Dr.Banarsi Lal and Dr.Shahid Ahamad
Every year we celebrate 5th of June as the World Environment Day to create awareness on environmental problems and to protect the planet earth. Lack of environment education has led man to be harsh to nature. There is deep harmonious relationship between man and environment. Environment creates the favourable conditions for the existence of different living organisms. Environment education is the process of recognizing values and clarifying concepts in order to develop skills and attitude necessary to understand surroundings. According to UNESCO and UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme), environmental education is a sustained process in which the individuals gain awareness of their environment and acquire the knowledge and skills to enable them to act individually and collectively to solve future environmental problems. There is need to aware the people about the environment issues. For this purpose mass media can play the significant role in creating the awareness on environment. The fight against the environment pollution is not only the Government concern but it is everybody’s concern. Chipko movement in the Himalayas and Silent valley project in Kerala are the good examples in creating the awareness among the people on environmental issues. There is need to understand the environment quality and human well being.
Rapid growth of population is affecting the earth’s surface at an alarming rate. The agricultural scientists have burned large areas of land for the farm land, modified the soil by ploughing, irrigation, introduced the new varieties of crops and animals and altered the new vegetation structure of many places. Renewable energy resources are being consumed at rates that exceed the speed at which they can be regenerated or replenished. It has been observed that the destruction of tropical rainforests is occurring at a rate of 40 million acres every year as a result of human activities. As the population increases, the requirement of fuel wood may exceed the sustainable natural supply, leading to the shrinkage of woodlands. The urban and rural requirement for wood in construction purposes puts an additional demand on the forest cover. The combustion of fossil fuel emits carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide constitutes the largest source of green house gases. From 1950, emissions from fossil fuel use have increased 3-6 times. The US is the largest emitter of green house gases followed by the European Union. Water pollution is the serious problem especially in the developing countries. The diversion of fresh water to agriculture, industries, domestic and other needs disturbs the hydrological cycle.
The information and communication technology can play a vital role in disseminating the awareness on environment education. Information and communication tool should be considered by the policy makers and planners as one the management tools. The adequate information is must to utilize the available resources in a sustainable manner. Television, radio, newspapers, publications, internet must be used to educate the people about the environmental issues. Posters, banners, exhibitions etc. should also be used in dissemination the message on environmental issues. Slogans can be pasted on different public places. It is fact that there is large coverage by the television, radio and the publications but they are unable to reach at the grass root level. People participation is must in the environmental issues. Participation of the community can be ensured by organizing fairs and festivals like vanmahotsava, celebration of world environment day(5th of June) etc. Access to media and other sources of communication are primordial for creating awareness among the people for the environmental issues. UN conferences on environment help the people to pay attention on the dangers to human life posed by the continuous degradation of basic ecological assets. Recently, the importance of ecological and economic forces at the grass-root level has been recognized. UN environment programmes and many other environment organizations have come up for the implementation of various projects on environment. In the early 70s,the people in Stockholm said that if you want to develop your film just dip it in the river water, it is full of chemicals.But40 years on, they are telling you that you need not hesitate to drink the water from the tap. This happened because of mass awareness and efforts made by the non-government organizations. Earth summit held at Rio in 1992 was the first global initiative to deliberate on various environment issues and an agenda was made to formulate the policies and programmes at the Government level. The environment degradation problems cannot be solved by the Government only but non-government organizations (NGOs) co-operation is also must.
We should protect our environment for our development. Without adequate environmental protection, development is useless. By 2030, food production will need to double and industrial output and energy use will increase by three times in all over the world and five times in the developing nations. This growth will bring the risk of appalling environmental degradation. Environmental degradation affects the present and future generations. It will harm the human health, reduces the crop productivity and leads to the loss of amenities. Many other problems such as economic development, inadequate sanitation, clean water, air pollution are associated with the environment degradation. Environment and development explores two-way relationship. Firstly, safe, plentiful and healthy water and air are itself a part of development. If the benefits from rising incomes will be consumed in our ill health, it cannot be said as the development. Secondly, environment degradation can reduce the crop productivity. Soils are degraded, aquifers are depleted and ecosystems are destroyed to raise the income can jeopardize the prospects for earning the income in future. Africa’s forest declined by 8 per cent in 1980.Eighty per cent of Africa’s pastures and range areas show signs of damage. There should be positive link between development and environment. The fragile environment is undergoing unsustainable levels of stress from increasing populations, increasing pollution, increasing demand of resources, agricultural and industrial sectors put additional pressure on land and water and increasing solid waste.
The size of earth is fixed while its resources are being depleted abruptly. It has been observed that some countries are causing more pollution affecting the other countries also. Many species of flora and fauna are extinct. The poisonous gases are polluting the air and are destroying the ozone layer. The greenhouse effect has raised the world temperature. Glaciers have begun to melt. Levels of oceans are rising and if it will continuous to do so many low lying countries will submerge under water. So there is great need to aware the people on environmental issues. People have the capacity to make environmental and development sustainable. Destruction of ecosystems and species extinction entails irreversible losses. The high amount of agro-chemicals for increasing the crop productivity has led to the degradation of the environment. There has been a marked increase in the surface water pollution caused by the use of insecticides-pesticides, fertilizers and acid rain. Environment education should deal with the relationship between environment and development for a healthy society. Our development must be designed in such a way that it will not damage the environment but builds and restores our health. Each and everyone should be involved to promote the environment education.
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