach places, to ensure they have access to safe, long-term WASH services.

Human capital:

• Inadequate human resources hinder WASH service delivery.
• Less than one-third of nations reported having more than 75% of the human resources required to carry out core responsibilities in WASH service delivery.
• Workers who do not wish to live or work in rural regions, as well as a lack of financial means, limit human resources.
• Over 80% of nations indicated a shortage of skilled workers graduating from WASH training institutes each year to satisfy the demands for on-site sanitation and small drinking-water systems.

Gender:

• Greater inclusion, financial assistance, and monitoring are required to guarantee that women are taken into account in WASH choices and services.
• Gender and WASH are intertwined in several ways, ranging from menstrual health and cleanliness to local engagement and female WASH workers.
• Women occupy fewer than 10% of government employment in nearly a quarter of nations, and less than a third of countries reported strong women’s engagement in rural drinking-water planning and administration.
• This implies that the voices of women are not being heard.

Regulation:

• Regulatory authorities frequently fail to carry out their duties completely.
• The majority of nations have regulatory agencies for drinking water and sanitation; nevertheless, these authorities frequently fail to carry out their responsibilities, particularly in the case of sanitation.
• These important duties vary from data collection and report publication to strengthening service providers by suggesting plans and activities and ensuring their execution.

Climate:

• The growing frequency and severity of climate-related extreme weather events continue to impede the provision of safe WASH services.
• Almost two-thirds of nations have WASH policies that focus on groups that are disproportionately affected by climate change. Only about a third, however, pursue promotion or particularly finance these people.

Issues:

• Most WASH policies and plans do not take climate change risks to WASH services into consideration, nor do they examine the climate resilience of WASH technology and management systems.
• Billions of people are at risk of contracting infectious illnesses, particularly in the aftermath of calamities such as climate change-related events.
• While some nations’ WASH budgets have grown, a large number — more than 75 percent — have reported insufficient resources to carry out their WASH plans and objectives.
• Data is not used effectively in WASH planning or resource allocation choices. Lack of human and financial resources, fragmentation of data collection and processing, poor data dependability and quality, and a lack of coordination among WASH players in collecting and sharing data are all barriers to data utilisation.

Way forward:

• Urgent global and local action is essential to guarantee universal access to WASH in order to avoid the disastrous impact of infectious illnesses on the health of millions of people.
• Governments and development partners should expand WASH systems and significantly boost investment to ensure that everyone has access to clean drinking water and sanitation services by 2030, starting with the most vulnerable.
• WASH must be viewed through the prism of gender. Policies and action plans must address the needs of women and girls by including them in service planning, decision-making, and governance.
• Hand hygiene must be seen as an essential behaviour. The revolutionary health advantages of better water and sanitation services can only be fully realised when people practise excellent hand hygiene. This simple gesture has been shown to significantly prevent the spread of dangerous illnesses.
• Governments must tackle water and sanitation with a human rights-based approach (HRBA). States assume the responsibility of providing water and sanitation services to those who have rights. Rights holders can assert their rights, and duty bearers must ensure equitable and nondiscriminatory access to water and sanitation.

Source: Down to Earth

Striving for Clean Air: Air Pollution and Public Health in South Asia

GS PAPER-III

Context: Recently, the World bank (WB) produced a paper titled “Striving for Clean Air: Air Pollution and Public Health in South Asia”.

In Detail:

• India has six main airsheds, some of which are shared with Pakistan, through which air pollutants circulate.
• Even if Delhi National Capital Territory completely implemented all air pollution reduction measures by 2030 and the rest of South Asia maintained present policy, pollutant exposure would remain over 35 g/m3.
• South Asia: Currently, more than 60% of South Asians are exposed to an average of 35 g/m3 PM2.5 each year.
• It reached 100 g/m3 in certain regions of the Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP), about 20 times the World Health Organization’s recommended maximum limit of 5 g/m3.
• West/Central IGP, which covered Punjab (Pakistan), Punjab (India), Haryana, a portion of Rajasthan, Chandigarh, Delhi, and Uttar Pradesh, was one of six main airsheds in South Asia.
• Central/Eastern IGP: Bihar, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bangladesh; Middle India: Odisha/Chhattisgarh; \sMiddle India: Eastern Gujarat/Western Maharashtra; \sNorthern/Central Indus River Plain: Pakistan, part of Afghanistan; and \sSouthern Indus Plain and further west: South Pakistan, Western Afghanistan extending into Eastern Iran.
• Persistently unsafe levels of air pollution have resulted in a significant public health catastrophe across South Asia, necessitating immediate action.

