| Latest Economics NCERT Notes, Solutions and Extra Q & A (Class 9th to 12th) | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9th | 10th | 11th | 12th | ||||||||||||||||
Chapter 7 Environment And Sustainable Development
This chapter addresses the critical conflict between India's path of economic development and its impact on environmental quality. It establishes that development has come at a heavy price, leading to the degradation of natural resources. It defines the environment and its four vital functions: supplying resources, assimilating waste, sustaining life, and providing aesthetic services. The chapter introduces the concepts of carrying capacity and absorptive capacity, explaining that an environmental crisis occurs when the demand on the environment exceeds these limits.
The chapter paints a stark picture of the state of India's environment, highlighting major challenges such as land degradation, biodiversity loss, widespread air and water pollution, and the mismanagement of fresh water and solid waste. It links these domestic issues to global environmental crises like Global Warming and Ozone Depletion, explaining their causes and far-reaching consequences. The central argument is that the current path of development is unsustainable and threatens the very foundation of life and future economic progress.
As a solution, the chapter champions the concept of Sustainable Development, using the classic Brundtland Commission definition: "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs." It outlines concrete strategies to achieve this goal, such as shifting to non-conventional sources of energy (like solar and wind power), promoting organic farming, using biopest control instead of harmful chemicals, and reviving traditional, eco-friendly knowledge and practices. The message is a call for a paradigm shift in development thinking to ensure a lasting and equitable future.
Introduction: Environment and Economic Development
The economic development achieved by India has come at a significant cost to its environmental quality. As the nation moves forward in an era of globalisation promising higher economic growth, it is crucial to acknowledge the adverse environmental consequences of past development paths. This necessitates a conscious shift towards a path of sustainable development.
To understand this challenge, we must first appreciate the significance of the environment and its contribution to economic development. This chapter explores the functions of the environment, the current state of India's environment, and the strategies required to achieve sustainable development.
Environment: Definition and Components
The environment is defined as the total planetary inheritance and the totality of all resources. It encompasses all the biotic and abiotic factors and their inter-relationships that influence each other.
- Biotic Elements: These are all the living elements of the environment. Examples include birds, animals, plants, forests, and fisheries.
- Abiotic Elements: These are the non-living elements of the environment. Examples include air, water, land, rocks, and sunlight.
The study of the environment, therefore, involves understanding the complex interactions between these living and non-living components.
Functions of the Environment and the Environmental Crisis
The Four Vital Functions of the Environment
The environment performs four crucial functions that are essential for life and development:
-
It Supplies Resources: The environment provides the resources necessary for production and life. These are classified into:
- Renewable Resources: These are resources that can be used without the risk of depletion, as they can regenerate. Examples include trees in forests and fish in the ocean.
- Non-renewable Resources: These are resources that get exhausted with extraction and use. An example is fossil fuel (like coal and petroleum).
- It Assimilates Waste: The environment absorbs and neutralizes the waste generated from production and consumption activities.
- It Sustains Life: It provides the essential genetic and biodiversity that is fundamental for the continuation of life on the planet.
- It Provides Aesthetic Services: The environment offers aesthetic benefits, such as scenery, which enhance the quality of life.
The Environmental Crisis
The environment can perform its functions without interruption as long as the demand placed upon it is within its carrying capacity. This means two conditions must be met:
- The rate of resource extraction must not be above the rate of regeneration of the resource.
- The wastes generated must be within the assimilating capacity of the environment.
When these conditions are violated, the environment fails to sustain life, leading to an environmental crisis. Today, the world is facing such a crisis due to the combined stress of the rising population in developing countries and the affluent consumption and production standards in the developed world. Many resources are becoming extinct, and the waste generated is far beyond the environment's absorptive capacity (the ability of the environment to absorb degradation).
Consequences of the Crisis
- Resource Depletion: The extensive extraction of both renewable and non-renewable resources has exhausted some vital resources, forcing us to spend huge amounts on technology to explore new ones.
- Pollution and Health Costs: Degraded environmental quality, such as polluted air and water (70% of water in India is polluted), has led to an increased incidence of respiratory and water-borne diseases, thereby increasing expenditure on health.
- Global Environmental Issues: Major issues like global warming and ozone depletion have emerged, requiring increased financial commitments from governments worldwide to mitigate their effects.
Global Environmental Issues
Box 7.1. Global Warming
Answer:
Global warming is the gradual increase in the average temperature of the Earth's lower atmosphere, caused by the man-made increase in greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide ($CO_2$) and methane ($CH_4$) since the Industrial Revolution. The main causes are the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation. Over the past century, the atmospheric temperature has risen by 1.1°F (0.6°C).
