Knowledge is Power to Save Nature!
(It is high time to join hands to protect and preserve our environment. Protection of our rich environment is critical to prosperity and sustainable development. Our development and growth will be short-lived if we do not safeguard the natural environment and its resources. There are many ways we can help save our beautiful planet).
There is an ever increasing call to know the concept, outcomes as well as sustainable solutions to the environmental issues. All of us need to be environmentalists and plan a better future for our present and for the coming generations. One of the most severe problems that the world is facing today is that of environmental pollution, increasing with every passing year and causing huge damage to our mother earth. Environmental pollution has existed for centuries but increased at an alarming rate after industrial revolution in the 19th century. Environmental pollution takes place when nature does not know how to decompose an element that has been brought to it in an unnatural way.
Types of Pollution: The world is exposed to basic types of pollution, namely, air, water, soil, noise and light pollution. Air pollution is the most harmful form of pollution in our environment and caused by the injurious smoke emitted by cars, buses, trucks, trains, and factories. Even smoke from burning leaves and cigarettes are harmful to the environment. Water pollution is caused due to industrial waste products being released into lakes, rivers, and other water bodies. Humans also pollute water bodies with large scale disposal of garbage and other household waste etc. Noise pollution includes industrial noise, aircraft noise, noise of automobiles, vehicle horns, loudspeakers, loud music etc. Soil pollution, which can also be called soil contamination, is a result of acid rain, polluted water, fertilizers etc., which leads to less quality of crops. Soil contamination occurs when chemicals are released by spill or underground storage tank leakage which releases heavy contaminants into the soil. Light pollution includes light trespass and over-illumination etc.
Effects of Environmental Degradation: Human health is heavily impacted by environmental pollution. Reduction in air quality is responsible for thousands of deaths annually and millions of chronic diseases. Evidence of increasing air pollution is seen in lung cancer, asthma, allergies, and various breathing problems along with severe and irreparable damage to flora and fauna. The toxic wastes and harmful chemicals from factories, agriculture and automobiles cause illnesses and death in children and adults. Due to environmental degradation, the results also include water scarcity and decline in quality foods. In the developing countries, poverty is attributed to poor crop harvests and lack of quality natural resources that are needed to satisfy basic survival needs. The inadequacy basic survival resources and lack of quality of food is the direct result of environmental degradation in the regions. Environmental degradation alters some of the natural process such as the water cycle and the normal processes of animal and plant activities. Also, environmental degradation aspects such as deforestation and mining destroy the natural land cover. Environmental pollution has caused global warming and climate change which increases the risks of climatic natural disasters, and ozone layer depletion which increases the risk of skin cancer, eye disease, and crop failure etc. Moreover over-exploitation of natural resources, pollution, and deforestation contribute to the scarcity of resources particularly arable land, water, medicinal plants, and food crops etc. Environmental noise can cause hearing impairment, hypertension, ischemic heart disease, annoyance, and sleep disturbance. Noise pollution has a lot of adverse effect on infants and women, sometimes due to loud velocity of sound, women also undergo miscarriage. Children develop forgetful tendencies due to noise. Lighting takes up a huge portion of energy consumption in the world. Various negative health effects on the health of people have been linked to light pollution. Over-illumination may cause increased headache, fatigue, stress and anxiety. Glare from outdoor lighting decreases our vision and increases chances of accidents at light.
The world is highly gripped by plastic pollution problem. “There is a bit of plastic everywhere, in our wallets, on our dining tables and kitchens, in our cars and buses and in our phones and offices. It is nearly impossible to imagine a world without plastics. From its beginning in 1950, global plastic production has increased dramatically from 2 million tonnes to 380 million tonnes in 2015. Of the 8.3 billion tonnes of plastic produced, 6.3 billion tonnes have been discarded. Every year, nearly 13 million tonnes of plastic waste are added to oceans. Given their durability, plastics do not decompose. Much of the growth in plastic production is driven by single use or disposable applications. Nearly 50 % of plastics used are single use products such as bottles, plastic bags, packaging, straws, stirrers, spoons and forks. Around the world, 1 million plastic drinking bottles are purchased every minute. Every year we use up to 5 trillion disposable plastic bags. In India, 80 % of total plastic consumption is discarded as waste and official statistics say the country generates 25, 940 tonnes of plastic waste daily. At least 40% of this waste is uncollected” (www.economictimes.com).
Environmental Pollution is a Global Problem: Researchers have found that pollution is the biggest global threat to human health. Air pollution is a silent killer. The World Health Organization estimates that seven million premature deaths each year can be linked to air pollution. According to the new 2018 Environmental Performance Index (EPI), air pollution is the biggest environmental threat to public health. This report is produced by researchers at Yale and Columbia Universities in collaboration with the World Economic Forum. It ranks 180 countries on 24 performance indicators across 10 issue categories. At the top of the list is Switzerland, followed by France, Denmark, Malta, and Sweden. At the bottom of the list is India, Bangladesh, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Nepal. The countries which have ranked the lowest are lacking support for a number of sustainability issues, air pollution being the most important concern. Indian cities are not an exception and dominate world air pollution list. Fourteen Indian cities have topped the world’s 20 most polluted, according to World Health Organization (WHO) data. The study added that nine out of 10 people in the world breathe polluted air.
Pollution is one of the biggest global killers, affecting over 100 million people. Over 3 billion people around the world- most of them women and children – are still breathing deadly smoke every day from using polluting stoves and fuels in their homes. India has marked advancements in the past two decades, but it has come at the cost of increasing pollution. Our planet earth is warming up and we are definitely part of the problem. All around the world, people are facing a wealth of new and challenging environmental problems every day. Current environmental problems make us vulnerable to an unsafe and tragic future. Our environmental problems are piling up high around us. Unless we address the environmental issues sensibly and seriously we are surely destined for disaster. The environmental problems require urgent attention.
