Environment and Sustainable Development

Environment is defined as the total planetary inheritance and the totality of all resources. It includes both biotic and abiotic factors that influence each other.

When the rate of resource extraction exceeds the rate of regeneration, the resource gets depleted or exhausted. The environment then cannot perform its functions properly, and this can lead to an environmental crisis.

From the chapter: renewable resources can be used without getting exhausted if used properly, while non-renewable resources get exhausted with extraction and use.

- Renewable: trees, fish, water
- Non-renewable: petroleum, coal, iron-ore

The chapter states that two major global environmental issues are global warming and ozone depletion.

These factors contribute to the environmental crisis in India in the following ways:

- Rising population: increases demand for land, water, food, fuel and other resources, putting pressure on the environment.
- Air pollution: damages health and lowers environmental quality, especially in urban areas.
- Water contamination: makes clean water scarce and causes water-borne diseases.
- Affluent consumption standards: lead to overuse of resources and more waste generation.
- Illiteracy: reduces awareness about conservation and pollution control.
- Industrialisation: increases extraction of resources and produces pollution and industrial waste.
- Urbanisation: increases pressure on land, water, housing, transport and waste disposal.
- Reduction of forest coverage: causes soil erosion, biodiversity loss and disturbance of ecological balance.
- Poaching: leads to wildlife extinction and biodiversity loss.
- Global warming: creates long-term climate risks, sea-level rise and ecological damage.

Problem for the government: These issues create huge costs for the government in the form of pollution control, health expenditure, disaster management, conservation efforts and resource replacement. They also make development less sustainable.

The environment performs four vital functions:

1. Supplies resources — both renewable and non-renewable resources.
2. Assimilates waste — it absorbs and processes wastes.
3. Sustains life — by providing genetic and biodiversity.
4. Provides aesthetic services — such as scenery and beauty.

Six factors contributing to land degradation in India are:

- Deforestation
- Unsustainable fuel wood and fodder extraction
- Shifting cultivation
- Overgrazing
- Improper crop rotation
- Indiscriminate use of fertilisers and pesticides

Any six of the listed causes are correct.

The opportunity costs of negative environmental impact are high because damage to the environment forces society to spend on many things that could otherwise have been avoided. For example:

- we must spend on technology and research to find new resources,
- we bear health costs due to polluted air and water,
- governments must spend more on dealing with global warming and ozone depletion,
- scarce resources are lost through overuse and misuse.

So the cost of environmental degradation is not only ecological but also economic.

Steps involved in attaining sustainable development in India include:

1. Using non-conventional sources of energy such as solar and wind power.
2. Promoting LPG and gobar gas in rural areas to reduce fuelwood use.
3. Expanding CNG use in urban transport.
4. Developing wind power where wind speed is high.
5. Using solar power through photovoltaic cells, especially in remote areas.
6. Setting up mini-hydel plants in mountainous regions.
7. Reviving traditional knowledge and practices in agriculture, healthcare, housing and transport.
8. Promoting biocomposting instead of chemical fertilisers.
9. Encouraging biopest control instead of chemical pesticides.

These measures reduce pollution and conserve resources.

India has abundant natural resources because it has:

- rich soil, including black soil of the Deccan Plateau suitable for cotton,
- hundreds of rivers and tributaries,
- lush green forests,
- large mineral deposits like iron ore, coal and natural gas,
- a vast stretch of the Indian Ocean,
- mountain ranges,
- and many other minerals such as bauxite, copper, chromate, diamonds, gold, lead, lignite, manganese, zinc and uranium.

Also, India accounts for nearly 8% of the world's iron-ore reserves.