ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES

CIE 103/ 104

Education For LifeEducation Through LifeEducation Throughout Life

-Mahatma Gandhi

ENVIRONMENTAL

EDUCATION

FOR

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Only when the last tree has been cut down,

only after the last river has been poisoned,

only after the last fish has been caught,

only then will you find that money cannot be eaten

-Native American Prophecy

Example of Environmental

issues• Deforestation

• Environmental Impacts of Mining

• Global Warming

• “Tragedy of the commons”—overfishing

and other

Global crisis-Water

• One fourth of the world’s population have

no access to safe drinking water

• >60,000 villages in India have no source of

drinking water, 1.3 million children die of

diarrhea every year

Biodiversity

• Worldwide

-24% mammals, 12% birds, 25%

reptiles,30% fish species, are threatened or

endangered and disappear 100 to 1000

times the rate at which they disappear

naturally

• More than 10% of India’s recorded flora

and fauna are threatened and many are

on the verge of extinction.

Forests

• The net loss of forests during 1990s was

about 94 million hectares. Even today 1

hectare per second is cleared

• India’s forest was declined a century ago

from 40% to 22% in 1951 and further to

19% in 1997. The quantitative decline

might have been arrested but qualitative

decline persists

LAND

• Each year 6 million hectares of agricultural

land are lost due to desertification and soil

degradation affecting 250 million people

• India has nearly 130 million hectares of

wasteland

Pollution

• At least 1 billion people in the world breath

unhealthy air and 3 million yearly die from

the effects of air pollution

• WHO rates New Delhi and Kolkata being

the most polluted megacities in the world

Air Pollution

Coastal and Marine areas

• