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Friends this is our third meeting on environmental issues, in the first lecture on environment,
I first tried to explain the meaning of studying relationship between population and environment.
In sociology particularly, I said that we can make a distinction between two types of
sociologies. Sociologies of environment and environmental
sociologies, for sociologies of environment environmental variables are the dependent
variables and structural variables are independent variables. So, they explain differences in
environmental beliefs, action, movements on the basis of social structure, history and
biographical situations of the participants. Environmental sociology takes a Ducamian view
of social sciences and it says that environment factor like other factors, ecological factors
are a major determinant of collective consciousness, social representations of people.
And studying social representations of environment is dependent variable, by taking ecological
conditions as independent variables. Your studying environmental sociology, then in
the second lecture talked about differences in the perceptions on environmental issues,
between developed and developing countries refer to fail a Kyoto protocol and failures
of some subsequent conferences on development even failure to implement and Kyoto protocol.
And hope of some new agreements or new conferences, workshops and protocols are giving us in,
which are to happen one in this month, in this year only and the possibilities of future,
protocols and workshops. The main problem is that the developed countries, which have
already attained a certain level of development and which cannot live without having further
development or who just cannot think of de development or reducing the standard of living,
for them it becomes extremely difficult to curtail emission of pollutants in the environment.
Because to reduce the amount of pollutants in the environment, then they will have to
produce less they will have to produce less on manufacturing and agricultural sector,
which they are not ready to do so. And the problem of developing countries is that, they
are saying that if you compare the amount of pollutants released in the environment,
then as compare to the developed countries their per capita emission is nothing.
And also because in less developed countries there is a rising aspiration a hunger for
more; and more development and all political parties in democratic, developing countries
are putting a goal of catching up with the western countries before their people, it
becomes difficult for them to commit. To lower emissions of carbon di oxide or sulphur
di oxide or chloro floro carbon, they think that developed countries are sort of compelling
less developed countries to reduce their emissions unjustly. That since they are polluting much
more than the less developed countries; the primary responsibility of reducing pollutant
emissions lies with the developed country that is the major difference between the two.
Now, today we will look into this issue of environmental impact a bit more and before
closure this is the third and last lecture on population and environment. So, I would
also like to include in our discussion a little bit about environmental beliefs; ultimately
it is beliefs which get actualized in the form of environmental movements.
So, in order to study rise and fall, success and failure or effectiveness or impact of
social social movements focusing on the issue of environment, it becomes important for us
sociologists to study beliefs regarding environmental issues.
Now, in this context, let me begin with this equation, UNFPA 1992 state of award document
gave an equation, which makes the complex issues involved in environmental impact very
clear. According to this the total impact on the environment is not a simple function
of population, there are many more things in addition to population, which affect the
environmental impact. The total impact on the environment is determined by interaction
of three factors. What are these factors? These factors are
size of population, conjunction standards and wastages of resources for each unit of
conjunction. Today in place of wastage of resources you can say, impact environmental
impact for each unit of conjunction. So, that means, in the equation impact equal
to population population one variable, conjunction for another variable at technology effect
as the third variable. The formula shows that the total impact on the environment depends
not only on population, but, also on conjunction, per capita and technology.
That also means that there can be several synergistic links between or interactions
between population, conjunction and technology. Image in the other factors remain it is same
and our population is growing at rate 1.5 percent per year.
Then it means environmental impact is also increasing at the rate of 1.5 percent but,
if along with population our material standard sorry standard of living or conjunction per
person is also rising. And suppose that is rising at 2 percent, then the impact on the
environment will be much higher than 1.5 percent. Because, population is increasing and conjunction
per person is also increasing and there is a multiplicative relationship between them.
So, due to this multiplicative synergistic relationship impact on the environment will
be much more if both population and standard of living are rising.
And simultaneously if we are using such a technology which has much more adverse impact
on environment as compared to the traditional technology. Then again the impact on the environment
will be much more.