Environmental Protection: It is high time to join hands across the globe to protect and preserve our environment. Protection of our rich environment is critical to prosperity and sustainable development. Our development and growth will be short-lived if we do not safeguard the natural environment and its resources. There are many ways we can help save our beautiful planet. More efficient use of resources is the high need of the time. We must encourage the reduction, recycling and re-use of wastes as raw material for new products. We had a transport business in our family. Every year we had wastage of bus and truck tyres getting heaped up at our home. I remember my beloved mother once covering a small garden with the useless tyres. I was a kid then and never liked the idea and removed the tyres fencing. Now when I joined ITM University Gwalior some years back, I could how better we can use the scrap. It was fancy to watch our students using scrap tyres to make a sitting arrangement out of it. We can promote Jugaad creation to save our resources. The idea was also there with my mother decades back but the proper guidance to make it attractive was missing. What I learnt is that we must promote Jugaad creation, the idea of using the waste and save our vital resources. Our educational institutions may have to take a lead in fostering creativity and innovation.
The greater the demand for recycled products, the more companies will get a boost to add recycled material to their products. And we can start from our home places. Let us reuse what we would easily throw away and conserve for a future. What we cannot recycle let us not use them. Let’s buy paper products as they break down better in the environment and don’t deplete the ozone layer as much.
Indian companies and authorities have come under pressure to step up efforts to fight climate change amid rapidly rising concerns about the implications of carbon emissions for the economy, following the revelation that India is one of the three worst offending countries when it comes to environmental performance. Corporate leaders have started joining the race to save the planet. Being environment-friendly, eco-friendly, nature-friendly, and going green are marketing claims referring to goods and services, laws, guidelines and policies that inflict reduced, minimal, or no harm at all, upon ecosystems or the environment. It’s all about taking bold and safer steps towards mother earth so as to make this planet a better place for our communities and generations to come. A good way would be to start with conserving water, driving less and walking more, consuming less energy, buying recycled products, joining environmental groups to combat pollution, creating less waste, planting more trees and many more. Small and medium sized companies in India in particular generate a lot of pollution and “need support and education” from the government to make changes. More needs to be done towards the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan than just making it a pomp show. The dream of cleanliness can be achieved only when all stakeholders are honest and produce their best efforts.
We need to be environmentally friendly citizens. The environmentally friendly person is the person who moves through life with an awareness of how natural resources are used to create and support the life that they live. They recycle, conserve water and fuel and resort to other choices that not only weaken their impact on the environment, but also support industries that are working towards being more environmentally responsible. Learning to be more environmentally friendly is not that difficult than we think. All we can start small to make the changes more sustainable and a part of our normal life. We must start by living with a greater awareness of the resources that we use in our daily life. We must turn off the lights as soon as we leave a room and be environment friendly when it comes to building our home. Trees are necessary for us to survive. We must plant small trees around our home, don’t cut them unless it’s necessary, work with local environmental groups to plant more trees and educate others about the beauty and benefits of trees. Water needs to be conserved. Few ways to conserve water are – take short showers, keep the running tap close while we brush our teeth, recycle water in our home, use water saving appliances etc. Preventing and regulating water pollution from industries, municipal sewage treatment facilities, construction sites, farms, and urban areas must receive huge attention. Maintaining, enhancing, and monitoring aquatic based resources such as aquatic ecosystems, sport and commercial fisheries, lakes and wetlands must catch priority treatments. There should be proper management of solid and hazardous waste through storage, treatment and disposal practices. The strong campaign should be moving towards zero waste for an efficient economy and a cleaner environment. We must prevent open burning as backyard trash and leaf burning releases high levels of toxic compounds. Human activities are also leading to extinction of beautiful creations and species and habitats. We must protect places like beaches and forests that are habitats for animals. Let’s join hands with local forest departments to protect animal habitat.
We can use a more fuel- efficient automobile models such as a hybrid or electric vehicles. The Govt. has a role to support companies ideally and make it a popular action. Mexican Ambassador to India is using an auto rickshaw as her official vehicle to be environmental friendly rather than using a luxury car. Why our ministers and officials can’t learn such lessons how to be more contributive towards society rather than wasting huge resources on any of their visits? We must use public transit whenever possible. Let us walk more and drive less to conserve fuel and prevent auto-emission. Let’s use bicycles and scooters for shorter distances to save resources.
As governments around the globe are establishing air and water emission limits, individuals also must come forward and join the clean earth campaign. We must realize that this is not the legacy we are supposed leave behind for our generations to come. Individuals, organizations and governments need to join hands to protect our environment. We must educate others about the significance of living an environmentally friendly life. The more people share an awareness of the richness of the environment, the more we can do together to protect it. We must find different environmental groups in our city with whom we can join hands to protect mother earth and make the environment clean. The more people share an awareness of the richness of the environment, the more we can do together to protect it. We must find different environmental groups in our city with whom we can join hands to protect mother earth and make the environment clean.
Our educational institutions must promote it highly to safeguard the environment through awareness campaigns and implementation programmmes. Isn’t it possible that our schools and colleges and Universities praise students every year as the best ones for the environmental care? This can be a booster to promote wellbeing of our environment. Finally, let’s teach our children to respect nature and the environment. Let’s save the environment and save life. It is the call to save our precious future.
The Writer is Assistant Professor, ITM University Gwalior.
The Writer is Assistant Professor, ITM University Gwalior
