CHAPTER-8 ENVORONMENT DEGRADAITON
MODEL QUESTIONS
(Essay/Long type)
8: 1 Explain in brief the causes for environmental degradation in the Third World countries.
Ans : India today is one of the First ten industrialized countries of the world. What these industries have provided and what has come out is noteworthy. There is no sustainable development. We have both non-degradable and bio-degradable pollutants. Pollutant emission within the permissible limit is a fine approach of development but the moment permissible limit is crossed may be due to anyone's carelessnessit becomes hazardous to the health of both living and non-living organisms. Air, water, soil and noise pollution is being experienced by society. This is not sustainable development We all know that pollutants are present in water, air, soil and sound. Their dimension, source and reduction procedures upto tolerable limits is discussed below one by one.
• What is "organic growth"? Give some examples of unplanned growths .
Ans : we had unbounded faith in science and technology and the miracles they would" work to eradicate poverty, disease and other ills of the society. Since independence, India has made tremendous progress on all fronts. India has also achieved near self-reliance in many core sectors such as iron and steel, crude oil refining and petrochemicals, drugs and pharmaceuticals, fertilizers, engineering goods, food and food processing, building materials and consumer goods. Unfortunately, this industrial transformation of the country was not well-planned from the point of view of environmental conservation and this improperly planned development has resulted in
pollution of our air, water and land. The main factor of environmental pollution in the Indian sub-continent (i.e., in India, Pakistan, Bangaladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar and Sri Lanka) appears to be over-population that throws heavy demands on natural resources including air, water, soil, flora and fauna resulting in a serious imbalance in the ecosystem.
An extreme example of this was the Bhopal Gas Tragedy . In January, 1984, an insecticide plant of Union Carbide leaked a toxic gas, methyl isocyanate, 4 that killed more than 2,000 people within hours and blinded or otherwise sickened thousands. Most of the victims of this biggest industrial accident in the world were the poor people living in the slums adjacent to the plant.
According to many authorities, the main problem concerning environmental degradation is not "growth" but "unplanned growth". These authorities have formulated a new concept known as “organic growth". As an answer to the problem of environmental degradation. According to the principal of organic growth, the only answer to this universal problem is that governments should make universal decisions above their short-term and narrow national interests. Rich countries should transfer more of their resources to poor nations, and each country should specialize in what it is best equipped to produce.
Development in harmony with the environment should be the spirit of our Five-Year Plans. If we build a large dam, for example, hundreds of thousands of trees are felled, thousands of acres of fertile land is lost, and thousands of poor people are displaced. This is the dilemma of development No one can deny the need for development; but every effort should be made to minimize its environ-mental cost. While planning for any developmental project, there should be specific provisions for environmental protection. Attempts should also be made to remove some of the weaknesses existing in the planning system, which include the lack of co-ordinated institutional support, gaps in the necessary information and data required for the assessment of environmental impact of various developmental projects, inadequate availability of trained manpower and lack of strong public interest in environment issues.
• Write a critical note on "Environmental Degradation by the Rich".
Ans: The food requirements and habit of the rich Western countries have been instrumental in destroying the forests and degrading the land of many poor Third World countries. Despite the worldwide process of decolonization after the Second World War, it is almost certain that much more land is being used today in the developing countries to meet the food requirements of the Western countries than in the years before the Second World War. More than one-fourth of all the Central American forests have been cleared since 1960 for the purpose of cattle ranching and about 90% of the beef produced in these ranches are being exported to the USA, while the domestic consumption of beef in Central America has fallen dramatically during this period. In the US, on the other hand, the beef imported from Central America is mostly used to make pet food and hamburgers. The price of the Central American beef in the US (which is roughly half the price of the beef produced in the US from grass-fed cattle) does not represent its real ecological cost. The reason is that cattle ranching has proved to be the worst form of land use for the fragile soil of Central America on which the tropical forests existed before 1960. It was found that within 5 to 7 years of clearing the forest, the productivity of the soil dropped dramatically and the cattle ranches had to move on to some other areas and clear more forests. In our own country, the first major attack on the forests of the North-Eastern India came when tea plantations were established. The current over fishing on India's coast is taking place mainly because of the heavy demand for prawns in the markets of rich Western countries and Japan. This over- fishing often leads to tension and violent encounter between traditional fishermen and the owners of the mechanized trawlers. As a result, India and several other countries in South-East Asia have established regulations to prevent trawler operators from fishing in the first few kilometers from the coast, a zone reserved for the traditional fishermen. Similarly, the export of frog-legs from India to France and other European countries to cater to the palates of rich Western consumers has led to tremendous increase in the population of agricultural pests in the affected areas. To control these pests, farmers have to use large amounts of costly pesticides which, in turn, leads to more environmental pollution.
The pattern of mindless exploitation of natural resources that we see on the global scale simply repeats itself on the national scale. Exactly what the industry of the rich Western countries does to the environment of poor Third World countries, the Indian industry does the same to the environment of the resource-rich and economically poor states of India like Orissa, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh. Nearly half the industrial output in India comes from biomass-based industries like cotton, textiles, rayon, paper, plywood, rubber, soap, sugar, tobacco, jute, chocolate, tea, coffee, food processing, packaging and vegetable oils. Each of these industries exerts heavy pressure on the cultivated and forest lands of the country. These biomass-based industries need crop lands, forests, irrigation and energy. Thus, we see that one of the main sources of environmental degradation in the world is the heavy demand for natural resources by the high rate of consumption of the rich, whether they are rich nations or rich groups and individuals within the nation itself, and it is mainly their wastes that contribute to the global pollution.
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