We will come to this point in the next slide, we will come to this. But there may also be
compensating effects of population, conjunction, per person and technology, means if we are
able to evolve a green technology. If we are able to evolve a technology, which makes our
resource use usage much more efficient from the same resources, we can take much more
energy from the same crude oil or from the same biomass, we can obtain more energy by
using more recent technology. Then that will offset the effect of population
growth and rising conjunction, per person it is also possible that population is raising
and per capita income is also rising. But, we are using battery technology, more green
technology; a technology which is saving of resources and which pollutes less. And in
that case the overall impact is either absent or it is much less than in absence of this
technology there would be.
So, there are three factors not one, now environment will be least disturbed a pop; that means,
if you want to reduce the impact on the environment, then there are three ways. One that the population
growth should be low; Obviously, environment will be least disturbed a population is growing
at slower, rather than the faster rate; second conjunction per capita is less that is people
exercise on conjunction. Remember Gandhiji’s concept of voluntary
poverty, if you decide to remain poor, if we decide not to raise our standard of living
further. If we decide not to raise our per capita income further, not to use more food,
more items contributed by polluting industries, then also environmental impact is less. And
technology if it is environment saving rather than degrading that can also help us in emulating
the situation with respect to climate change or environmental degradation, other factors
remaining same and environment will be most degraded if population is growing at a fast
rate. Conjunction per capita is uncontrolled, means
conjunction per capita is also rising fast and technologies environment degrading rather
than environment saving. As far as the position of less developed countries, today is concerned
it has the bad effect on the environment, because of all these three factors.
In less developed countries the population is rising fast, there is rising aspirations
for higher standards of living and per capita income is rising. In most countries using
the old technology, which is mat be because that is less capital intensive and that is
more readily available to them. So, their using a technology, which is much
more environment degrading, so because of the combined effects of all of them, there
is environmental problem in less developed countries, but as we have seen in the last
lecture, that environment problems are not confined to countries they are global.
To take a local example, if there is a environmental if there is a problem of water pollution in
Kanpur, because of located in Kanpur and now, it is not creating a bad environment in Kanpur
only; the Ganges up to Gangasagar know Allahabad, Varanasi, Patna; Ganga is polluted for all
the cities which fall on banks of Ganga subsequently. Whether are permitted to pollute Ganga or
not is not a subject matter of Kanpur municipal corporation only Allahabad and Varanasi and
Patna are equally they should be equally concerned because, the quality of drinking water, the
quality of irrigation, the quality of vegetables, the quality of industrial produce. In all
those areas through which the river ganges passes will be affected, so, it is impacts
are global.
Now the question regarding pollutants differences in the pollution, in different parts of the
world will have some data. The expressed by the developed countries are
more responsible for environmental damage, despite the fact that they have lower population
more advanced technology. We know that as far as the population of the developed countries
is concerned, that is hardly 20 percent, 80 percent of population lives in the developing
country. And not only that the rate of growth of population in the developed countries is
also almost 0, so they are not growing, that way there should not be any additional impact
on environment due to population growth. Also they are using better technology but,
they are also producing more pollutants, more emissions Carbon di oxide, chloro forms Chloro
carbons and so on. Damaging the ozone layer more than the less developed countries because
in that equation along with population and technology you also have the factor of development.
Energy used per capita, per capita income, per capita cars, per capita refrigerators,
per capita facilities of malls developed. of 3.47 millions nearly one third of the population
of India but, it is contribution to cumulative Carbon di oxide emission from fossil fuels
is 29.3 percent. So, America which has only 4.61 percent of
the world population is contributing to 29.3 percent in terms of just one pollutant. And
that is carbon di oxide emission, same is the case with the European Union with 26.5
percent contribution to carbon di oxide. India has 17.5 percent of the world population,
1198.0 million, but it is contribution to cumulative carbon di oxide emission from fossil
fuels is only 2.2 percent. So, despite the fact the population of India is much bigger
and the rate of growth of India’s population is also much higher than that in the European
union or in the united states India’s contribution to emissions is much less.
The developing countries are far behind the developed countries in income and conjunction
but, they are increasingly developing the philosophy of development based on the experience
of the developed countries; that means, they will also be polluting our global environment
much more in the future. Where population and conjunction behavior are changing fast
and as they produce sudden population explosion in the same second half of the last century.