Long-term effects include:
- Melting of polar ice, leading to a rise in sea level and coastal flooding.
- Disruption of drinking water supplies.
- Extinction of species.
- More frequent and intense tropical storms.
- Increased incidence of tropical diseases.
The 1997 Kyoto Protocol was an international agreement aimed at fighting global warming by calling for reductions in greenhouse gas emissions by industrialised nations.
Box 7.2. Ozone Depletion
Answer:
Ozone depletion refers to the reduction in the amount of ozone in the stratosphere. It is caused by high levels of chlorine and bromine compounds originating from chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), used in refrigerators and air-conditioners, and halons, used in fire extinguishers.
The depletion of the ozone layer allows more harmful ultraviolet (UV) radiation to reach the Earth. This can cause:
- Skin cancer in humans.
- Lowered production of phytoplankton, affecting aquatic ecosystems.
- Damage to the growth of terrestrial plants.
The Montreal Protocol was a significant international treaty adopted to ban the use of CFCs and other ozone-depleting chemicals.
| Air Pollution | Water Pollution | Noise Pollution |
|---|---|---|
| Asthma, Bronchitis, Respiratory Infections | Cholera, Typhoid, Jaundice, Dysentery | Hypertension, Anxiety, Hearing Loss, Sleep Disturbance |
State of India's Environment
India's Natural Resources
India is endowed with abundant natural resources, including rich quality soil (like the black soil of the Deccan Plateau), hundreds of rivers, lush green forests, vast mineral deposits (iron-ore, coal, bauxite, etc.), and a long coastline. The Indo-Gangetic plains are among the most fertile and densely populated regions in the world.
Challenges to India's Environment
Developmental activities have put immense pressure on India's finite natural resources. The threat to India's environment is a dichotomy: it faces both poverty-induced environmental degradation and pollution from affluence and a rapidly growing industrial sector.
The priority environmental issues in India are:
- Land degradation and soil erosion.
- Biodiversity loss.
- Air pollution, especially from vehicles in urban areas.
- Management of fresh water resources.
- Solid waste management.
Factors Responsible for Land Degradation
Some of the key factors contributing to land degradation in India include:
- Loss of vegetation due to deforestation.
- Unsustainable extraction of fuelwood and fodder.
- Shifting cultivation practices.
- Encroachment into forest lands and overgrazing.
- Improper crop rotation and indiscriminate use of agro-chemicals like fertilisers and pesticides.
- Improper planning of irrigation systems and excessive extraction of groundwater.
- Poverty of the agriculture-dependent population.
India supports 17% of the world's human population and 20% of its livestock on just 2.5% of the world's geographical area, creating enormous pressure on its land resources.
Pollution in India
Air pollution is widespread in urban areas, with vehicles being the major contributors. Personal transport vehicles (two-wheelers and cars) constitute about 85% of registered vehicles and contribute significantly to air pollution.
India is also one of the world's most industrialised nations, which has led to unplanned urbanisation and pollution. The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), established in 1974, along with state-level boards, works to prevent and control water and air pollution by setting standards, disseminating information, and monitoring industries.
Box 7.3. Chipko or Appiko — What’s in a Name?
Answer:
The Chipko Movement in the Himalayas, aimed at protecting forests, inspired a similar movement in Karnataka called the 'Appiko' Movement, which means "to hug". In 1983, in the Sirsi district, 160 men, women, and children hugged trees to stop them from being felled by commercial contractors. Their non-violent protest forced the woodcutters to leave and saved 12,000 trees.
The movement highlighted the severe environmental damage caused by indiscriminate felling, such as soil erosion, drying up of rivers, and erratic rainfall. The Appiko volunteers demanded that felling be done scientifically, with consultation from local people and restrictions on cutting trees near water sources or on steep slopes.
Sustainable Development: The Concept
Environment and economy are deeply interdependent. Development that ignores its impact on the environment will ultimately destroy the very foundation that sustains life. The solution is sustainable development—a path of development that allows all future generations to have a potential average quality of life that is at least as high as that which is being enjoyed by the current generation.
The Brundtland Commission Definition
The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) gave the most widely cited definition of sustainable development in the Brundtland Commission's report, "Our Common Future":
"Development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of the future generation to meet their own needs."
This definition emphasizes two key concepts:
- 'Needs': It refers to meeting the basic needs of all, especially the poor majority, which requires a more equitable redistribution of resources.
- 'Future Generations': It highlights our moral obligation to hand over the planet in good order to the next generation.
Perspectives on Sustainable Development
Environmental economists have further elaborated on this concept.
- Edward Barbier defined sustainable development as a process concerned with increasing the material standard of living of the poor by providing lasting livelihoods that minimise resource depletion and environmental degradation.
