Rabinder Shekhar
Our Earth is the only planet in our solar system that supports life. The complex process of evolution occurred on Earth only because of some unique environment conditions which existed there. Human activities are releasing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere everyday and at an alarming rate. Rising levels of greenhouse gases are rapidly changing the climate every year. There is new and stronger evidence that most of the global warming is attributed to human activities. The on-going climate change predicts that the global temperature will rise unusually. The mean sea level is expected to rise 9-98 cm by the year 2100, causing floods at low-lying areas. Other effects could include an increase in global precipitation and changes in the severity or frequency of extreme events. Humans will face new risks and pressures for their survival. Food security is unlikely to be threatened at the global level, but some regions may experience food shortages and hunger. Water resources will be affected as precipitation and evaporation patterns change around the world. Physical infrastructure will be damaged, particularly by sea-level rise and by extreme weather events. The situation is quite an alarming one and calls for the state intervention at every point not only as a caretaker but also as the savior of its citizens and civilizations.
DURING LAST one decade, environmental issues have been receiving increasing attention in all spheres of life, including greater coverage in the media. There is also a growing awareness of the need and importance of involving people actively in the protection of environment and management of the natural resources of their locality. While the disasters, like the Bhopal tragedy and Chernobyl accident, the recent nuclear plant emissions in Japan have heightened the awareness among the general public and the governments as to the grave dangers, the most significant contribution of the nascent environmental movement in India has been to bring into sharp focus the vital connection between growing poverty of vast numbers of marginalized people and the accelerating environmental degradation and the need to involve the people especially the affected people actively in the protection and management of the natural resources, especially the Common Property Resources (CPRs), like forests, rivers and grazing lands. Issues of violation of rules and regulation by the industries, creation of more and more SEZ, problems of CRZ have further added to the gravity of the situation worsening the prospects. It is the marginalized people who are the focus of the environmental movement and depend on it for their essential basic needs. So environmental conservation and restoration of ecological balance must include not just rivers, forests, and soil but also the humans. who are very much a part of the eco-system.
The goals of improved equity, eradication of poverty and environmental sustainability which must form the basis of development in the Third World, can only be achieved if basic human necessities are met on a much wider scale than before. It is the contention of this article that development requires a large scale decentralized but coherent effort for the application of science to basic needs and the delivery of goods and services aimed at fulfilling these needs through the government machinery, judicial administrative, social and academic institutions. The environmental impacts of conventional technology are relatively well known today. Air pollution, acid rain, industrial waste disposal, toxic effluent, noise and vibrations, crowding and congestion and many other side effects of urban and industrial activity are now widely recognized as the costly bi-products of activities which otherwise produce useful outputs. In addition to the deteriorating quality of air, water and other components of our environment, the poor lack access to basic amenities, such as food and water, housing, clothing, transport and the myriad other basic needs. This, perhaps, is the most crucial area of human concern, linking technology with environment. While governments must necessarily play a leadership role through education, creation of awareness, implementation of various Acts, policies and programmes in letter and spirit along with the provision of infrastructure and overall planning, their policies on science and technology must be geared primarily for promotion of creative action at the individual and community levels.
In India too, the policy makers have begun to voice their concern with ecological and environmental issues. These issues have in recent years become important in India. The new Fundamental Duties of Citizens, added to the Indian Constitution in 1977-78, make concern for the environment a fundamental duty of all citizens. The enactment by Parliament of the Environment (Protection). Act in 1986 and the Rules formulated under it by the Department of Environment have made immediate concern with these essential issues. This law is in addition to earlier laws and regulations, as personified by the State Pollution Control Boards. Thus, environmental management has become a serious issue of major interest, in the context of planning, and an important agenda item for the manager and public administrator. Even if we confine attention to industry, several questions will need to be asked-what will be the cost of “add-on” measures of pollution control in established industries.
The strategies to ensure sustainable development has at least four important elements, such as ecologically harmonious, efficient and conserve resources including energy, and must aim at local self reliance and offer equity with social justice. While for the achievements of the first three elements, considerable inputs from the science, technology, economics, and sociology would be needed while equity is a political question calling for the sensitivity and commitments of the political masters and policy makers in letter and spirit. However, one thing is clear that sustainability means commitment to safe and secure future calling for sound and effective administrative management through efficient policies, their implementation, laws, motivating and educating masses for developing awareness for the environment preservation at the individual as well as institutional and government level in responding to the climate changes globally. If still we don’t wake today, incidents like In SRINAGAR and JAMMU shall continue and we will have to pay the cost every year. Let’s resolve today that we all should have holistic approach towards our environment, which have become sick or have been made sick deliberately for mare our personal interests and develop sustainable planet.
(The author is a Chartered Engineer)
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