They may soon cause the collapse of the ecological system from. So, from one perspective looked
at from the perspective of the developed countries, the environmental problems are more because
of less developed countries. Here population is rising fast, they are facing population
explosion, there is revolution of rising aspiration. Revolution of rising aspiration is that people
want more and more of material success material wealth. And the technology that they are using,
they are using the old technology if the Tannery, that are there in Kanpur, if such tannery
are located in United States either they will be using the best technology which is not,
so polluting of the rivers or they will not be given license. In the United States they
will not be given license for using old technology or not using green technology, not using technology
that that prevents them to pollute the river.
Environment impact analysis and therefore, you see in economics today, whenever new industrial
units are established, whenever new projects are established; the government of India has
made it mandatory according to environmental laws to have environmental impact analysis.
We are also running economics courses on environment impact analysis for legal and ethical reasons;
there is a law environmental law now and also ethical reasons, moral, social, ethical, global
it has become quite common to go for environment impact analysis of a development project.
Different projects contribute to environment impact differently like, there is not much
environment impact of a software company; as compared to a manufacturing plant. A chemical
plant is much more polluting the environment as compared to a software company.
But that is the direct impact, there may be indirect effects if the software company generates
more money if more people get more money. And they raise their standard of living and
this raise is demand for industrial products manufacturing products more, they want better
textile, they want more electric gadget. They use more of energy, they use more of gas or
coal or anything, which is polluting of environment, then indirect effect of the software company,
can be much more. So, in environment impact analysis, we look for both direct and indirect
cause indirect pollutants, direct effects developments projects, indirect effects of
development projects. And that also takes us to the issue of what
variables should be exactly considered in measuring the environment impact. The variables
measuring the environment impact may be demography, chemical they may be related to air pollution,
noise pollution, chloro floro carbons, methane sulphur si oxide, so several things. Image
that we established a thermal station in a tribal area, it is certainly has an economic
benefits, more employment more production more employment.
And with more employment, more income this will also lead to opening of some schools,
some health centers and people will benefit in education health. Infrastructure there
will be more roads, better roads activity may be subsequently train. But, it also has
some adverse impacts, sometimes when desirable development projects, such as dams and canals
have impacts on population and society which are.
Irrigation canals have helped in improving agricultural productivity no doubt and diversification
in agriculture. And lead to people cropping in several parts of the Rajasthan for example
but, this has also created new problems. In the past agricultural productivity in Rajasthan
was much less but, Rajasthan also did not have floods; today for agricultural productivity
has increased, this is also increased the possibilities and problems of floods.
There is more of malaria, when there is no water there are no mosquitoes also but, today
you have water; and you have mosquitoes, you have dengue, you have chicken guinea. And
you need to spend much more money on health facility. In the earlier days when they had
water scarcity, means Rajasthan life was settled was difficult. Now threat to physical survival
is reduced but, risk have increased manifold. They include malaria, more money more social
conflicts, more power, more conflicts, more violence and dissatisfaction due to rising
aspirations. People are not happy, when the level of income
was less, when per capita income was less, when there were more people poor they were
more happy. Today income has risen, material prosperity has risen but, people are more
dissatisfied. So, it is important to know before establishing a project, what it is
various impacts are and for that we have to decide what variables to consider.
Usually in studying environmental impacts, we study demographic impacts, economic impacts,
social impact, political impact, governance and quality of environment. Demographic impact
in terms of population size, growth, density, birth rate, death rate, infant mortality rate,
maternal mortality ratio, life expectancy aging, sex ratio you have typical demographic
variables. In economic impacts we include employment and unemployment rate, per capita
income, per capita expenditure, percent expenditure on food items, percent employed in the formal
and informal sector, percent living below the poverty line, wealth index, percent living
in the pucca house, etcetera. These are economic impacts, social impacts,
school enrollment rates, literacy, percent migrants, ethnic diversity, degree of social
integration or harmony in society, empowerment of women and other vulnerable groups, minorities.
