Environment and Sustainable Development Notes on Sustainable Development in Indian Economic Development of Indian Economic Development
Concept and Elements of the Environment
Environment refers to the comprehensive set of conditions and their subsequent effects that influence human life. It is the sum total of surroundings and the totality of resources that affect the existence and quality of human life. The Environment (Protection) Act of 1986 offers a specific legal definition: "Environment includes water, air & land and the interrelationship which exists among & between water, air, land & human beings and other creatures, plants, micro-organisms and property."
The elements of the environment are categorized into two principal components: biotic and abiotic. Physical or abiotic elements include air, water, land, soil, climate, mountains, minerals, and all other resources provided by nature as a free gift. Biotic or living elements include all kinds of living creatures such as birds, plants, animals, forests, and fisheries that impact human life.
Significance and Resource Classification of the Environment
The environment serves four critical functions for human existence and economic activity. First, it offers resources for production, providing physical resources like minerals, wood, water, and soil as free gifts of nature that serve as inputs for the process of value addition. Second, it sustains life by providing essential ingredients like the sun, soil, water, and air. Third, it assimilates waste by absorbing the garbage generated by production and consumption activities. Finally, it enhances the quality of life through scenic surroundings such as rivers, oceans, mountains, and deserts.
Resources provided by the environment are classified into renewable and non-renewable categories. Renewable resources are those that can be replenished and are not likely to be exhausted or depleted upon use, such as wood and sea animals. Non-renewable resources are those likely to be exhausted on use because the rate at which they re-emerge is far shorter than the rate at which they are exploited, such as fossil fuels.
Understanding the Environmental Crisis and its Causes
An environmental crisis refers to a situation where environmental conditions change in a manner that impairs, weakens, or hurts the quality of life. Understanding this crisis requires two key concepts: carrying capacity and absorptive capacity. Carrying capacity refers to the state of balance between the rate at which natural resources are exploited and the rate at which they are regenerated. It permits exploitation only to the extent that the total resource endowment remains intact and does not diminish. Absorptive capacity refers to the environment's ability to absorb wastes occurring due to production and consumption activities. An environmental crisis occurs when excessive exploitation exceeds the carrying capacity or when waste generation exceeds the absorptive capacity.
The world currently faces an unprecedented environmental crisis manifested as global warming, climate change, and ozone depletion. This crisis is driven by rising populations and affluent consumption and production patterns. It poses a serious threat to the availability of production resources for future generations, implying that the current pace of growth is unsustainable and threatens the quality of future life. This situation is often described through the lens of supply-demand reversal; prior to industrialization, demand for resources did not exceed supply. However, the surge in human wants and exponential growth in demand has led to a reversal from resource abundance to paucity.
Opportunity Costs and Global Environmental Issues
Environmental crises carry high opportunity costs, which are the sacrifices made for enjoying an opportunity. These costs can be avoidable or unavoidable. Unavoidable costs occur when, for example, growing wheat results in the loss of rice output. Avoidable costs occur when excessive smoke is emitted due to poor vehicle maintenance. The high opportunity costs of environmental crisis are seen in four areas: the pollution of water bodies making water an economic good; the exhaustion of resources requiring massive R&D finances; increased costs of maintaining health due to respiratory and water-borne diseases; and rising global financial commitments to address climate change and greenhouse gas emissions.
Global warming is the gradual but consistent increase in global temperature due to pollution and deforestation. Over the past century, the earth's surface has warmed by (). Atmospheric concentrations of and have increased by and respectively above pre-industrial levels since 1750. Causes include the burning of coal and petroleum, deforestation, and increased cattle production. This leads to melting polar ice, rising sea levels, and increased natural calamities. The Kyoto Protocol (1997) was signed to address this by focusing on emission reductions in industrialized nations.
Ozone depletion refers to the reduction of the protective ozone layer in the stratosphere caused by chlorine and bromine compounds, such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and halons. This depletion allows greater ultraviolet radiation to reach the earth, endangering living organisms. A nearly reduction in the ozone layer has been recorded recently. The Montreal Protocol was established to ban the use of compounds that deplete the ozone layer.
Principal Factors Contributing to Environmental Crisis
Several factors contribute to the deterioration of the environment. Population explosion has increased pressure on land, leading to the conversion of forests into industrial and residential areas. Widespread poverty forces the poor to cut trees for fuel wood to earn a livelihood, causing the erosion of natural capital. Increasing urbanization places pressure on housing and civic amenities, leading to excessive resource exploitation. The increasing use of insecticides, pesticides, and chemical fertilizers adds significantly to pollution.
Rapid industrialization contributes to air, water, and noise pollution, with industrial smoke being a major pollutant. The multiplicity of transport vehicles has substantially increased noise and air pollution levels. Finally, a general disregard for civic norms, such as littering roads and the indiscriminate use of horns and loudspeakers, worsens the local environment. Environmental degradation is thus a consequence of urbanization, industrialization, and man's disregard for civic standards, requiring urgent national and international redressal.
