RISE, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE!
On this World Environment Day, let each of us pledge towards safeguarding our environment and preserving our planet Earth
T he 2006 ‘Environmental Performance Index’ that identifies targets for environmental performance and measures countries’ success in achieving them, ranked India among the 20 lowest scoring countries in meeting its domestic and global environmental goals. The criteria for the assessment of 133 countries included clean drinking water, sanitation, air and water pollution levels, sustainable energy, loss of forests and low greenhouse gas emissions. India ranked among the 20 lowest scoring countries, with overall success ratio of 41.1 per cent.
This is just a statistical interpretation of a serious concern that continues to plague our country from decades. As we move from a developing to a developed nation, we have put significant issues like environmental health, air quality, water resources, biodiversity and habitat, productive natural resources and sustainable energy, in the backburner. India’s ongoing population explosion along with a move toward urbanization and industrialization, has placed significant pressure on India’s infrastructure and its natural resources.
THE PRICE OF INDUSTRIALISATION While industrial development has contributed significantly to economic growth in India, it has done so at a price to the environment. The Tsunami that struck the Indian Ocean, the heat wave that hit across some states of India and the 26 July, Mumbai monsoon rampage are just a few examples of huge price that we had to pay. Despite commitments by the Indian government to protect public health, forests, and wildlife, policies geared to develop the country’s economy have taken precedence in the last 20 years. While the problem assumes different forms such as air pollution, water pollution, noise pollution and soil pollution, it all adds up to one main issue i.e. breaching environmental norms.
There is unbalanced industrial growth, improper urbanisation and deforestation. Trees have been cut down on an unprecedented scale resulting in green house effect. Dumping of industrial waste on the surface of the earth or in the rivers has polluted the environment. Oil-spillage by ships further adds to pollution. The wastes on the earth due to improper solid waste disposal produce different poisonous gases. Industrialization and urbanization have resulted in a pro found deterioration of India’s air quality. According to reports, India’s urban air quality ranks among the world’s worst. Of the 3 million premature deaths in the world that occur each year due to outdoor and indoor air pollution, the highest numbers are assessed to occur in India.
Sources of air pollution, India’s most severe environmental problem, come in several forms, including vehicular emissions and untreated industrial smoke.
Vehicles are the major source of this pollution, with more than three million cars, trucks, buses, taxis, and rickshaws already on the roads. Coal accounts for just over 50 per cent of India’s energy consumption. India’s heavy reliance on coal, explains the country’s relatively high carbon intensity level. In 2001, India, with 251 million metric tons of carbon equivalent emitted, ranked fifth in the world in carbon emissions. With the high capital costs associated with replacing existing coal-fired plants and the long time required to introduce advanced coal technologies, many of India’s highlypolluting coal-fired power plants will have to remain in operation for the next couple of decades, thereby keeping India’s carbon emissions on the rise.
SEEKING AN ALTERNATIVE India faces significant challenges in balancing its increased demand for energy with the need to protect its environment from further damage. Renewable energy projects - in the form of solar, wind and hydropowergenerated electricity are the key to providing rural areas with energy where power is in short supply. In addition, replacing coal and other fossil fuel-generated electricity with energy from renewable energy sources could aid in reducing air pollution and help to meet the growing energy needs of the country as well.
India is rich in wind energy potential, and according to the Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Sources, India now expects to exceed its target of installing 1,500 MW of wind power in the 2002-2007 period. India also has an estimated hydropower potential of 150,000 MW. These alternative energy sources will definitely go a long way in improving the situation for India, not only on the environmental front but also on the industrial development front.
THE NEED OF THE HOUR In recent years the problem of pollution has become very acute. The exposure to disease causing agents in the environment has led to occupational and environmental diseases as well. If we do not tackle this problem now, we will have nothing to give to our future generation. It is indeed ironical to note that India’s high concentration of pollution is not due to the absence of a sound environmental legal regime, but a lack of environmental enforcement. It is necessary for the concerned authorities to ensure that stringent measures are adopted to keep everyone in check. With India signing the Kyoto Protocol that mandates specific commitments by countries to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases by an average of 5.2 per cent below 1990 levels by the agreed 2008-2012 timeframe, things have to move fast.
While the authorities are doing things under their purview to bring about an assimilation of our beautiful planet with her biodiversity, let each of us do our bit to ensure that this is possible. Don’t you also envisage a future where clean air is no longer a dream, our cities are no longer smog filled concrete jungles, and the world is not on tenterhooks due to the rapidly increasing pollution. After all, “we do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children. Take care of the earth and she will take care of you”. ¦ Don't Desert Drylands W orld Environment Day, commemorated each year on 5 June, is one of the principal vehicles through which the United Nations stimulates worldwide awareness of the environment and enhances political attention and action. World Environment Day was established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1972 to mark the opening of the Stockholm Conference on Human Environment.
The World Environment Day theme selected for 2006 is Deserts and Desertification and the slogan is Don't Desert Drylands! The slogan emphasizes the importance of protecting drylands, which cover more than 40 per cent of the planet's surface. This ecosystem is home to onethird of the world's people who are more vulnerable members of society. The main international celebrations of the World Environment Day 2006 will be held in Algeria.
The day's agenda is to give a human face to environmental issues; empower people to become active agents of sustainable and equitable development; promote an understanding that communities are pivotal to changing attitudes towards environmental issues; and advocate partnership, which will ensure all nations and people enjoy a safer and more prosperous future.
