Spotlight
New Delhi, 9 April
202
For A
Better Future
CONSERVING
NATURE CRITICAL
By Dr
OisheeMukherjee
Governments across
the world strive for a better future for their citizens. The past two decades
though have seen that countries with high population growth face bigger
challenges. In the Third World there is a race for catching up with
development, which ends up disturbing sustainable norms. The outlook for human life
by the year 2030 is expected to have a devastating impact on the poor and
economically weaker sections.
This is so that what
was predicted way back in 1980 in the Global 2000 Report may just turn out
true: “If present trends continue, the world in 2000 will be more crowded, more
polluted, less stable ecologically and vulnerable to disruption than the world
we live in”.Delving more deeper, at least 600 to 650 million people already
live in life threatening situations in cities and up to one-third in sub-standard
housing and sanitary conditions. Although the proportion of people in the
developing world defined as ‘poor’ may be declining in some regions
(particularly East Asia), absolute numbers are still rising, and specially in
South Asia.
Whether it is air
pollution, waste disposal or provision of potable water for the teeming
millions of India, the situation is quite grave. While air pollution has taken
severe dimensions, municipal waste and untreated sewage have characterised the
metros and big cities. A report from the Centre for Research on Energy &
Clean Asia (CREA) in 2020 that found that China Mainland, the United States and
India bear the highest costs from fossil fuel air pollution world-wide, around
$900 billion, $600 billion and $150 billion per annum respectively. Particles
thrown off by fossil fuel usage account for 4.5 million premature Added to
this, looming environmental crisis and flow of toxic effluents into rivers,
streams and lakes have aggravated the situation severely.
The future of cities looks
bleak with inequalities between people and societies widening, threatening the
fundamental balance of the planet and the living world. While most societies in
the Third World countries are industrialising and modernising on a forced march
to catch up with the West, others still have to grapple with extreme
deprivation of large sections of their populations. Year after year, the
alarming gap between the rich and the poor is widening and has reached alarming dimensions.
A UN report released this
February has sounded a dire warning about consequences of inaction, confirming
that climate change is already causing widespread disruption in nature and
affecting the lives of billions around the globe. Written by 945 global
scientists on behalf of IPCC and released in Berlin after 195 governments
approved the same, the report identified 127 global and regional key risks. In cited
over 34,000 references from across the globe. Interestingly, it has been found that
India is on course to become one of the worst-affected regions of the world,
with its urban areas being particularly destined to be affected.
The report aptly
predicted various trends. These include:The rise in weather and climate
extremes has led to some irreversible impacts as natural and human systems are
pushed beyond their ability to adapt. Approximately 3.5 to 3.6 billion people
live under climate threat; Beyond 2040, climate change will lead to numerous
risks and multiple climate hazards will occur simultaneously; Cities, gradually
coastal ones, are under climate risk and India is going to be one of the worst
affected regions of the world; Within India, cities, particularly those which
are near coast like Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Visakhapatnam, Bhubaneswar
besides Goa stand extremely threatened. Cities like Kolkata face increasingly
hot and humid weather while Chennai faces increasing salinity in groundwater.
India is going to have 600 million urban population by another 15 years, double
the population base of the US, and add up the climate risks. Indian cities will
be experiencing more heat stress, urban floods, salinity ingress due to
sea-level rise and other climate induced hazards such as cyclones.
With passage of time,
i.e. within the current decade, sweeping changes have to be undertaken to
tackle the impending crises. But this can be done only with the involvement of
the people at the grass-root level. The basic issues may be concentrated on
water, energy, soil and conversion of military industries that go against the welfare
of the aam admi.
Water: Every third
person in the world today suffers from water shortage. In less than two
decades, continents like Africa are expected to experience dramatic shortage.
Even India, will become water stressed within the next five years or so and as 80% of the major diseases in the Third World
are due to poor quality of water and this expected to be accentuated. Conflicts
between countries for control of this scarce resource has become manifest due
to the fact that the major drainage basins are not border defined. Though
campaigns in different countries have started for conserving water as well as
reuse, recycling etc. there is also need to shift to water conservation
specially in agriculture.
Besides, decentralised
wastewater treatment systems (DWWTS) are gaining ground over centralised
wastewater treatment systems. DWWTS can be set up quickly to service expanding
communities and can be combined with a green infrastructure approach where
wetlands are constructed for tertiary treatment of water before letting it into
a lake or stream.
Energy: Introduction
of renewable energy in a big way is imperative. Introduction of energy
saving techniques and more stress on renewable energy is being followed by most
countries. Of India’s total power capacity of 300 GW, the non-fossil share
(including hydropower) crossed 150GW in early December. The share of solar and
wind is 106 MW has been skyrocketing. The 2030 target for renewables has been
raised from 400 MW to 500 MW, almost quintupling capacity within nine years. As
with water, a decentralised management of energy has started popularising the
need for energy conservation and making renewable energy cost effective.
Soil Conservation: It
has suffered massive damage due to a serious decrease in the fertility of
natural environments and hence to desertification. A thorough review of agricultural
production systems, reduce food insecurity in developing countries and search
for a diversified management of ecosystems is vital. The quest for more
productivity leading to use of excessive chemicals and fertilizers has
aggravated desertification and this has happened in many parts of India.
With increase in
chemical based agriculture, shaky farm production and rising food prices will
grow. This is expected to pose a staggering food shortage in the coming years,
as per FAO projections. The increase in the number of hungry people worldwide
in 2021 equalled the last five years combined. Around 8.9% of the world
lives in hunger – this number has grown to 690 million people over the last
five years. To feed the world, a 60% rise in agricultural production is
required.
While the quest for a
better future has unnerved policy makers, environmentalists and economists globally
and a concerted campaign needs to be launched to steer military industries into
the development of environment-friendly technologies. It is necessary that such
campaigns are carried out globally with such design to balance societies and
nature. Unless nature is not allowed unfettered growth, real development, which
normally benefits the poorest segments of society, cannot become a reality.
Finally, the freedom
gained from the expansion of science and technology must go hand in hand with a
sense of reverence with regard to nature and its conservation, the limitations
of which we must respect. Moreover, the vital aspects of water, air, soil and
seas as well as living species needs to be protected. Future human societies
have to orient their progress towards production models and life styles that do
not deplete or squander resources nor dump wastes that may harm the equilibrium
of local or global natural environments.
In an era when
climate change and loss of nature are the two most significant trends of our
times, India has the opportunity to turn these problems on their head by
pursuing green infrastructure approaches in combination with grey
infrastructure.---INFA
(Copyright, India
News & Feature Alliance)
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