Assignment - 3

Introduction to Environmental Sciences (FEC-7 S-3)

Shubham Gupta 2K18/EC/163

A. Environmental Ethics - Issues and possible solutions

▪ Environmental ethics deals with issues related to the rights of individuals that are fundamental to life
and well-being.
▪ This concerns not only the needs of each person today, but also those who will come after us.
▪ It also deals with the rights of other living creatures that inhabit our earth.
▪ Here are some major Issues with their possible solutions
▪ Resource consumption patterns and the need for their equitable utilisation
• Equitable use of forest resources: We think of forests as being degraded due to fuelwood
collection by poor rural communities, but forget that the rich use much greater quantities of
timber. Biomass based industries include cotton textiles, paper, plywood, rubber, soap,
sugar, tobacco, jute, chocolate, food processing and packaging. These need land, energy,
irrigation and forest resources. We must realise and acknowledge this fact.
▪ Equity – Disparity in the Northern and Southern countries
▪ Urban – rural equity issues
• The common property of rural communities has increasingly been used to supply the needs
of the urban sector. Land itself that was once held as a common property resource of
villages is being taken over by the urban and industrial sectors as it expands.
• The rural sector not only supplies food, but also a part of the energy needs (mainly
fuelwood) to most towns and cities in India, at a pittance. As a result, the commons of the
rural sector are being depleted of their resources.
• Thus, while the cities get richer, the rural sector, especially the landless, get poorer. The
urban rich must appreciate where their resources are derived from and be willing to pay a
fair price for using them.
▪ The need for Gender Equity
• The great divide between women and men is most apparent in communities that live near
forests and have by tradition made the woman play a greater role than men in collection of
natural resources. Women fetch water, collect fuelwood,
fruit, medicinal products, etc. day in and day out, while the
men work only sporadically in the fields.
• This disparity in the lives of women and men has also led to
a lower access to education and health care for girl children.
• This has deep implications for the rate of utilization of
natural resources and its conservation. Rural women who
are intimately connected to resources, appreciate the value
of conserving natural resources more deeply than men.
• Thus, several environmental movements such as Chipko
have been more strongly supported by local women folk
rather than men.
▪ Preserving resources for future generation
• Current development agendas must not fuel this
generation’s consumerism. It must rather aim at leaving something (like fossil fuels) behind
for them to use.
▪ Preserving the rights of animals
▪ The ethical basis of environment education and awareness
▪ The conservation ethic and traditional value systems of India
B. Wasteland Reclamation

▪ The demands of our increasing human population for environmental goods and services has imposed
severe pressures on the available land resources especially on the forests and green cover
▪ This is closely linked to the wellbeing of the rural population which constitutes a large percent of the
population which depends on local natural resources for their survival.
▪ The increasing demand for food, fodder, fuel wood, etc. has led to activities that are responsible for
increasing environmental degradation.
▪ Loss of vegetation cover leads to loss of soil through erosion, which ultimately creates wastelands.
This is one of the pressing problems of the country.
▪ Factors affecting the choice of Ecosystem.
• Cost factor.
• Study of environmental aspects and human impacts which are responsible for the
development of wastelands have to be looked into.
▪ Wasteland can be classified into three forms:
• Easily reclaimable, which can be used for agricultural purposes.
• Reclaimable with some difficulty, can be utilized for agro-forestry.
• Reclaimable with extreme difficulty, can be used for forestry or to recreate natural ecosystem
(Induced secondary succession).
▪ Need for wasteland development:
• Provides a source of income for the rural poor.
• Ensures a constant supply of fuel, fodder and timber for local use.
• Makes the soil fertile by preventing soil erosion and conserving moisture.
• Helps maintain an ecological balance in the area.
• Increasing forest cover helps in maintaining local climatic conditions.
• Regenerated vegetation cover helps in attracting birds which feed on pests in the surrounding
fields and function as natural pest controllers.
• The trees help in holding back moisture and reduce surface run off rates thus helping in the
control of soil erosion.
▪ Components of Wasteland Reclamation
• Step 1: Identification of the wastelands at the microlevel, (District level, Gram level etc.)
• Step 2: Identify the various factors/activities leading to the wasteland generation.
• Step 3: Create Awareness at grassroot level.
• Additional steps:
▪ Selection of appropriate crops for fodder and trees that provide local people with non-
wooded forest products according to the nature of the wasteland.
▪ Testing soil in laboratories provides guidance to the farmers on the proper land
management to be used.
▪ Irrigation and other expertise needed for improving productivity without creating
unsustainable patterns of development provide the local people with newer
technological advances.
▪ Guidelines regarding control of water logging must be provided.
▪ Appropriate technologies must be made available to people belonging to the weaker
sections and landless farmers.

C. Consumerism and Waste products

▪ The inordinate amount of waste that is generated by consumer-oriented societies around the world is
now a serious environmental issue.
▪ Consumerism is related to the constant purchasing of new goods, with little attention to their true
need, durability, product origin, or the environmental consequences of their manufacture and disposal.
▪ Consumerism is driven by huge sums spent on advertising designed to create both a desire to follow
trends, and a personal feeling of satisfaction based on acquisition.
▪ Materialism is one of the end results of consumerism.
 ▪ Consumerism interferes with the sustainable use of resources in a society by replacing the normal
common-sense desire for an adequate supply of life’s necessities, with an insatiable quest for things
that are purchased by larger and larger incomes to buy them.
▪ There is little regard for the true utility of what
is bought.
▪ Consumerism, is accelerated by the
discarding of the old goods, either because of
lack of durability or a change in fashion.
▪ Consumerism causes wasteful use of energy
and material far beyond that needed for
everyday living at a comfortable level.
▪ Money is not the only way to measure the
cost of an item that we use.
▪ When one adds up all the raw material and
energy that goes into the manufacture of
goods or the services provided by nature that
one uses during a day’s activities, the toll on
the environment is large.
▪ Rather than compete on quality or reliability, many industrial consumer products are made for one-
time use.

