9
                     ENVIRONMENT AND
               SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
        After studying this chapter, the learners will
          understand the concept of environment
          analyse the causes and effects of ‘environmental degradation’ and ‘resource
           depletion’
          understand the nature of environmental challenges facing India
          relate environmental issues to the larger context of sustainable
           development.
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                The environment, left to itself, can continue to support life for millions of
                years. The single most unstable and potentially disruptive element in the
                scheme is the human species. Human beings, with modern technology, have
                the capacity to bring about, intentionally or unintentionally, far-reaching
                and irreversible changes in the enviornment.
                                                                                       Anonymous
            9.1 INTRODUCTION                                 and abiotic factors that influence each
            In the earlier chapters we have                  other. While all living elements—the
            discussed the main economic issues               birds, animals and plants, forests,
            faced by the Indian economy. The                 fisheries etc.—are biotic elements,
            economic development that we have                abiotic elements include air, water, land
            achieved so far has come at a very heavy         etc. Rocks and sunlight are examples
            price—at the cost of environmental               of abiotic elements of the environment.
            quality. As we step into an era of               A study of the environment then calls
            globalisation that promises higher               for a study of the inter-relationship
            economic growth, we have to bear in              between these biotic and abiotic
            mind the adverse consequences of the             components of the environment.
            past developmental path on our                   Functions of the Environment: The
            environment and consciously choose a             environment performs four vital
            path of sustainable development. To              functions (i) it supplies resources:
            understand the unsustainable path of             resources here include both renewable
            development that we have taken and               and non-renewable resources.
            the challenges of sustainable                    Renewable resources are those which
            development, we have to first                    can be used without the possibility of
            understand the significance and                  the resource becoming depleted or
            contribution of environment to                   exhausted. That is, a continuous
            economic development. With this in               supply of the resource remains
            mind, this chapter is divided into three         available. Examples of renewable
            sections. The first part deals with the          resources are the trees in the forests and
            functions and role of environment. The           the fishes in the ocean. Non-renewable
            second section discusses the state of            resources, on the other hand, are those
            India’s environment and the third                which get exhausted with extraction
            section deals with steps and strategies          and use,  for example, fossil fuel (ii) it
            to achieve sustainable development.              assimilates waste (iii) it sustains life by
            9.2  ENVIRONMENT — DEFINITION AND                providing genetic and bio diversity and
                   FUNCTIONS                                 (iv) it also provides aesthetic services
                                                             like scenery etc.
            Environment is defined as the total                  The environment is able to perform
            planetary inheritance and the totality           these functions without any interruption
            of all resources. It includes all the biotic     as long as the demand on these
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                                                                            this results in an
                                                                            environmental crisis. This
                                                                            is the situation today
                                                                            all over the world. The
                                                                            rising population of the
                                                                            developing countries and
                                                                            the affluent consumption
                                                                            and production standards
                                                                            of the developed world have
                                                                            placed a huge stress on the
                                                                            environment in terms of its
                                                                            first two functions. Many
                                                                            resources have become
                                                                            extinct and the wastes
                                                                            generated are beyond the
                                                                            absorptive capacity of the
                                                                            environment. Absorptive
             Fig. 9.1 Water bodies: small, snow-fed Himalayan streams are   capacity means the ability
                  the few fresh-water sources that remain unpolluted.       of the environment to
             functions is within its carrying                  absorb degradation. The result — we
             capacity. This implies that the resource          are today at the threshold of
             extraction is not above the rate of               environmental crisis. The past
             regeneration of the resource and the              development has polluted and dried up
             wastes generated are within the                   rivers and other aquifers making water
             assimilating capacity of the                      an economic good. Besides, the
             environment. When this is not so, the             intensive and extensive extraction of
             environment fails to perform its third            both renewable and non-renewable
             and vital function of life sustenance and         resources has exhausted some of these
                             Work These Out
                ØWhy has water become an economic commodity? Discuss.
                ØFill in the following table with some common types of diseases and illnesses
                   that are caused due to air, water and noise pollution.
                            Air Pollution        Water Pollution                Noise Pollution
                            Asthma               Cholera
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                                              Box 9.1: Global Warming
                 Global warming is a gradual increase in the average temperature of the earth’s
                 lower atmosphere as a result of the increase in greenhouse gases since the
                 Industrial Revolution. Much of the recent observed and projected global
                 warming is human-induced. It is caused by man-made increases in carbon
                 dioxide and other greenhouse gases through the burning of fossil fuels and
                 deforestation. Adding carbon dioxide, methane and such other gases (that
                 have the potential to absorb heat) to the atmosphere with no other changes
                 will make our planet’s surface warmer. The atmospheric concentrations of
                 carbon dioxide and CH  have increased by 31 per cent and 149 per cent
                                             4
                 respectively above pre-industrial levels since 1750. During the past century,
                 the atmospheric temperature has risen by 1.1°F (0.6°C) and sea level has
                 risen several inches. Some of the longer-term results of global warming are
                 melting of polar ice with a resulting rise in sea level and coastal flooding;
                 disruption of drinking water supplies dependent on snow melts; extinction of
                 species as ecological niches disappear; more frequent tropical storms; and an
                 increased incidence of tropical diseases.
                     Among factors that may be contributing to global warming are the burning
                 of coal and petroleum products (sources of carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous
                 oxide, ozone); deforestation, which increases the amount of carbon dioxide in
                 the atmosphere; methane gas released in animal waste; and increased cattle
                 production, which contributes to deforestation, methane production, and use
                 of fossil fuels. A UN Conference on Climate Change, held in Kyoto, Japan, in
                 1997, resulted in an international agreement to fight global warming which
                 called for reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases by industrialised nations.
                  Source: www.wikipedia.org
             vital resources and we are compelled              Thus, it is clear that the opportunity
             to spend huge amounts on technology               costs of negative environmental
             and research to explore new resources.            impacts are high.
             Added to these are the health costs of                 The biggest question that arises is:
             degraded environmental quality —                  are environmental problems new to this
             decline in air and water quality (seventy         century? If so, why? The answer to this
             per cent of water in India is polluted)           question requires some elaboration. In
             have resulted in increased incidence of           the early days when civilisation just
             respiratory  and water-borne diseases.            began, or before this phenomenal
             Hence the expenditure on health is also           increase in population, and before
             rising. To make matters worse, global             countries took to industrialisation, the
             environmental issues such as global               demand for environmental resources
             warming and ozone depletion also                  and services was much less than their
             contribute to increased financial                 supply. This meant that pollution was
             commitments for the government.                   within the absorptive capacity of the
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