On this World Environment Day, let each of us pledge towards safeguarding our environment and preserving our planet Earth
T he 2006 ‘Environmental Performance Index’ that identifies targets for environmental performance and measures countries’ success in achieving them, ranked India among the 20 lowest scoring countries in meeting its domestic and global environmental goals. The criteria for the assessment of 133 countries included clean drinking water, sanitation, air and water pollution levels, sustainable energy, loss of forests and low greenhouse gas emissions. India ranked among the 20 lowest scoring countries, with overall success ratio of 41.1 per cent.
This is just a statistical interpretation of a serious concern that continues to plague our country from decades. As we move from a developing to a developed nation, we have put significant issues like environmental health, air quality, water resources, biodiversity and habitat, productive natural resources and sustainable energy, in the backburner. India’s ongoing population explosion along with a move toward urbanization and industrialization, has placed significant pressure on India’s infrastructure and its natural resources.
THE PRICE OF INDUSTRIALISATION While industrial development has contributed significantly to economic growth in India, it has done so at a price to the environment. The Tsunami that struck the Indian Ocean, the heat wave that hit across some states of India and the 26 July, Mumbai monsoon rampage are just a few examples of huge price that we had to pay. Despite commitments by the Indian government to protect public health, forests, and wildlife, policies geared to develop the country’s economy have taken precedence in the last 20 years. While the problem assumes different forms such as air pollution, water pollution, noise pollution and soil pollution, it all adds up to one main issue i.e. breaching environmental norms.
There is unbalanced industrial growth, improper urbanisation and deforestation. Trees have been cut down on an unprecedented scale resulting in green house effect. Dumping of industrial waste on the surface of the earth or in the rivers has polluted the environment. Oil-spillage by ships further adds to pollution. The wastes on the earth due to improper solid waste disposal produce different poisonous gases. Industrialization and urbanization have resulted in a pro found deterioration of India’s air quality. According to reports, India’s urban air quality ranks among the world’s worst. Of the 3 million premature deaths in the world that occur each year due to outdoor and indoor air pollution, the highest numbers are assessed to occur in India.
Sources of air pollution, India’s most severe environmental problem, come in several forms, including vehicular emissions and untreated industrial smoke.
Vehicles are the major source of this pollution, with more than three million cars, trucks, buses, taxis, and rickshaws already on the roads. Coal accounts for just over 50 per cent of India’s energy consumption. India’s heavy reliance on coal, explains the country’s relatively high carbon intensity level. In 2001, India, with 251 million metric tons of carbon equivalent emitted, ranked fifth in the world in carbon emissions. With the high capital costs associated with replacing existing coal-fired plants and the long time required to introduce advanced coal technologies, many of India’s highlypolluting coal-fired power plants will have to remain in operation for the next couple of decades, thereby keeping India’s carbon emissions on the rise.
SEEKING AN ALTERNATIVE India faces significant challenges in balancing its increased demand for energy with the need to protect its environment from further damage. Renewable energy projects - in the form of solar, wind and hydropowergenerated electricity are the key to providing rural areas with energy where power is in short supply. In addition, replacing coal and other fossil fuel-generated electricity with energy from renewable energy sources could aid in reducing air pollution and help to meet the growing energy needs of the country as well.
India is rich in wind energy potential, and according to the Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Sources, India now expects to exceed its target of installing 1,500 MW of wind power in the 2002-2007 period. India also has an estimated hydropower potential of 150,000 MW. These alternative energy sources will definitely go a long way in improving the situation for India, not only on the environmental front but also on the industrial development front.
THE NEED OF THE HOUR In recent years the problem of pollution has become very acute. The exposure to disease causing agents in the environment has led to occupational and environmental diseases as well. If we do not tackle this problem now, we will have nothing to give to our future generation. It is indeed ironical to note that India’s high concentration of pollution is not due to the absence of a sound environmental legal regime, but a lack of environmental enforcement. It is necessary for the concerned authorities to ensure that stringent measures are adopted to keep everyone in check. With India signing the Kyoto Protocol that mandates specific commitments by countries to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases by an average of 5.2 per cent below 1990 levels by the agreed 2008-2012 timeframe, things have to move fast.
While the authorities are doing things under their purview to bring about an assimilation of our beautiful planet with her biodiversity, let each of us do our bit to ensure that this is possible. Don’t you also envisage a future where clean air is no longer a dream, our cities are no longer smog filled concrete jungles, and the world is not on tenterhooks due to the rapidly increasing pollution. After all, “we do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children. Take care of the earth and she will take care of you”. ¦ Don't Desert Drylands W orld Environment Day, commemorated each year on 5 June, is one of the principal vehicles through which the United Nations stimulates worldwide awareness of the environment and enhances political attention and action. World Environment Day was established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1972 to mark the opening of the Stockholm Conference on Human Environment.
The World Environment Day theme selected for 2006 is Deserts and Desertification and the slogan is Don't Desert Drylands! The slogan emphasizes the importance of protecting drylands, which cover more than 40 per cent of the planet's surface. This ecosystem is home to onethird of the world's people who are more vulnerable members of society. The main international celebrations of the World Environment Day 2006 will be held in Algeria.
The day's agenda is to give a human face to environmental issues; empower people to become active agents of sustainable and equitable development; promote an understanding that communities are pivotal to changing attitudes towards environmental issues; and advocate partnership, which will ensure all nations and people enjoy a safer and more prosperous future.