▪ Ways of resisting consumerism.

• Buying quality products that are warranted against failure or wearing out
• Learning about the raw materials that things are made of,
• Appreciation of their origin from nature’s storehouse,
• knowing the conditions of the workers that make them
▪ The 3R principle of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, should be followed in that order.
• Reduction is the best option. If we reduce at source, there is a smaller chance of waste
generation and the pressure on our already stretched natural resources is reduced.
• Reuse is the next best option, as the product is reused in its current form without any energy
expended to convert it into a new item.
• Recycling is the last option, as although it converts a waste into a resource, it uses energy to
transform that resource into a new useable product.
▪ Finally, the waste material generated which can neither be reused or recycled, must be disposed off in
a proper manner with minimum impact to the environment.
• Non-toxic solid waste should be properly segregated and disposed-off in landfills that are
properly sealed to avoid leakage and contamination of surrounding land and groundwater.
• Toxic wastes should be treated or disposed-off separately in a proper manner.
• Sewage and industrial wastewater should be adequately treated and raw materials recovered
from it where possible before it is released into our rivers and waterways.

D. Population growth, variation among nations

▪ Global human population crossed the 7 billion mark on October 31, 2011 according to the United
Nation Consensus.
▪ The needs of this huge number of human beings cannot be supported by the Earth’s natural resources,
without degrading the quality of human life.
▪ What may happen in near future if environmental problems related to an increasing human population
is not dealt with:
• Fossil fuel from oil fields will run dry.
• Agro systems will be unable to fulfil the global food demands.
• Pastures will be overgrazed by domestic animals
• Industrial growth will create greater problems due to pollution of soil, water and air.
• Seas will not have enough fish.
• Larger ozone holes will develop.
• Global warming will lead to a rise in sea levels and flood all low-lying areas.
 • Water ‘famines’ due to the depletion of fresh
water.
• Degradation of ecosystems will lead to
extinction of thousands of species,
destabilizing natural ecosystems of great
value.
▪ The increasing pressures on resources place great
demands on the in-built buffering action of nature that
has a certain ability to maintain a balance in our
environment.
▪ However, current development strategies that
essentially lead to short-term gains have led to a
breakdown of our Earth’s ability to replenish the
resources on which we depend.

▪ Global population growth

• The world population is growing by more than 90 million per year, out of which 93% resides is
in developing nations. This will essentially prevent their further economic ‘development’.
• Human population growth increased from:
▪ 1 to 2 billion, in 123 years.
▪ 2 to 3 billion, in 33 years.
▪ 3 to 4 billion, in 14 years.
▪ 4 to 5 billion, in 13 years.
▪ 5 to 6 billion, in 11 years.
• Serious impediments to limiting growth of Population
▪ There are cultural, economic, political and demographic reasons that explain the
differences in the rate of population control in different countries.
▪ It also varies in different parts of certain countries and is linked with community and/
or religious thinking.
▪ Lack of Government initiatives for generating awareness regarding Family Welfare
Programs
▪ Limited access to a full range of contraceptive

▪ Population Explosion – Family Welfare Program

• In response to our phenomenal population growth, India seriously took up an effective

Family Planning Program which was renamed the Family Welfare Program.
• Slogans such as ‘Hum do, Humare do’ indicated that each family should not have more than
two children. It however has taken several decades to become effective.
• Female sterilization is the most common method of sterilization in developing nations.

• Methods of sterilization
▪ The best decision for the method used by a couple depends on a choice that they
make for themselves. This must be based on good advice from doctors or trained
social workers who can suggest the full range of methods available for them to
choose from.
▪ Condoms used by Males
▪ Intrauterine devices (Like copper-Ts)
▪ Oral Contraceptive Pills and Injectable drugs

• Factors affecting the family-size

▪ Couple’s background and education level
▪ The Government Policies,
▪ Effectiveness of Family Welfare Programs
▪ Educational level
▪ Information levels in mass communication
▪ Counter act of various cultural and religious attitudes
• Urbanization
▪ Urban population growth is both due to migration of people to towns and cities from
the rural sector in search of better job options as well as population growth within
the city.
▪ As a town grows into a city it not only spreads outwards into the surrounding
agricultural land or natural areas such as forests, grasslands and wetlands but also
grows skywards with high rise buildings.
▪ The town also loses its open spaces and green cover unless these are consciously
preserved. This destroys the quality of life in the urban area.
▪ Good urban planning is essential for rational land-use planning, for upgrading slum
areas, improving water supply and drainage systems, providing adequate sanitation,
developing effective waste water treatment plants and an efficient public transport
system.
▪ Unplanned and haphazard growth of urban complexes has serious environmental
impacts. Increasing solid waste, improper garbage disposal and air and water
pollution are frequent side effects of urban expansions.
▪ As population in urban centres grows, they draw on resources from more and more
distant areas. The "Ecological footprint" corresponds to the land area necessary to
supply natural resources and disposal of waste of a community.
▪ At present (back in 2004), the average ecological footprint of an individual at the
global level is said to be 2.3 hectares of land per capita. But it is estimated that the
world has only 1.7 hectares of land per individual to manage these needs
sustainably. This is thus an unsustainable use of land.
References:
Note: Follow assignment may contain old (2004) data as E-Barucha’s “Textbook of Environmental
Studies for Undergraduate Courses” has been taken as the main reference material.

Assignment 3: Environmental Ethics.

E-Barucha, “Textbook of Environmental Studies for Undergraduate Courses”