32 Degradation of environment and role of society

Ajeet Jaiswal

Contents:

1.    Introduction:

2.   Environmental Degradation

3.   Environmental issues

4.   Causes of Environmental Degradation

4.1 Social Factors

4.1.1 Growing Population:

4.1.2 Poverty:

4.1.3 Urbanization:

4.1.4 Changing Life Style:

4.2 Economic Factors

4.2.1 Agricultural Development:

4.2.2 Industrialization:

4.2.3 Economic Development:

4.3 Other Factors

4.3.1 Land Disturbance:

4.3.2 Pollution:

4.3.3 Landfills:

4.3.4 Deforestation:

4.3.5 Natural Causes:

5    Effects of Environmental Degradation

5.1 Impact on Human Health:

5.2 Loss of Biodiversity:

5.3 Ozone Layer Depletion:

5.4 Loss for Tourism Industry:

5.5 Economic Impact:

6    Implications of environmental Degradation on society

7    How to Stop Degradation

8    Summary

    Learning objectives:

• The course provides introduction information about Environmental Degradation and role of society related to Environmental issues.
• It includes Causes of Environmental Degradation and Effects of Environmental Degradation
• The study of this module also enables the students at postgraduate level to understand the Implications of environmental Degradation on society and How to Stop Degradation

    1. Introduction

Human societies everywhere are closely linked to their natural surroundings. This module examines the interrelationships between social integration and the environment: the impact that different patterns of social relations have on the state of the environment, and the influence of the environment. And especially environmental degradation on social structures and institutions (Barraclough, 1993; 1994).

Patterns of social integration influence natural resource utilization, and thus affect the condition of the physical environment, in a number of ways. The dynamics involved range from micro level phenomena that collectively have a large impact on environmental conditions, to changing national and international social and economic structures. Social changes affecting the performance of local level resource management systems include population growth, the spread of national and international markets, and changes in land tenure systems, particularly those that result in land concentration. These factors have undermined traditional mechanisms discouraging overexploitation of natural resources. In addition, inequitable social structures, including unequal control over resources on the basis of class or gender, have been implicated in environmental deterioration (Canter, 1975).

Environmental decline also impacts upon social structures. Social groups are affected differently: some may benefit from changes in price structures or in social relations that result from scarcities caused by environmental stress. More commonly, however, environmental decline adversely affects the health, well-being and livelihood opportunities of the individuals affected by pollution or natural resource depletion. Soil erosion, deforestation, the loss or depletion of animal and plant species limit the productive opportunities of vast numbers of people.

Individuals respond to environmental degradation in a variety of ways: they may adapt their customary production and consumption patterns to the new circumstances, search for alternative sources of income, migrate, or organize to undertake collective action to protect their livelihoods. Such individual responses, in the medium to long term, change social structures. When natural resource-dependent people intensify production, restrict or change consumption patterns, engage in new activities or migrate, they are changing their traditional societies, and participating in broader social transformations that will influence institutional change (Barraclough, 1990; 1994).

Policy responses to environmental degradation have taken three major forms: conservationism, primary environmental care, and monetary cost-benefit approaches. Each of these has proven effective in certain circumstances, but each also has its limitations. Conservation measures have often been able to halt or reverse environmental decline, especially in developed countries. In developing countries, however, the effectiveness of conservationism has been limited, while its human costs have not always been adequately recognized.

Primary environmental care: focuses on the needs of the individual resource user. This approach has been very effective in some areas, but requires an institutional capacity often lacking precisely where environmental degradation is most severe. The cost-benefit approach of mainstream environmental economics is also potentially useful, especially in industrialized countries. However, the reduction of environmental worth to monetary terms subsumes the livelihood concerns and the values of weaker social groups to those of stronger ones, and the environmental outcome is not necessarily positive (Barraclough, 1990).

The lesson derived from an examination of environmental degradation within the context of social integration is that it is essential to avoid fundamentalist policy approaches that isolate a single dimension of the social-environmental dynamic. The strengths and weaknesses of strategies to address environmental degradation and the complementarities and contradictions between them must be assessed in each context (Barraclough, 1990; 1993).

2. Environmental Degradation

Environmental degradation is the disintegration of the earth or deterioration of the environment through consumption of assets, for example, air, water and soil; the destruction of environments and the eradication of wildlife. It is characterized as any change or aggravation to nature’s turf seen to be pernicious or undesirable. Ecological effect or degradation is created by the consolidation of an effectively substantial and expanding human populace, constantly expanding monetary development or per capita fortune and the application of asset exhausting and polluting technology. It occurs when earth’s natural resources are depleted and environment is compromised in the form of extinction of species, pollution in air, water and soil, and rapid growth in population (Canter, 1975; Frederick et al., 1997)

Environmental degradation is one of the largest threats that are being looked at in the world today. The United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction characterizes environmental degradation as the lessening of the limit of the earth to meet social and environmental destinations, and needs. Environmental degradation can happen in a number of ways. At the point when environments are wrecked or common assets are exhausted, the environment is considered to be corrupted and harmed. There are a number of different techniques that are being used to prevent this, including environmental resource protection and general protection efforts (Joekes, et al., 1994)

Environmental degradation is one of the Ten Threats officially cautioned by the High Level Threat Panel of the United Nations. The United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction defines environmental degradation as “The reduction of the capacity of the environment to meet social and ecological objectives, and needs”. The primary cause of environmental degradation is human disturbance. The degree of the environmental impact varies with the cause, the habitat, and the plants and animals that inhabit it. Humans and their activities are a major source of environmental degradation (United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, 2007)

So, Environmental degradation is a result of socio-economical, technological and institutional activities. Degradation occurs when Earth’s natural resources are depleted. These resources which are affected include: Water, Air, and Soil. The degradation also impacts our: Wildlife, Plants, Animals, and Micro-organisms

3. Environmental issues

Environmental issues can be seen by long term ecological effects, some of which can demolish whole environments. An environment is a unique unit and incorporates all the living and non-living components that live inside it. Plants and creatures are evident parts of the environment, but it also includes the things on which they depend on, for example, streams, lakes, and soils (Ghai and Vivian, 1992; Johnson, 1997).

Environmental surroundings get to be divided when technological advancement splits up areas of land. Some examples of this can include streets which may slice through woods or even trails which wind through prairies. While it may not sound all terrible on the surface, there are bad results. The biggest of these results are felt by particular animal and plant groups, the vast majority of which are specific for their bio-region or need a large area in order to make sure that their genetic lines are kept intact (Ghai and Vivian, 1992).

4. Causes of Environmental Degradation

Some environmental life species require substantial areas to help provide food, living space, and other different assets. These creatures are called area specific. At the point when the biome is divided, the vast patches of living space don’t exist anymore. It gets to be more troublesome for the wildlife to get the assets they need in order to survive. The environment goes on, even though the animals and plant life are not there to help sustain it properly (http://www.conserve-energy-future.com/causes-and-effects-of-environmental-degradation.php).

Based on the discussion so far, we now know that healthy environment is essential for the very existence of human society and other living organisms. But environmental degradation is going on unabated. We are being cautioned every now and then about the deterioration in the environment and its consequences like global warming, changing climatic conditions, impending water crisis, decreasing fertility of agricultural land and increasing health problems. There is an urgent need to take all possible steps to check environmental degradation. In order to consider the required steps to be taken for doing so, it is necessary to understand the causes of environmental degradation. The important factors are the following:

4.1 Social Factors: Growing Population, Poverty, Urbanization, Changing Life Style

4.2 Economic Factors: Agricultural Development, Industrialization, Economic Development

4.3 Other Factors: Land Disturbance, Pollution, Landfills, Deforestation, Natural Causes

4.1 Social Factors

4.1.1 Growing Population: Population is the greatest resource of any country and a major contributory factor for development, and yet it is a major cause of environmental degradation. As we find, the rapid pace of population growth has led to the excessive utilization of natural resources. Huge population also leads to huge production of wastes. The resultant outcomes are loss of biodiversity, pollution of air, water and soil and increased pressure on arable land. All these have been putting great stress on the environment. If you take the case of India, it supports 17 percent of world population on just 2.4 per cent of the world land area (Colchester, 1994).

4.1.2 Poverty: Poverty is said to be both the cause and effect of environmental degradation. You may have seen that the poor people use natural resources more than the rich. They use these for building their huts, for cooking, for their food and for meeting many other needs. In this way they deplete these resources faster as they have no opportunity of gaining access to other types of resources that are primarily exploited by the rich. As we know, the more the resources are utilized, the more degraded the environment becomes. And the more the environment deteriorates, the more impoverished the poor will be (Brundland, 1987; Colchester, 1994).

4.1.3 Urbanization: You may have observed a large number of poor people from villages moving to towns, cities and mega cities to earn their livelihood. This has led to unplanned and rapid expansion of cities, creating enormous pressure on the infrastructural facilities. If you live in a city, you may be experiencing these pressures on housing, water and electric supply and sewage. You would be aware of the growing slums. Urban slums are major sources of pollution and suffer from the worst kind of unhygienic conditions. The fast pace of urbanization has also been responsible for the depletion of forests and irrational use of other resources (Botkin, and Keller, 1998).

4.1.4 Changing Lifestyle: There has been a remarkable change in the style of living of people. This change is visible not only among the people living in cities and towns but also among those who live in villages. The changing life style of people has enormously increased their level of consumption. It has also resulted in the increase of human activities that are causing serious damage to environment in many ways. It has contributed to air, water, sound, vehicular and industrial pollution. The fallout of the fast increasing use of modern gadgets like refrigerators and air conditioners is the release of harmful gases in the atmosphere. This has been causing global warming which is very dangerous. In fact, due to overuse of modern gadgets, harmful gases like carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide are released which lead to global warming (Brundland, 1987).

4.2 Economic Factors

4.2.1 Agricultural Development: Agricultural development is so important for a country like ours. But this has been affecting the environment adversely. Various kinds of farming activities especially directed towards increasing agricultural production have a direct impact on environment. These activities have been contributing to soil erosion, land salination, alkalization and loss of nutrients. As we have been experiencing in India, the green revolution has led to over exploitation of land and water resources. Extensive use of fertilizers and pesticides has been a major source of contamination of water bodies and land degradation (Botkin, and Keller, 1998).

4.2.2 Industrialization: Rapid industrialization has been the foremost contributor to environmental degradation. Based on the information collected through various sources, we find that most of the industries adopt the technologies that place a heavy load on environment. These technologies lead to intensive use of resources and energy. The current pace of industrialization therefore is resulting in the depletion of natural resources like fossil fuel, minerals and timber, and contamination of water, air and land. All these are causing immense damage to ecosystems and leading to health hazards (Grossman and Mruegor, 1991).

4.2.3 Economic Development: It is a fact that the pattern of economic development has also been creating environmental problems. The pace of economic development has been putting immense pressure on resources. The economy today has become consumption intensive which demands greater use of resources and promotes life styles that lead to wastage. The irrational use of resources and wastages are resulting in depletion of environment (Grossman and Mruegor, 1991).

4.3 Other Factors

4.3.1 Land Disturbance: A more basic cause of environmental degradation is land damage. Numerous weedy plant species, for example, garlic mustard, are both foreign and obtrusive. A rupture in the environmental surroundings provides for them a chance to start growing and spreading. These plants can assume control over nature, eliminating the local greenery. The result is territory with a solitary predominant plant which doesn’t give satisfactory food assets to all the environmental life. Whole environments can be destroyed because of these invasive species (Juo, 1979).

4.3.2 Pollution: Pollution, in whatever form, whether it is air, water, land or noise is harmful for the environment. Air pollution pollutes the air that we breathe which causes health issues. Water pollution degrades the quality of water that we use for drinking purposes. Land pollution results in degradation of earth’s surface as a result of human activities. Noise pollution can cause irreparable damage to our ears when exposed to continuous large sounds like honking of vehicles on a busy road or machines producing large noise in a factory or a mill (Juo, 1979).

4.3.3 Landfills: Landfills pollute the environment and destroy the beauty of the city. Landfills come within the city due the large amount of waste that gets generated by households, industries, factories and hospitals. Landfills pose a great risk to the health of the environment and the people who live there. Landfills produce foul smell when burned and cause huge environmental degradation (Nayak, 2005).

4.3.4 Deforestation: Deforestation is the cutting down of trees to make way for more homes and industries. Rapid growth in population and urban sprawl are two of the major causes of deforestation. Apart from that, use of forest land for agriculture, animal grazing, harvests for fuel wood and logging are some of the other causes of deforestation. Deforestation contributes to global warming as decreased forest size puts carbon back into the environment (Hope, 2007).

4.3.5 Natural Causes: Things like avalanches, quakes, tidal waves, storms, and wildfires can totally crush nearby animal and plant groups to the point where they can no longer survive in those areas. This can either come to fruition through physical demolition as the result of a specific disaster, or by the long term degradation of assets by the presentation of an obtrusive foreign species to the environment (Nayak, 2005).

The latter frequently happens after tidal waves, when reptiles and bugs are washed ashore. Of course, humans aren’t totally to blame for this whole thing. Earth itself causes ecological issues, as well. While environmental degradation is most normally connected with the things that people do, the truth of the matter is that the environment is always changing. With or without the effect of human exercises, a few biological systems degrade to the point where they can’t help the life that is supposed to live there.

Our land, water and soil are compromised when people exhaust resources or release harmful chemicals into the air. Deforestation, wasting resources, and pollution all add to the demise of an environmentally sound and safe planet. For example, when trees in forests are cut down in large quantities, so that more homes can be built on the land, the birds and wildlife who lived in the forest must find a new place to live. The vegetation that once grew on the land is destroyed. Trees that absorbed carbon dioxide to help the biosphere are now unable to do so. If the wood from the trees is used to make products and those products (such as paper) are later recycled, that is one hopeful aspect for the planet. However, sometimes trees are just cut down and burned. This is what is known as slash and burn, a practice that only destroys forests and all that live in them.

5.  Effects of Environmental Degradation

5.1 Impact on Human Health:

Human health might be at the receiving end as a result of the environmental degradation. Areas exposed to toxic air pollutants can cause respiratory problems like pneumonia and asthma. Millions of people are known to have died of due to indirect effects of air pollution.

5.2 Loss of Biodiversity:

Biodiversity is important for maintaining balance of the ecosystem in the form of combating pollution, restoring nutrients, protecting water sources and stabilizing climate. Deforestation, global warming, overpopulation and pollution are few of the major causes for loss of biodiversity (Hope, 2007).

5.3 Ozone Layer Depletion:

Ozone layer is responsible for protecting earth from harmful ultraviolet rays. The presence of chlorofluorocarbons, hydro chlorofluorocarbons in the atmosphere is causing the ozone layer to deplete. As it will deplete, it will emit harmful radiations back to the earth.

5.4 Loss for Tourism Industry:

The deterioration of environment can be a huge setback for tourism industry that relies on tourists for their daily livelihood. Environmental damage in the form of loss of green cover, loss of biodiversity, huge landfills, increased air and water pollution can be a big turn off for most of the tourists.

5.5 Economic Impact:

The huge cost that a country may have to borne due to environmental degradation can have big economic impact in terms of restoration of green cover, cleaning up of landfills and protection of endangered species. The economic impact can also be in terms of loss of tourism industry.

As we can see, there are a lot of things that can have an effect on the environment. If we are not careful, we can contribute to the environmental degradation that is occurring all around the world. We can, however, take action to stop it and take care of the world that we live in by providing environmental education to the people which will help them pick familiarity with their surroundings that will enable to take care of environmental concerns thus making it more useful and protected for our children and other future generations.

6. Implications of environmental Degradation on society

The degradation of environment is thus a very serious concern. And it is occurring primarily due to excessive and reckless exploitation and unscientific management of natural resources. In fact, it has emerged as a global challenge for all the countries of the world. As stated above, the pollution of air, water and soil caused by emission of harmful gases, release of industrial effluents, urban wastes and radio-active wastes and reckless use of fertilizers and pesticides is threatening the very survival of modern civilization. If you go through the facts stated below, you may realize the seriousness of environmental degradation.

(Hope, 2007; http://www.nios.ac.in/media/documents/SecSocSciCour/English/Lesson-26.pdf).

• About 50 percent of geographical area of India suffers from varying degrees of degradation caused by deforestation, overgrazing, agricultural mismanagement, shifting cultivation, soil erosion, soil salination, water logging, alkalinity, and acid rains.
• Over 5.3 billion tonnes of top soil is lost every year due to soil erosion. The average soil loss is estimated to be over 16 tonnes per hectares per year which translates into approximately 1 millimetre (mm) each year or 1 centimetre (cm) every decade. It takes nature about a thousand years to form one cm of soil.
• The production of cereals will drop remarkably due to global warming. Scientist around the world are getting increasingly alarmed over global warming’s impact on human health. Warming climate is responsible for spread of serious infectious diseases.
• Increasing temperatures are lengthening the growing season of some crops.
• Himalayan glaciers are melting. The rivers originating in Himalayas will get dried
• Westerly winds have been disrupted recent years causing less rain during the winter season.