Social capital or social support, trust, split of voluntarism or altruism desire to do something
for society and degree of alienation, etcetera. There are political impacts, political participation,
how many people have political awareness, how many people vote for parties in during
election, how many of them are a part of political processes and political seeds divisions, conflicts,
voting behavior, etcetera. In governance, fearness in implementing various
schemes, efficiency, effectiveness, transparence with development in our country corruption
has also increased. And problems of governance have risen, transparency has reduced.
Sometimes some people say that there is a trade development and corruption, if you want
to bring down corruption to zero level, you cannot develop. And for development of the
country you have to tolerate certain minimum amount of corruption but, not, so much as
we have today. Then quality of environment, which is majored
in terms different types of toxic elements in air and water, noise, climate changes here,
I think, let me also name a few pollutants. See, last time I was saying that the goal
is the rise in global temperature should not exceed 2 percent.
The back up would be like this there are so many, there are so, many emissions which are
leading to climate change, among them the situation is something like this 0.5 contribution,
this 0.5 will main the contribution rise in global temperature by 0.5 then 1, 1.5 and
2 this is the goal. That is the global temperature should not rise by more than 2 percent. So,
in this respect it is said estimated, that nearly 0.7, so would be the contribution of
carbon di oxide, this is the biggest pollutant more the biggest pollutant of more emissions
in the world is carbon di oxide. And because of rise in carbon emission alone.
there will be increase in temperature by more than 0.7 percent, then there is about 0.4
percent or so, due to chloro floro carbon, this another major pollutant. Then there is
some small contribution of methane, then there is nitrous oxide, then there is ozone.
And then some rightly other gases, this is the prediction that around 1.5 percent will
be increase in world temperature because of these factors. But, if you go for what we
call confidence interval in statistics, this is likely to happen the point estimated around
1.5 percent. But the confidence interval point estimated
of rise in temperature is around 1.5 but, the confidence interval is up to 2.5 nearly 1 to 2.5. In the period
18 sorry in the period 1920 to 2030. It is estimated that in the period 1920 to 2030,
there will be a change of nearly in 2 degree of world temperature and that 2 degree is
caused mainly by carbon di oxide, chloral floro carbons, methane, nitrous oxide, ozone
and other gases of them; the most or the biggest pollutant is carbon di oxide.
That will lead to green house, what we call the green house effect and other pollutants
will also raise temperature. The temperature rise would be slightly more than 1.5 and we
want to stop it at 2 but, that confidence interval say that it can be as low as 1 percent.
There is vast amount of literature on environment today in a big debate, some people are more
optimistic they say that, no not more than 1 degree centigrade will rise by 2030. And
there others who will say that it can be as high as 2.5 and you see at global level rise
of 11.1percent can be quite significant.
If the world temperature rises just by 0.1 percent, several of the island type of countries
of the world can be submerged in the water, several small islands like Maldives
Maldives is seems to be most worried of all the islands, small countries due to the impact
of rise in temperature of the world. Coming back to the issue of impacts, it may be noted
that the our impacts do not exhaust the impacts of projects.
Some of these are positive, some negative you can think of many more, you can think
of cultural impacts, you can think of many more impacts than just socio economic demography
and environmental. Impact assessment theories require improvement in measurements and data,
this is a big very challenging area may be some of you though you are not economists
your sociologists. But you may find working on environment impact assessment quite challenging
at your M.Phil and PhD level. And greater concerns regarding later standards of toxic
elements. We do not have standards, that how much carbon
di oxide is safe how much of various types of pollutants releasing air and water are
safe. There are no concerns that take us to theoretical issue in sociology of re society
of all this back, that there is a politics cognitive politics of the standards. And then
the complex issues of the interaction between different pollutants, may be if you have two
pollutants x 1 and y x 1 and x 2, if you have two risks x 1 and x 2 and you think that in
measurement m 1 of x 1 is safe measurement of m 2 of x 2 is safe.
First of all this is debate in whether, it should be m 1 or slightly more than m 1 or
slightly less than m 1, industrialists will say one thing, scientists say another thing,
political classes will say something else; it is a matter of law being understanding
scientific findings experimental results and so, on.
But, another issue not all human beings may be affected in the same way by m 1 and m 2
amounts of x 1 and x 2, old people may be affected in one way, children in another way.
And may be somebody who is already affected m one amount of x 1 for him or her, m 2 amount
of x 2 is much more risky then, for one who has not suffered from m 1 amount of x 1.
So, there are complex linking it is a very challenging area, I am sure some of few will
take environmental issues of this kind for your research yes you have some question.
Yes may be this is the difference between course work and research, in teaching and
research. In teaching we deal with certain specific issues and certain specific type
of type of disciplinary knowledge, when we are teaching a course, we can teach a course
o sociology and economics of environment and sociology of environment and in culture of
environment. In research, we deal with issues real life
issues and real life issues present before us unstructured problems and may be to solve
those unstructured problems; we have to take help of so, many disciplines. Now examples
of unstructured problem say why the sky is blue or why does the sky appear to be blue
to us. Physicist cannot answer, physicist alone cannot answer this question, chemists
cannot answer this question and biologists alone cannot answer this question, it is a
matter of perception. And the movement you say perception it involves
psychology perception, it involves cognitive psychology, it involves our biological genetic
makeup, it involves laws of physics, laws of chemistry, laws of astro physics, so many
things. So, when we are talking of environmental problems, studying environmental problems
is a research issue, it is not a sociology or economic or political science.
So, in this we have to take help from, so many disciplines and how to take inputs from
several disciplines, so that a real life unstructured of environment and be tackled that is the
art of science of research. So, in research we deal with unstructured problems in teaching
or in course work we go for structure problems and structure
It is very interesting cases, that when we are studying say environment or overall impact
of something. Suppose we open a number of BPOs’ in Kanpur, what will be it is impact
some typical conventional traditional, that is my tag of economists may say that twisted
impact of BPOs’ must study, what will be the BPO impact on employment and unemployment.
How much employment it will create, in terms of numbers, rates, somebody may be saying
in addition to employment, we can also look at income; how much income it will create
and what will be the impact on conjunction pattern. But, a sociologist or an anthropologists
or political scientists can say, that opening of BPO research literature shows that at several
modern places of work, there is also a issue of *** harassment at work place.
Now, before opening of the BPO’s or these types of work, have been many cases of ***
harassment at work place, opening of BPO’s will also introduce cases of *** harassment
at work place in Kanpur city. So, it depends and what variables we look for, somebody can
say that we will be interested in studying, whether BPO will have positive impact on birth
rate or negative impact or maternal mortality ratio or empowerment.
You have to make a choice, where else you have to make a choice, in any research in
general in any research differs from other thing, dissemination of knowledge. In dissemination
of knowledge you can be confined to some specific domain but, in research you have unstructured
problem. And you are solving a new problem for the
first time and for solving this new problem for the first time, you have to take inputs
from diverse fields of knowledge. So, you are right that studying that sociologists
can contribute, technologists can contribute. Political sociologists can contribute that
at will be the impact of opening of BPO’s and malls on communal harmony in Kanpur society.
You can argue or the experience may show, that with the opening of more malls and more
BPO’s and more inter ethnic inter religious associations, communal riots will reduce or
they may also be reasons; because of which opening of these malls and can lead to more
alienation among certain religious communities. And so, creating the possibility of riots
sometime, so it depends. Now towards the end let us also talk a little bit about environment
beliefs, why because ultimately, we are interested in environmental action, at the global level,
at the national level, at the regional level we are interested in action.
And for action, we need to create lobbies, we need to create mobilization, we need to
create movements. We know as the sociologists that people are mobilize not on the basis
of objective or on the knowledge of objective facts but, knowledge as it gets translated
into their belief systems. So, we have to look at people’s environmental
beliefs, there are still many people who say, that environmental issues are non sense even
when the world population was only one billion, people used to say that we have reached a
critical dimension. And if population growth increases further, there will be problem,
there will be devastation catastrophe. And this earth will not be able to survive
more population, then we had two, we have three, now we have nearly seven. So, some
people think, that the environmental bogies are useless, this is one extreme and there
are others, who think that no its time to act. If nothing substantial is done during
the coming decade or two decades then this planet will become unlivable for human beings.