The State of the Environment in India
India's environment is characterized by a dichotomy: it is rich in resources but burdened with overpopulation. India possesses fertile regions like the Indo-Gangetic plains and the black soil of the Deccan Plateau, which is suitable for cotton. It holds nearly of the world’s total iron-ore reserves and has rich deposits of bauxite, copper, chromate, diamonds, gold, lead, lignite, manganese, zinc, and uranium. However, India supports nearly of the world's population on only of the world's geographical area. This population pressure results in of the population living below the poverty line, leading to the excessive exploitation of natural endowments and pollution levels reaching alarming limits.
Environmental degradation in India is both poverty-induced and affluence-induced. In rural areas, poverty leads to tree-felling as an economic compulsion, causing deforestation. In urban areas, expanding production activities and vehicular traffic lead to air, water, and noise pollution. This represents both an overuse of resources (exploiting fossil fuels for energy) and a misuse of resources (using wood as household fuel).
Principal Concerns of Environmental Degradation in India
The first major concern is the degradation of land, which refers to the loss of fertility or productivity due to inappropriate management. Factors include excessive grazing, soil erosion from tree-felling, shifting cultivation, forest fires, and the indiscriminate use of agro-chemicals. India loses nutrients at an alarming rate; soil erosion occurs at billion tonnes per year, leading to an annual loss of million tonnes of nitrogen, million tonnes of phosphorus, and million tonnes of potassium. Forest cover per person is merely hectares, far below the required hectares.
Air pollution, particularly vehicular pollution in urban areas, is the second concern. Motor vehicles increased from lakh in 1951 to crore in 2019, with private transport making up of registered vehicles. The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has identified 17 categories of large and medium-scale industries as significant contributors to air pollution. Water pollution is the third concern, caused by industrial waste, domestic sewerage, and agricultural run-off. This leads to diseases like diarrhea and hepatitis. To combat this, the Government of India set up the Central Pollution Control Board in 1974, which monitors the quality of water in 125 rivers and sets standards for emissions.
Loss of biodiversity is the fourth concern. India houses of the world's floral and faunal biodiversity, with recorded plant species and animal species. However, according to the Living Planet Report 2020 by WWF, over of wild mammals, of birds, and of amphibians are threatened or endangered in India. Finally, solid waste management is a growing issue; waste volume is projected to increase from - million tonnes to million tonnes by 2031. Currently, only about million tonnes are collected, with only million tonnes treated.
Sustainable Development: Meaning and Origin
Sustainable development is a process of economic development that aims at raising the quality of life of the present generation without impairing the quality of life of future generations, while respecting natural endowment and the environment. The concept was first emphasized by the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED). The Brundtland Commission in 1987 provided the most recognized definition: "Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."
Distinguished Professor Edward Barbier defines it as being directly concerned with increasing the material standard of living of the poor at the grass-root level, measured by income, healthcare, and education. It seeks to provide lasting and secure livelihoods while minimizing resource depletion. In modern planning, the goal is moved from mere growth to growth that sustains quality of life over a long period, requiring the rational (economic and efficient) utilization of resources rather than just fuller utilization.
Strategies for Achieving Sustainable Development
Sustainable development is achieved not by curtailing growth, but through judicious resource utilization. Strategies include: relying on non-conventional energy sources like solar and wind power to replace greenhouse-gas-emitting thermal plants; using LPG and Gobar Gas in rural areas to reduce deforestation (supported by the Ujjwala Yojana); and implementing CNG in urban areas for public transport. Wind power, despite high installation costs, and solar power through photovoltaic cells are highlighted as effective long-term solutions. Mini-hydel plants are recommended for mountainous regions as they use perennial streams without changing land-use patterns.
Other strategies involve traditional knowledge and practices, such as using India’s medicinal plant species for healthcare and employing sustainable indigenous farming methods. Biocomposting, such as vermicomposting (using earthworms for fertilizer), is promoted under the National Mission on Sustainable Agriculture to reduce chemical fertilizer use. Biopest control involves using extracts from Neem, mixed cropping, and natural predators (like snakes and owls) to manage pests without contaminating the food chain. Economist Herman Daly suggests limiting human population to the environment's carrying capacity and ensuring the rate of depletion of non-renewable resources does not exceed the rate of creation of renewable substitutes.
Questions and Discussion
Q: Enlist two factors which trigger the environmental crisis. A: (i) Excessive exploitation of natural resources; (ii) Waste generation beyond the absorptive capacity of the environment.
Q: Give an example of an avoidable opportunity cost associated with environmental crisis. A: Excessive smoke is emitted due to poor maintenance of vehicles.
Q: Name two greenhouse gases which cause global warming. A: (i) Carbon dioxide; (ii) Methane.
Q: How is expansion of production activity associated with overutilisation of resources? A: Expansion of production activity involves excessive exploitation of resources to achieve higher growth rate.
Q: Name two movements initiated in India to protect forests or avoid deforestation. A: (i) Chipko movement (launched in Uttarakhand in 1973); (ii) Appiko movement (launched in Karnataka in 1983, where villagers in Sirsi district saved 12,000 trees).
Q: Which principal concern of environmental degradation does the Swachh Bharat Mission aim to address? A: Solid waste management.
Q: How many Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) did the UN intend to achieve by the year 2030? A: 17 Sustainable Development Goals.
Q: What is the point of emphasis regarding inclusive growth according to NITI Aayog? A: India is committed to inclusive growth ("Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas, and Sabka Prayas") to lower the degradation of resources through the participation of all stakeholders.