MAN AND ENVIRONMENT
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Prize Winning
Essay of Md.Osim Aquatar
SECOND CSR SUPER
BRAIN NATIONAL LEVEL ESSAY CONTEST-2014
TOPIC - MAN
AND ENVIRONMENT
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“We
don’t wish to impoverish the environment any further and yet we cannot for a
moment forget the grim poverty of large numbers of people...How can we speak to
those who live in villages and in slums about keeping the oceans, the rivers
and the air clean when their own lives are contaminated at source? The
environment cannot be improved in conditions of poverty. Nor can poverty be
eradicated without the use of science and technology”.
******Indira
Gandhi
In
Stockholm, Indira Gandhi added the above words simplifying correlation between man
and environment with the dimensions of social sustainability to the measurement
of economic growth without environmental harm on the eve of UN Conference on Environment
and Development in 1972 at Rio-de-Janeiro.
The
term environment is derived from the French word ‘Environner’which means surroundings and it is considered as a
composite term for the conditions in which organisms live. From the very
beginning of the works of celebrated scholars like Herodotus, Aristotle and
Eratosthenes each of them were described vibrantly about the relationship
between man and physical environment. According to them, the progress of many
nations was fostered by the favourable physical environmental condition. The
Man and Environment relationship has a long history and led to a long standing
debate about the position of man in relation to nature. Ages have gone by since
man first made himself quite distinct from other animals inhabiting this earth.
With the advent of “fire” and “wheel”, he succeeded in understanding the
meaning of knowledge and set off an unending journey of skill-acquisition for
the betterment of his class.
From
classical times onwards the idea that man is a product of the environment was dominant,
and in the 19th Century the work of Darwin in the biological sciences,
which showed that life developed under the selective actions of natural forces,
seemed to confirm scientifically the positions of man as a creature adapted to
his environment. At the same period social sciences showed regularities in
human behaviour that marriages rates in
England ,for e.g. were affected by the price rise of corn and the conclusion
was reached that man was not free ,but was ruled almost and all-round by
natural and economic laws. All the constituents of the environment are depending
on one another. So, all the ingredient of environment interact with one another
maintain a balance in the environment in a natural way. Man, the most brilliant
creature on earth and having super brain, is responsible for the change of
environment by and large to fulfil his needs of food, clothing, housing, transport
etc. In fact, the uncontrolled anthropogenic activity of human beings are
damaging the balance and healthy environment more and more .This environmental
imbalance created by human beings gives rise to various modern environmental
problems like climate change ,global warming, sea level rise, melting of
glaciers, ocean acidification, green house gases, ozone layer depletion, El-Nino
effects etc.
Man,
who did not have the idea of an advanced human society, was referred to as “the noble savage”, because he lived in
complete harmony with nature. He was noble because he was relied on nature only
for what he needed for sustenance, never tried to satisfy his lust or greed .With
the passage of time, he marched towards the sophisticated world. And science
helped him grow his knowledge at a stunning speed in a hurry to get stronger
and all the more knowledgeable he could not know the limit where he could have
stopped. In the last few centuries thousands of inventions have been made,
thousands of scientific milestones have been crossed. But in the process of advancement,
making giant strides in every arena, man has lost the most valuable thing which
could have pointed out the gravity of mistake that has already been committed,
every effort is being made by the so-called civilized and sophisticated world
to make up for the losses human greed has engendered the irreparable losses
which seem to spell a doom for all life on the planet called the earth.
Man
cannot be considered in isolation from his environment .Over the world; the
needs of people still differ enormously. At one time the environmental problems
debated in international organizations would predominantly have been those recognized
by the developed countries .The need to control pollution and the desirability
of conserving samples of the ecological and genetic richness and the natural
beauty of the earth. Since the United Nations Conference of the Human
Environment, however, it has been increasingly realized that environmental
issues are also of vital concern to developing countries and that over much of
the world the environmental problems are still those associated with poverty,poor
housing, bad public health, malnutrition and unemployment.
Changes
on the relationship between man and his physical environment depend to a large
degree on changes in the organization and aims of society. If man is to escape
from a situation in which much energy and resources are devoted to correcting
part mistakes, his aim must be to build a society which is intrinsically compatible
with its environment. The net effect of these changes, particularly during the second
half of the twentieth century, was an increase in exposure to many hazards and
increased potential for catastrophic losses more than 1.5 million people have
died as a result of natural disasters over the past 50 years, with earthquake, floods
and tsunamis by far the biggest killers.