Ultimately what you do you do on the basis of your beliefs, your assumptions, your world
view, your perspective, so we have to talk a little bit about beliefs. Beliefs are by
definition assumptions, regarding relationships between two things, we use similar terms on
beliefs attitudes and values. Values are standards, attitudes are evaluation of something, attitudes
involve favorable or unfavorable attitudes, evaluation. And belief is basically your assumption
regarding relationship between two things. This may be a belief that further growth of
your population, will lead to catastrophic situation in the world; further growth of
population in India can produce catastrophic situation for world population.
So, this is your assumption regarding two variables, growth of population in India and
catastrophic situation in the world. Thus the environmental beliefs refer to people’s
assumptions regarding causes and consequences of environmental problems and what strategies
going to succeed in the short term and long term.
It has been found that in polluted, contaminated environment people suffer not only from physical
effects of pollutants or contaminants that they also suffer from various misconceptions
and stigma.
So, it is important to study beliefs for several reasons, that people may hold ecological beliefs,
pro environmental belief, that is something has to be done to maintain environment. And
then they take action to prevent destruction of natural environment or they may hold an
anthroprosentric or instrumental belief, that nature can be inscently exploited for human
needs. There are some people are who are move towards
ecological beliefs and there are others who towards antroproscentric beliefs. Some may
hold belief in between the two, the beliefs affect their action and and therefore, in
the study of environmental action, it is important study belief system.
Now, in the risk areas, where people suffer from the physical effects from the environmental
hazards, the effects are socio culturally interpreted. It is found that social stigmatism
among the victims and discrimination against them, can lead to extreme instability in the
social life and social harmony.
In one of our studies, in one of our PhD student work on the problem of environment beliefs
and north in west Bengal, this is a quote from there people with arsenic in one district
there were problem of shortage of water; in another there was problem of arsenic contamination
and we were comparing the two. This is the people with arsenic suffer from stigma, sometimes
arsenic patients are identified as leprosy patient, because people do not have environmental
understanding. They do not have right understanding impact
of poly trends like arsenic, this is if somebody suffers from arsenocosis, they take it to
be a case of leprosy and our unkindly by society. The victims are abandoned not only by large
society but, also by the relatives and family members, for them there is no difference between
leprosy and arsenocosis, for doctors it is a result of arsenoco pollution, but for people
it is. People have not known that, that there is
something called arsenic and the water contains arsenic and these are the adverse consequences.
And children of arsenic patients are not allowed to attend school and religious functions as
their believed to have inherited serious problem something like leprosy.
Which might manifest anytime, may be transferred to others, this phenomenon is similar to that
observed in cases of *** positive people in various parts of the country.
No everywhere no such problem everywhere such problems these misconceptions are everywhere.
In absence of comprehensive knowledge about something, you have misconceptions and there
is no educated, there is no society, where there is no misconceptions about anything.
Anything about means, we will scientific and comprehensive knowledge, we have misconceptions.
There is a stigma for example, in United States there is a stigma against MSM, because they
think that MSM is the cause of ***. So, there is this is a fear sometime, *** fever sometime
it is called homophobia homophobia it is the fear that somebody is MSM. Everywhere, there
are different kinds of misconceptions, you got different things are important in different
context but, everywhere misconceptions about something.
The sources of beliefs how can we change people environmental, this stigma can be, so great
found in this research. That already in the social structure they make a difference between
Bengal Bengal and Ghottis those people who have come from Bangladesh they have come from
Bengals they are stigmatized and their ostisized, there is stigma against them they are alienated
from the larger society. And due to arsenic when cases of arsenocosis come, people are
saying that this this is a new disease, which has come along the migrants from Bangladesh.
There is no connection between migration and arsenic problem but, because people do not
understand. So, likewise wherever people do not understand connections between pollutants
or impacts of development projects, adversities they are like, likely to go for magic, crafts,
superstitions and so, on. We know that like in Kanpur, we know that
the water Ganga is polluted, because of tannery but, some people who do not understand this
connection, many rural folks, they may attribute this to kalyug. Now it is kalyug the fourth
stage of cycles of time and it is because of kalyug, that we have this pollution in
the river. And they will even pray the river Ganges they will make an idol of river Ganga,
goddess ganga and pray for removal of pollutants. So, Lack of knowledge, so for correcting correcting
environmental beliefs, we have to act the sources of beliefs people can be folk wisdom,
religious tags and religious organization. Education, media, migration, advertisement,
political party and leaders and non government organizations, particularly those organizations
working in the specific field.
