By Chandan Mitra Every life on earth is interdependent and man is only a strand in this delicately balanced web of relationships. Every time a strand is snapped, and a species becomes extinct, man, the destroyer himself, moves closer to his own destruction. This is not only applicable to all living species but also to […]
By Chandan Mitra
Every life on earth is interdependent and man is only a strand in this delicately balanced web of relationships. Every time a strand is snapped, and a species becomes extinct, man, the destroyer himself, moves closer to his own destruction. This is not only applicable to all living species but also to all inanimate objects of Nature.
The sustainability of the planet is closely associated with the proper utilisation of its resources, ie, utilisation should not exceed the resources generated. But man’s desire is dominated by the peril of greed than the wisdom of need. Today, the resources utilised by human beings is 1.74 times than that generated.
There is an unending thirst for encroachment of land for urbanisation, cultivation of crops, hydel power generation, extraction of timber, mining and bio-resources, leading to massive destruction of flora and fauna all around the world. Added to these, there is a huge demand for power for industrialisation and development of infra sector. Coal-based power generation provides two-thirds of the total requirement.
Sustainable Development
In the entire process, the inalienable requirement of sustainable development versus conservation of Nature is lost as the above human actions result in a huge release of greenhouse gases into the air, leading to an increase in temperature which in turn has a cascading effect in the form of glacier melting, thereby causing a rise in sea level and increasing the vulnerability of the coastal population to inundation. Only a few months ago, large scale wild forest fire was reported from many countries — Greece, France, Australia, Brazil, USA, etc.
In the name of green revolution, there has been enormous use of artificial fertilizer to increase the per acre yield without realising the amount of atmospheric pollution and the decline in soil nutrients it causes. There is already a projection that the crop yield would go down 30% as the temperature goes up by 1.5 degrees centigrade with reference to the base year 1951. It may not be out of place to mention that for increasing the agricultural yield, there has been indiscriminate extraction of groundwater thus using the groundwater in the most unsustainable manner.
Most Affected
Climate change affects vulnerable groups the most. The UN estimates its Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2 — zero hunger by 2030 — will be missed by a huge margin of 660 million people.
The Covid-19 pandemic’s economic disruptions, along with climate change, are driving this rise in global hunger. As unseen weather conditions make crops fail, conflicts are rising for scarce food. For the first time in history, four simultaneous famines in Nigeria, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen, could be driven by conflict. This is a warning bell for the entire planet, which is facing climate change.
However, there are multiple solutions. Longer-term mitigations include crop diversification to more resilient plants and changing supply chains to lower the prices of nutritious food. Currently, healthy diets are simply out of reach for three billion people. Nature gives us enough to feed everyone. The prevalence of hunger shows damaged systems restricting food.
Not only is the air polluted; but also water because of the huge discharge of industrial and household sewage into water resources. Seawater is largely affected due to plastic pollution. Almost 8-10 million tonnes of plastic is dumped into the sea every year and is set to outnumber the marine population by 2050. The marine population growth is also badly affected because of it. Because of the high level of pollution and consequent climate change triggered by high population growth, there has been unsustainable development all around the world.
Not to miss, urban flood has become another danger because of the unsustainable growth of cities. Solid waste management in urban and rural areas has become a matter of concern because of the non-availability of landfill areas. Unscientific disposal of biomedical waste and electronic goods all the more contaminates the groundwater and raises questions on the sustainability of the planet.
There has also been accelerated growth of vehicular population and in spite of construction of flyovers and managing traffic through one ways etc, not only has the environmental pollution crossed all limits, but also traffic management is becoming chaotic.
Panic Button
To address the issues relating to climate change and ensure sustainable growth, there had been international conferences starting from Rio meet to Paris Agreement and recently the COP26 in Glasgow. But now the panic button is pressed because of the forecasts and risk assessments made in the report of the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Every country has the mandate to reduce its carbon footprint by way of carbon sequestration and reducing the emissions of greenhouse gases. As almost two-thirds of the pollution is caused by coal-based power producing units, a lot of emphasis is on renewable energy including green hydrogen energy and non-fossil fuel energy.
Bhutan has a development parameter known as the ‘Happiness Index’ and the secret behind this happiness is that Bhutan is the only country to have negative carbon footprint. To make the planet sustainable, one has to follow the principle of; Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (world is one family) and aim at environment-friendly inclusive growth. Else, with the mad race of countries competing for GDP growth at the cost of the environment, Nature may put its icy hands on human beings soon.