With
the development of religious concepts several religions particularly Judaism, Christianity
and Islam viewed the created order as existing for human exploit .In the ‘Book of Genesis’ it is said that man
was created in the image of God and was
set over nature and had authority to do much as he liked. In Genesis, Adam and Eve were told “Be fruitful
and increase, fill the earth and subdue it, rule over the fish in the sea, the
birds of heaven and every living thing that moves upon the earth”. In the
Vedic literature mother earth is personified as the Goddess Bhumi or Prithvi. The
abundant mother showers her mercy on her children. Exploitation of nature or
other types are done under the pretext of God’s will (you do it Oh mother, but
people say that I do it). In Buddhism, there is very strong emphasis on how we
should relate to the natural world –for example, there is a prohibition on
animal slaughter.
It
can be easily under stood that natural forests, vegetation cleared off for “Swinden”
and “Zhoom” cultivation. Mining of earth resources, high pace urbanization, network
of SEZs has been built at the cost of fertile agriculture or forest lands.
Inundations of millions of acres of land, villages and human settlements by
dams and hydroelectric projects are glaring examples of the cost of human
progress. A rough estimate indicates that out of total global productions of
7.7×107Kcal/year, man alone consumes 4.5×107Kcal/year i.e.
more than half of global production is consumed only by man.
Anthropogenic
pollutions of air, water and land has taken colossal dimension. Man is
constantly increasing the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Comfort seeking
modern humans are paving the way of O3 layer depletion through CFCs.
Man is dumping industrial and urban sewage wastes into lakes, rivers, seas,
oceans etc. Rachel Carlson in her famous
book ‘Silent Spring’ has written that toxic chemicals used in modern
agriculture (DDT, pesticides etc.) for combating pests ,diseases and weeds
plus synthetic fertilizers are silently
killing useful microbes maintaining the bio-geo-chemical cycles, useful insects ,birds ,butterflies of the forests
and fishes in the streams and lakes .
At
least five activities of man may lead to global cataclysm killing all life on
the earth. (i) Emission of green house gases like CO2, CH4,
N2O, and CFCs by the civilized world if not reduced to 75% of
current emission rate by 2030 ,there will be severe global warming ,EL-Nino
effects and large scale O3 depletion. (ii) Hazardous chemicals of Agriculture and industry: More than 100,000
xenobiotic chemicals are now being used, are recalcitrant compounds .They are biomagnified
and causing threat of cancer epidemics
and total extinction of birds (e.g. Vultures, Great Indian Bustard etc)
,fishes, butterflies, bees and trillions of useful soil microbes essential for
geo-chemical cycles.(iii) Manmade
Nuclear Arsenal: There is a cut throat competition among several countries
to acquire nuclear bombs with efficient delivery system for target sites. As
compared to Hiroshima type these bombs are 5 to 500 times more powerful. If 100
or more megaton bombs are exploded in different parts of the world ,whole
fabrics of life-forms including man will be extinct.(iv) Anthropogenic Radioactive Wastes:
The world has seen the deadly effects of nuclear disasters in past like
Chernobyl (Ukraine-1986) and Fukusima (Japan-2010).Nuclear wastes generated in
reactors are real threat to life on earth. We have accumulated 7, 50,000kg of Plutonium
right now. If bombs are not made and those already existing are dismantled another
100,000 kg of Plutonium will release to the environment. What to do with these wastes?
(v) Biotechnological misuse-The
deliberate production of extremely powerful disease producing bacteria, viruses
or fungi for biological war-fare is another great environmental threat to
mankind. These super-powered pathogens when released will disseminate through
air or water and can cause catastrophic epidemics to man and environment.
On
the whole the environmental problems can only be solved through universal
cooperation and mass awareness along with individual thinking. UNESCO’s
programmes on environment and natural resource management (MAB-Man & Biosphere)
aims at providing the scientific basis and trained personnel needed for solving
the environmental problems.
Man
is the most intelligent creature on this earth.Misuse of science and technology
has become the potential terminator of mankind and other life-forms. Gaia
hypothesis suggests cooperation between men of different nations for not
allowing further pollution and cooperative approach for ameliorating the
pollutants already accumulated. By cooperation between the nations not by
competition we can avoid and prevent total annihilation of the mother earth and
its offspring’s including the human beings.
“Think Global and Act Local”. I can
conclude the essay by remembering the lines of Edward O Wilson:
“If all mankind were to
disappear, the world would regenerate back to
the rich state of equilibrium that existed ten
thousand years ago.
If insects were to vanish, the environment
would collapse into chaos.”
*****The
End******
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