Today in developing countries there is a great hunger for development and folk wisdom and
traditions are reinterpreted to serve the goals of capitalization, localization of sociological
language, we call localization. And during the independence struggle and the post independence
period in India for philosophers, leaders, intellectuals favored synthesizing, western
materialism and eastern philosophy. So, the importance or the impact of eastern
philosophy, has not died down it is a source of belief including beliefs about environment.
It is difficult to convince the people of India that interest of survival of earth,
they must volunteer for the present low levels of conjunction or surrender in essential needs,
when the development has, so much of wasteful consumption.
Actually, we need a new approach to tackle environmental problems it as to be based on
justice, equality, science and technology physical advancements. Better understanding
of linkages, scientific linkages between man and environment and developmental processes.
Now, religion the modern media and political are only promoting consumerism and commoditization,
with little interest in sustainability of ecological process. The result is an anti
ecological belief, nobody is bothered about everybody knows, why the river Ganges is polluted
in Kanpur in Allahabad or or in Varanasi. But nothing has been done, the government
of India also has spend lakhs of rupees on the this project but, nothing has been done,
nothing is achieved it is because people are not bothered. Either people do not understand
the connection, they do not have the right kind of beliefs, they have the beliefs or
they have the understanding but, there is no one to mobilize them or there is tremendous
hunger for socio economic development. So, much hunger for socio economic development
that they are ready to tolerate the other adverse effect on environment.
Here one may ask what the rule of environmental concepts is these are the questions of sociology,
which you can take up for M.Phil and PhD research; role of environment consciousness, change
of beliefs and behaviors and among the common people and its consequence for social structure.
Some people think that the environment can protected only when people at large develop
strong pro ecological world, leading to philosophy of spiritualism, equality and simplicity.
These are extreme rules, you know little bit about environmental movements, we have had
a number of environmental movements and though not so successful. We had Chipko in Uttarkhand,
Appoiko in Karnataka, the Narmada smaller movements at sevaral places in Kerala particularly.
So, many movements but, it seems that today the impact of all those movements is declined,
the there they quote from Augustine, who worked on environments in our department.
That this resultant is preference to large scale plantation of fast growing commercially
species, that the organic and composite nature of forest is varied flora and fauna had been
destroyed; this means development. And thereby the people and the communities who were defendant
all these forests for marginalize causing disenchantment continued after independence.
This is a small quote from there is another quote from Shiva Vandana Shiva in 1991 ecological
degradation and economic abbreviation, generated by the resource in sensitivity and intensity
of the classical modern of the have resulted in conflicts.
So, w can conclude here by saying a few things, that the environmental issues are some of
the most important issues of our times. Everybody talks about the end of the earth caused by
industrialization and insatiable human desire to attain higher and higher levels of material
development. And climate change is a high probability risk,
though this is true that the developed countries are more responsible for the environment degradation
and climate change. The developing countries too have to accept their part in protecting
the environment. They also see the link between rapid population growth and climate change.
I think we stop here this is a quote from UNFPA state of award population 2009 that
thirty seven of 41 left national adaptation program or NAPA. That developing country government
had submitted to UNFCC by May 2009 explicitly link climate change and population and identifies
rapid population growth as a problem. That either or hinders the abilities of countries
to adapt to it. Though the preparation of NAPA the least developed
country is state their priorities and need for adopting to climate change; the growth
of population can contribute to fresh water scarcity or degradation of crop land, which
may in turn the impacts of climate change. So, two can make the population growth may
take more difficult for governments, who have powered. So, we have limited and we have to
stop now, the point is that population is an important factor in environment change
but, we must know that population is not only the factor. The standard of living and that
also value system, culture and technology play an important role in deciding climate
change; technology can be environment saving or technology can be environment polluting,
so thank you.