Bhutan:

• Bhutan is not immune to the air pollution seen in the IGP, as Thimphu is experiencing greater pollution than previously.
• If there is particle pollution in the mountains, it will fall as the glaciers melt and into the waters, affecting everyone in the region and bringing contaminants from elsewhere.
• South Asia is home to nine of the world’s ten most polluted cities, resulting in an estimated 2 million premature deaths and enormous economic consequences throughout the area each year.

Particulate Matter:

• Fine particulate matter (PM 2.5) concentrations in some of the region’s most densely populated and impoverished regions are up to 20 times higher than what WHO considers healthy (5 g/m³).
• Large businesses, power plants, and cars are major contributors of air pollution across the world, but in South Asia, other sources contribute far more.
• These include solid fuel combustion for cooking and heating, emissions from minor enterprises such as brick kilns, municipal and agricultural waste combustion, and cremation.

Wind direction and pollution:

• When the wind direction was generally northwest to southeast, the Punjab Province in Pakistan was responsible for 30% of the air pollution in Indian Punjab.
• India is responsible for 30% of the air pollution in Bangladesh’s main cities (Dhaka, Chittagong, and Khulna).
• In certain years, significant pollutants spilled over borders in the opposite way.

Airshed approach:

• This is how other areas, such as ASEAN, the Nordic countries, and China, have dealt with the issue.
• If states want to minimise air pollution for their residents, they must stop blaming and instead work together.

Impact:

• In children, there is stunting and a reduction in cognitive development.
• Infections of the lungs, as well as persistent and severe disorders.
• Rising healthcare expenditures have a negative impact on a country’s productive capability.

Way Ahead:

• While existing government initiatives can reduce particle matter, considerable reduction is only attainable if the airshed territories execute coordinated policies.
• Multiple possibilities are feasible and should be used in a modelling technique for South Asia as a whole.
• Interdependence in air quality within South Asian airshedsmust be considered while considering alternate pollution management methods.
• Scientists from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, and other South Asian nations must convene to discuss air pollution and develop a “airshed method” to combat it.
• Combating air pollution necessitates not only addressing its specific origins, but also strong collaboration across local and national jurisdictional lines. Regional collaboration can aid in the implementation of cost-effective cooperative policies that capitalise on the interdependence of air quality.

Source: Down to Earth

FACTS FOR PRELIMS

Gond Tribes

A resolution has been introduced in Lok Sabha to incorporate the Hattee people of Sirmaur district’s Trans-Giri area in Himachal Pradesh’s Scheduled Tribes list. In addition, the Rajya Sabha has passed a measure to transfer the Gond group from the SC to the ST list in four districts of Uttar Pradesh.

The Gond Tribes:

• Gond is one of the most populous tribal groupings who speak the Gondi language (a Dravidian ethnolinguistic group). They are distributed over multiple states, including MP, Chhattisgarh, and Maharashtra. They are mostly peasants who worship nature.
• The Bhil are India’s biggest tribe, accounting for 38% of the country’s ST population.

Registered GI rise to 432

• New goods from various states of India, such as Assam’s Gamosa, Telangana’s TandurRedgram, Ladakh’sRaktseyKarpo Apricot, and Maharashtra’s Alibag White Onion, have been added to the current collection of GIs.
• Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, and Kerala are the top five states in terms of the number of GIs.

GI Tag Facts:

• A geographical indication (GI) is generally an agricultural, natural, or manufactured product (handicraft and industrial commodities) that originates in a certain geographical location.
• Typically, such a name gives a guarantee of quality and uniqueness, which is mostly attributed to its origin.
• The Geographical Indications of Commodities (Registration and Protection) Act of 1999 aims to improve the registration and protection of geographical indications linked to goods in India.
• It is managed and directed by the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS).

UN recognises NamamiGange

• On Environment Restoration Day, the United Nations recognised the NamamiGange effort to revitalise the Ganga as one of the top ten World Restoration Flagships aimed at reviving the natural world during a ceremony at the 15th COP15 of the Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) in Montreal, Canada.
• The submissions were chosen as part of the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030) (managed by the UNEP and FAO).
• The sixth edition of the ‘Ganga Utsav’ was held by the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG). As part of this campaign, a national-level event was held in New Delhi, and over 75 unique events were held across the Ganga Basin’s five states. As part of the ‘AzadiKaAmritMahotsav,’ Ganga Utsav will be commemorated across Ganga Basin States till August 2023.

Why did methane emissions spike in 2020?

• Precipitation across worldwide wetlands increased by 2-11 percent each year in 2020 compared to 2019. Soil microbes thrive in waterlogged soils, allowing them to release more methane.

Concerning Methane:

• Methane has more than 80 times the warming potential of carbon dioxide throughout the first 20 years of its lifespan in the atmosphere, compared to carbon dioxide.
• Oil and natural gas pipelines, agricultural operations, coal mining, and garbage are all common sources of methane.