MPPCS Paper III- Environment

Environmental degradation: its causes, effects and remedies.

The major causes of the environmental degradation are modern urbanization, industrialization, over-population growth, deforestation etc. Environmental pollution refers to the degradation of quality and quantity of natural resources. Mahatma Gandhi’s principle of “enoughness” in his saying “the earth provides enough to satisfy every persons need but not for every person’s greed” According to World Commission on Environment and Development, Our Common Future (1987) , Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. It contains within it two key concepts: the concept of needs, in particular the ... Read more

Environment protection laws, Policies and regulatory framework

The Environment Protection Act is an important legislation that provides for coordination of activities of the various regulatory agencies, creation of authorities with adequate powers for environmental protection, regulation of the discharge of environmental pollutants, handling of hazardous substances, etc. The Act provided an opportunity to extend legal protection to non-forest habitats (‘Ecologically Sensitive Areas’) such as grasslands, wetlands and coastal zones.The Environment (Protection) Act was enacted in 1986 with the objective of providing for the protection and improvement of the environment. It empowers the Central Government to establish authorities charged with the mandate of preventing environmental pollution in all its ... Read more

The Environment – development debate

Environmental influences are important both at the prenatal and postnatal stages of human development. At the prenatal stage, when a fetus is in the mother’s womb,  internal or external harmful agents, such as certain legal or illegal drugs, alcohol, lead and pollutants can harm the unborn baby’s development. The mother’s nutrition, diseases and emotional stress can also affect the development of the fetus. The environment provides various resources to man-both renewable and nonrenewable. Renewable resources are those resources which are replenished easily over time, and hence can be used without the possibility of the resource becoming depleted or exhausted. Examples ... Read more

Solid Waste Management

Solid Waste Management; Types of Solid waste Management; Factors affecting Solid Waste Generation Solid Waste Management Solid waste management is basic public services which every citizen should have access to, both for health and hygiene, and for ensuring a good quality of living. Sanitation here refers to toilet facilities, whereas solid waste management refers to the management collection and disposal of solid waste (as opposed to liquid waste). The image of a city as being clean and free of waste, impacts its desirability for doing business by entrepreneurs and for future residents to live. Municipalities in India are responsible for ... Read more

Waste Water Management

Waste Water Management Water, food and energy securities are emerging as increasingly important and vital issues for India and the world. Most of the river basins in India and elsewhere are closing or closed and experiencing moderate to severe water shortages, brought on by the simultaneous effects of agricultural growth, industrialization and urbanization. Current and future fresh water demand could be met by enhancing water use efficiency and demand management. Thus, wastewater/low quality water is emerging as potential source for demand management after essential treatment. An estimated 38354 million litres per day (MLD) sewage is generated in major cities of ... Read more

E-Waste

The rapid growth of technology, upgradation of technical innovations and a high rate of obsolescence in the electronics industry have led to one of the fastest growing waste streams in the world which consist of end of life electrical and electronic equipment products. It comprises a whole range of electrical and electronic items such as refrigerators, washing machines, computers and printers, televisions, mobiles, i-pods, etc., many of which contain toxic materials. Many of the trends in consumption and production processes are unsustainable and pose serious challenge to environment and human health. E-waste is not hazardous if it is stocked in ... Read more

Climate change: Causes and Remedial measures.

Climate Change It is the long term change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods of time Though it has been happening naturally for millions of years, in recent years it has accelerated due to anthropogenic causes and has been causing global warming. UNFCCC defines climate change as – “a change of climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods” During the last decades of urbanization,industrialization and population growth the atmosphere has been polluted. ... Read more

Ecological Prints and Coping strategies

Ecological Footprint accounting measures the demand on and supply of nature.On the demand side, the Ecological Footprint measures the ecological assets that a given population requires to produce the natural resources it consumes (including plant-based food and fiber products, livestock and fish products, timber and other forest products, space for urban infrastructure) and to absorb its waste, especially carbon emissions.The Ecological Footprint tracks the use of six categories of productive surface areas: cropland, grazing land, fishing grounds, built-up land, forest area, and carbon demand on land.On the supply side, a city, state or nation’s biocapacity represents the productivity of its ... Read more