The space inhabited by ecosystems to dwell, survive and thrive, put together is called their respective environment. Environment is typically the place around us, where we dwell in order to make a living and get ourselves adapted to the surroundings and their variations.
Whether we live in a good or a bad environment totally depends on us, as it’s in our hands to keep our surroundings clean and hygienic. Living systems inhabit environments around them and become natural reasons for them to grow and develop beyond boundaries. When this limit is unreasonably crossed by man-made effects of globalised industrialisation cum rapid urbanisation factors, the environment slowly becomes a prey in the hands of human exploitation.
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Growth and Expansion
The last four to five decades have seen the world changing rapidly in terms of economic growth, expansion of urban landscapes, industries churning out more global prospects etc. The pace at which our modern ways of living have impacted the environment is unaccounted for. Serious damages to the environment have resulted on account of this unchecked human behavior causing changes in global climate, temperature and mass destruction of species.
Ever wondered why rainfall is becoming so unseasonal and even if it’s in the right season, it may either be scanty or a flood causing trigger, such scenes becoming more common these days. Shortage of drinking water is a global crisis today.
The depletion of ground water has reached unimaginable levels and the supply of fresh and natural air itself is going to become scarce some day in the future. The prospects of growth have multiplied in countless folds on a global scale, ignoring the environment around us, thus creating a big gap between human economic growth and environmental degradation.
Adverse effects of growth on the environment
When man sought expansion of his industries and establishments, he did not fetch even a second glance at the environment. Today with the increase in high rise buildings, our cities have turned into what we call as concrete jungles. This has led to various at-sight problems for citizens. Drinking water facilities are poor and food adulteration is at an all time high.
Sparrows were a common sight in front of every house a while ago, but now they have almost disappeared from everywhere. This is due to all spaces taken over by concrete structures and high intensity mobile radiations. So, we easily lost a species for our irresponsible growth intentions. This is a very good example of our growth having an impact on the environment.
Not just this, if we see the many trees being uprooted in forests, forest fires creating havoc and taking away entire forest ranges in their fumes, we can very easily predict the extent of damage that would be created on the environment in coming years. Soil getting depleted of its vital nutrients has badly affected crop rotation cycles.
This has in turn caused soil to become infertile to an extent that vast lands on earth are becoming barren day by day. This has caused crop failures and inflation rates of essential vegetables to steeply rise.
On the other hand, the excessive use of chloro flouro carbons have created gaping holes in the ozone layer due to which harmful UV radiation are penetrating the earth’s surface more than ever. Also, the depletion of ozone layer has created more deadly chemical reactions leading to incurable cancers etc on earth.
Greenhouse gases responsible to create a sustainable environment on earth are turning into poisonous gases, capable enough of wiping out lives of millions. This has do far weakened the ancient symbiotic relationship between society and the environment on earth. On account of development and population growth, the environment is seeing mass destruction that cannot be set right at least in the years to come.
Creating a sustainable environment
Due to pollution, the early morning fog is now becoming a thick blanket of smog, which is fog, combined with smoke. Smoke that is emitting out from factories and industries causing air pollution. The chemicals that are let out from factories, after mixing with sewage adversely combine with drinking water set ups polluting primary and important water resources. This is how the environment is becoming a store house of air-borne and water-borne diseases.
To come out of these ill effects and create a sustainable environment for the future, we have to first work on increasing the greenery in our environment by pledging to not cut down trees unnecessarily. Cutting down trees on roads to make way for infrastructure growth in cities is common sight, but leads to far stretching ill effects. Urbanisation has brought along with it, hidden adverse effects of environment. Worse, we do not think about the bad we are doing to the environment when we know it very well that it may have disastrous effects on us later on.
Remedies and Solutions
The solution to set the situation right is to think about the environment and show concern towards the apathy we have so far created. Introducing greater scientific rigor about our environment may impact serious assessment of projects.
Government policies and regulations should be strengthened and given more power to check irregularities. The law of the land should be responsible enough to enforce penalties on units that misuse the environment for their selfish needs. Corruption should be ruled out from the place to bring in a better perspective about the environment.
Lack of policy enthusiasm towards environment is as good as taking our environment for granted. This is happening at all places. Illegal mining and quarry units are given permission by governmental agencies after taking Crores of rupees as bribes from prospective money laundering individuals and agencies.
Thus, a deep insight is needed to root out the issue of environmental exploitation, in terms of corruption and bribery cases. The occupation of lake bed areas and converting them into sites for construction is another example where government apathy towards environment is highlighted.
Solutions and remedies are many to tackle such situations. But we can see progress only when initiatives are taken in the right direction by capable authorities who have interest in environmental issues and have concerns on the current plight of our surroundings.
An efficient system to tackle the issue and help it rise from the roots to brighten the haphazard to the society is needed. Citizen initiatives and participation is a much needed effort after all. It is still the biggest way to tackle the problem and we have to join hands with the right governmental agencies to act in the right direction.
Conclusion
Ecological considerations are the need of the hour so that they do not hamper development in the name of modernisation of society. Extensive protection of ecology and environment is essential for sustained economic development. Only if the environment around us is sustainable and friendly can we thrive and make our goals achievable.
It is a false perception that economic growth can lead independently of environmental considerations. We have to live and thrive within our boundaries and not forge ahead leaving out environmental considerations.
The environment around us is like the lifeline that helped man grow into leaps and bounds and reach his goals, if we don’t set right the imbalance created, the environment around us will never be restored ever again.