“The natural resources of the earth, including the air, water, lands, flora and fauna and specially the representative samples of natural ecosystems, must be safeguarded for the benefit of present and future generation through careful planning or management as appropriate”.
-Stockholm Declaration
Man is both the creator and the destroyer of his environment which provides him the physical sustenance and the opportunity of the intellectual, moral, social and spiritual growth. In the recent era, through the acceleration of science and technology man has acquired an unprecedented scale of growth. This adversely affects the environment so it is the responsibility of man himself to take care of his environment. An eminent personality in this regard quotes:
“Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.” –Albert Einstein
Our Environment comprises of air, water, land, flora and fauna and the microorganisms. They play a vital role for the protection and the security of our environment. And for this purpose the concept of ‘sustainable development’ was debated by the U.N world commission (1987), which aimed to protect and secure the environment.
Environmental pollution influences the health of human population. It is a far reaching problem. It reaches its worst level in the urbanized centers of the world because of the industries in urban and semi urban areas which are surrounded by a dense population. The worst effects of environmental pollution can be seen in excessively increasing global warming and frequent changes in climate.
Global warming and Climate change refer to the increase in the average temperature of the globe. This is primarily caused by human activities such as industrialization, urbanization etc. Man for his own selfish needs tends to destroy the environment and indulges in activities which leads to environmental hazards such as greenhouse emission.
Violating environmental laws is a serious crime
“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” –Anais Nin
As stated above, for the sake of betterment of our environment many laws have been enacted which if broken or violated can lead to serious punishments. As it was held in the case of PATEL V/S UNION, where the respondent has been committing serious acts of violation of environment laws, and was manufacturing ductile iron pipes and sponge irons for which supreme court held him liable on an account of ENVIRONMENT CLEARANCE, as the plant has been constructed by respondent without effective air pollution control system.
JAGODA MUNIC, CHAIRPERSON OF FRIENDS OF THE EARTH INTERNATIONAL, said, “the reality is that all major climate polluters are still doing way too little to address the climate crisis. Our governments are mostly focusing on false solutions and dirty energy, like fracking. Real solutions exist and include sleep reductions in carbon emissions, stopping fossil fuels and deforestation, and building sustainable, community-based energy systems”.
What can we do?
The pathways that human society follows in population growth and for the resource use will make an enormous difference to the future state of humanity and of the earth system, and anything that we can do to affect those parts is worth considering. I don’t have the answers, but I do believe that a developing understanding of the science of ecology ‘ our recognition that while there may be ‘pure’ ecology, there are no ’pure’ ecological systems’ our ongoing development of multi and interdisciplinary research and analysis through the international Geosphere –biosphere program and other efforts’ and especially our teaching are all crucial. In addition I believe that ecologists should:
- Get Pro-active – as a science, we have spent some time thinking about what we do know ; we should now spend some time in communicating that to the public. It is reasonable to debate what should be done about particular components of global change; it’s not reasonable to debate whether or not changes is occurring.
- Get associated – ecologist, indeed scientist generally, are good diagnosticians of human environment.
- Get factual – the world has changed as a consequence of human action and will change more; we need to recognize, anticipate, and work with change at the same time as we work to minimize many of its consequences. One example ‘there is excellent ecological research being done on low input, mixed cropping system worldwide. However, we also need to recognize that we live in an increasingly urban world and that much of the food for urban population will be derived from intensive agriculture practice on fertile lands. Ecologists could contribute a great deal to a society by understanding and working to improve the efficiency and sustainability of such systems.
“Nature is a temple in which living columns sometimes emit confused words. Man approaches it through forests of symbols, which observe him with familiar glances.” – Charles Baudelaire
About the Author
Harsh is pursuing his B.A. LL.B. (H) from Amity Law School, Lucknow and is currently in the 3rd year. He is interested in the field of IPR, Human Rights and Labour Law. His plans for the future are to complete his bachelors and go to the College of London for his masters. He is also interested in sports like Basketball, Badminton and Chess. He is a sedulous learner and tries to give his hundred percent in every task allotted to him.