- Herman Daly, a leading environmental economist, outlined the conditions needed to achieve sustainable development:
- Limit human population to a level within the environment's carrying capacity.
- Technological progress should be input-efficient, not input-consuming.
- For renewable resources, the rate of extraction should not exceed the rate of regeneration.
- For non-renewable resources, the rate of depletion should not exceed the rate of creation of renewable substitutes.
- Correct inefficiencies arising from pollution.
Strategies for Sustainable Development
Achieving sustainable development requires a shift in our approach to energy, agriculture, and industry. Key strategies include:
1. Use of Non-conventional Sources of Energy
India is heavily dependent on thermal power (which emits greenhouse gases and fly ash) and hydro power (which submerges forests and disrupts rivers). Sustainable alternatives include:
- LPG and Gobar Gas in Rural Areas: To reduce reliance on wood and dung cakes, subsidised LPG is provided. Gobar gas plants convert cattle dung into clean fuel and produce nutrient-rich slurry as fertilizer.
- CNG in Urban Areas: The use of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) in public transport in cities like Delhi has significantly reduced air pollution.
- Wind Power: In areas with high wind speeds, windmills can generate electricity with minimal environmental impact.
- Solar Power through Photovoltaic Cells: India has abundant sunlight. Photovoltaic cells can convert this solar energy directly into electricity, which is a pollution-free technology ideal for remote areas. India is leading the International Solar Alliance (ISA) to promote solar energy.
- Mini-hydel Plants: These plants use the energy of perennial streams in mountainous regions to generate electricity for local use, avoiding the need for large-scale transmission infrastructure.
2. Traditional Knowledge and Practices
India has a rich heritage of environment-friendly practices in agriculture, healthcare, and housing. Reviving these traditional systems is key to sustainability. For instance, traditional healthcare systems like Ayurveda and Unani, which use medicinal plants, are in great demand again. These herbal products are environment-friendly and have fewer side effects.
3. Biocomposting
Instead of chemical fertilisers that degrade soil and pollute water, farmers are increasingly returning to the use of compost made from organic waste. Vermicomposting (using earthworms to speed up the process) is becoming widespread, helping to enrich the soil and reduce the burden of waste disposal on civic authorities.
4. Biopest Control
To counter the adverse effects of chemical pesticides, eco-friendly pest control methods are being adopted. These include:
- Using pesticides based on plant products, such as those derived from neem trees.
- Practicing mixed cropping and crop rotation.
- Promoting natural predators of pests, such as snakes (which eat rodents) and birds like owls and peacocks (which eat insects and vermin).
Adhering to the path of sustainable development is a paradigm shift in thinking that ensures lasting development and well-being for all generations.
NCERT Questions Solution
Question 1. What is meant by environment?
Answer:
Question 2. What happens when the rate of resource extraction exceeds that of their regeneration?
Answer:
Question 3. Classify the following into renewable and non-renewable resources
(i) trees
(ii) fish
(iii) petroleum
(iv) coal
(v) iron-ore
(vi) water.
Answer:
Question 4. Two major environmental issues facing the world today are ____________ and _____________.
Answer:
Question 5. How do the following factors contribute to the environmental crisis in India? What problem do they pose for the government?
(i) Rising population
(ii) Air pollution
(iii) Water contamination
(iv) Affluent consumption standards
(v) Illiteracy
(vi) Industrialisation
(vii) Urbanisation
(viii) Reduction of forest coverage
(ix) Poaching, and
(x) Global warming.
Answer:
Question 6. What are the functions of the environment?
Answer:
Question 7. Identify six factors contributing to land degradation in India.
Answer:
Question 8. Explain how the opportunity costs of negative environmental impact are high.
Answer:
Question 9. Outline the steps involved in attaining sustainable development in India.
Answer:
Question 10. India has abundant natural resources—substantiate the statement.
Answer:
Question 11. Is environmental crisis a recent phenomenon? If so, why?
Answer:
Question 12. Give two instances of
(a) Overuse of environmental resources
(b) Misuse of environmental resources.
Answer:
Question 13. State any four pressing environmental concerns of India.
Answer:
Question 14. Correction for environmental damages involves opportunity costs—explain.
Answer:
Question 15. Explain how the supply-demand reversal of environmental resources account for the current environmental crisis.
Answer:
Question 16. Highlight any two serious adverse environmental consequences of development in India. India’s environmental problems pose a dichotomy — they are poverty induced and, at the same time, due to affluence in living standards—is this true?
Answer:
Question 17. What is sustainable development?
Answer:
Question 18. Keeping in view your locality, describe any four strategies of sustainable development.
Answer:
Question 19. Explain the relevance of intergenerational equity in the definition of sustainable development.
Answer: