Role of ecology and environment in sustained economic development.

Sucheta, a high-ranking govt. official, was diagnosed with lung cancer. Although she never smoked, the doctor pointed out the increasing rates due to increasing air pollution in Delhi. Aman, working in an MNC in Bangalore, has not received any water for the past 2 days. No recent scenes to be in right – the city has run out of groundwater. Shushila, living in Mumbai, saw her belongings washed away in the recent floods. Staying at an uncertain future, she falls at a govt. shelter. Bhupinder, a farmer from Punjab, saw his crops fail after he couldn’t extract any water because the wells in the block had run dry. The story of all four presents the real-life suffering of thousands of such individuals. They demonstrate the vulnerability of the ‘success’ of our development model. They demonstrate firsthand the cost we pay when we choose to ignore the environment in pursuit of economic development. This essay seeks to examine how our economic growth means nothing without adequate accounting of environmental concern and how we can factor in these concerns for sustainable development.

THE DAMOCLES SWORD. OVER DEVELOPMENT
NITI Aayog in a recently released report gave a grave prognosis on our future. By 2030 – over 15 major cities would run out of groundwater India would fall in the water scarce category with per capita water availability falling below 1300m3/person / year. It also said that in this backdrop of scarcity, 70% of our water resources were polluted. Without water – the essence of life how can we even hope to serve, let alone develop economically? Today our population has hit nearly 1:3 billion. To feed this population they depend upon agriculture. Yet agriculture remains the most sensitive sector to environmental degradation. Our agriculture sector is increasingly dependent on rainfall – which will become more erratic with changing climate. Our agro-climatic zones will shift with climate change. The overuse of fertilizer today has depleted the natural soil fertility. The excessive use of irrigation has cast a looming shadow over future sustainability. All of these point to an impending crisis – in the making since a long time – which threatens our food reunites. The government’s own economy survey expects significant decline in fields over time (in the range of 15.35%) due to climate change. Even the unbridled destruction of ecology has led to reduction in genetic material for new species. Infect this ever also led to far more sinister effects.

Today we are in the grip of a pandemic which has crippled societies and economies worldwide. The Indian economy itself saw a 23.9% decline in GDP in the April – June quarter. The pandemic has been partly of our making. Various health experts had been warning of the effects of wanton destruction of Bio-diversity intending emergence of new viruses due to increased human-wildlife contact.

Economic development has had an adverse impact on health in other ways as well. Today 9 out of the 10 most polluted cities in PM 2.5 and PM 10 according to WHO are in India. There we face a crippling cost in herm of disease burden. Any economic gains are fritted away many times over in terms of health care costs.

Even our Industrial growth today depends upon the Environment. Our industries need raw materials, resources – both physical & human all of which is dependent upon the environment. Take for instance the pharmaceutical Industry – while it needs Bio – resources for continued drug development, at the same time the effluents it discharges damages that very environment. As today many oil-dependent countries, like Saudi Arabia are beginning to realize – economic growth must be sensitive rewards environmental concerns.

Our very habitats are at state if we ignore our ecology. Today we see overflowing landfills, increased flooding and other disasters, paucity of water etc. The National capital’s mountain of waste – which greets visitors as they enter the city has been deridiously nicknamed as the ‘National monument’. Our National Rivers – Ganges is so polluted that rather than purity it might have those who take a dip.

The costs from disasters today are resisting According to UN office on Disaster Risk Reduction India the most disaster cost us nearly $6-7 billion annually – can any economic development compensate for these costs?

We need to rethink our choices today and contemplate on the bind of development we aspire. Do we develop with regard to planetary boundaries or with due respect to our mother Earth? We must evaluate the choices we make Question the meaning of development.

A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE
The need of the hour is changing our consumption and production patterns into something sustainable.
The International community has articulated these concerns many times. Thus, the Bruntland Report, Rio Declaration, Paris Conference all offer various suggestions towards a path which leads to ‘sustainable development’.
We need to address environmental concerns by respecting the planetary boundaries. An innovation in this regard has been made by ‘Netherlands’ which adopted the ‘Donut model’ of growth -> the inner circle representing basic minimum needs and alter circle representing planetary limits – uilk society aspiring to stay within the two.

Some interventions which can help in this regard are:-
Shift to sustainable agriculture which respects the soil and the environment. It will ensure that water is preserved and also that the soil maintains fertility and gives bountiful harvests year after year.
Energy Efficiency is another area of action which can give huge dividends in economic growth. It would lead to protection of environment, reduction of costs, and economic development. Protection of our forests and Biodiversity would lead to mitigation of climate change as well as providing many ecosystem services – like clean air & water Bio resources etc.
Use of technology – to help restore the environment as well as minimize damage can be an important area of action. For example, drip irrigation – saver water while increasing fields.
Today a climate-sensitive future is not only an aspiration but a dire need. The economist Pavan Sulhdev first articulated the value of environment in actual monetary terms in the Ecosystems of Economics & Biodiversity. Since then, governments world over have woken up to the fact that there can be no development by ignoring the environment – Infect the European Union has pledged climate neutrality by 2050.
Our little neighbor ‘Bhutan’ can sense as our inspiration in this regard – which measures development as a measure of happiness (including environmental presentation). We must need to the worlds of the gual Mahatma if we are to give people like Sucheta, Aman, Sushila, and Bhupinder a bright and prosperous future
“The world has enough for everyone’s need but not enough for everyone’s greed.”