    One of the major causes of environmental degradation is generation of solid wastes. Do you know that, all over the world people throw away 1000 million tons of solid wastes annually? If we pile up all these at sea level in the shape of a cone, a pyramid with circular base of one kilometer region, its peak would be higher than Mount Everest. So we are creating at least one Mount Everest of rubbish materials every year. We can save our environment from degradation and at the same time create wealth in three ways: Recycling, Reusing and Reducing, as detailed in the box below (Nayak, 2005; http://www.nios.ac.in/media/ documents/SecSocSciCour /English/ Lesson-26.pdf):

7.   How to Stop Degradation

There are ways which we can help to decrease degradation in our environment. Some of these include:

• Purchase recycled products,
• Conserve water,
• Do not litter or toss waste into inappropriate places,
• Conserve energy,
• Join an awareness group,
• Talk with others about the impacts of environmental degradation and
• Be an advocate to save our planet.

    8. Summary

• Human societies everywhere are closely linked to their natural surroundings.
• Patterns of social integration influence natural resource utilization, and thus affect the condition of the physical environment, in a number of ways.
• Environmental decline also impacts upon social structures. Social groups are affected differently
• Individuals respond to environmental degradation in a variety of ways
• Policy responses to environmental degradation have taken three major forms
• Environmental degradation is the disintegration of the earth or deterioration of the environment
• Environmental degradation is one of the largest threats that are being looked at in the world today
• The reduction of the capacity of the environment to meet social and ecological objectives, and needs
• Environmental degradation is a result of socio-economical, technological and institutional activities
• Environmental issues can be seen by long term ecological effects, some of which can demolish whole environments.
• Environmental surroundings get to be divided when technological advancement splits up areas of land.
• Some environmental life species require substantial areas to help provide food, living space, and other different assets
• healthy environment is essential for the very existence of human society and other living organisms
• causes of environmental degradation: Social Factors: Growing Population, Poverty, Urbanization, Changing Life Style; Economic Factors: Agricultural Development, Industrialization, Economic Development; Other Factors: Land Disturbance, Pollution, Landfills, Deforestation, Natural Causes
• Our land, water and soil are compromised when people exhaust resources or release harmful chemicals into the air.
• there are a lot of things that can have an effect on the environment The degradation of environment is thus a very serious concern
• One of the major causes of environmental degradation is generation of solid wastes
• We can save our environment from degradation and at the same time create wealth in three ways: Recycling, Reusing and Reducing
• There are ways which we can help to decrease degradation in our environment

    Glossary

Environmental issues- Environmental issues can be seen by long term ecological effects, some of which can demolish whole environments. An environment is a unique unit and incorporates all the living and non-living components that live inside it. Plants and creatures are evident parts of the environment, but it also includes the things on which they depend on, for example, streams, lakes, and soils.

Ecology– Ecology is the study of the interaction between living and nonliving components of the environment. This pertains to the relationship between an organism and all aspects of its environment.

Environmental degradation– Environmental degradation is one of the Ten Threats officially cautioned by the High Level Threat Panel of the United Nations. The United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction defines environmental degradation as “The reduction of the capacity of the environment to meet social and ecological objectives, and needs”. The primary cause of environmental degradation is human disturbance. The degree of the environmental impact varies with the cause, the habitat, and the plants and animals that inhabit it. Humans and their activities are a major source of environmental degradation.

Industrialization: Rapid industrialization has been the foremost contributor to environmental degradation. Based on the information collected through various sources, we find that most of the industries adopt the technologies that place a heavy load on environment. These technologies lead to intensive use of resources and energy. The current pace of industrialization therefore is resulting in the depletion of natural resources like fossil fuel, minerals and timber, and contamination of water, air and land. All these are causing immense damage to ecosystems and leading to health hazards

Pollution: Pollution, in whatever form, whether it is air, water, land or noise is harmful for the environment. Air pollution pollutes theair that we breathe which causes health issues. Water pollution degrades the quality of water that we use for drinking purposes. Landpollution results in degradation of earth’s surface as a result of human activities. Noise pollution can cause irreparable damage to ourears when exposed to continuous large sounds like honking of vehicles on a busy road or machines producing large noise in a factory or a mill.

Landfills: Landfills pollute the environment and destroy the beauty of the city. Landfills come within the city due the large amount ofwaste that gets generated by households, industries, factories and hospitals. Landfills pose a great risk to the health of theenvironment and the people who live there. Landfills produce foul smell when burned and cause huge environmental degradation.

Deforestation: Deforestation is the cutting down of trees to make way for more homes and industries. Rapid growth in populationand urban sprawl are two of the major causes of deforestation. Apart from that, use of forest land for agriculture, animal grazing,harvests for fuel wood and logging are some of the other causes of deforestation. Deforestation contributes to global warming asdecreased forest size puts carbon back into the environment.

References

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    Suggested Reading

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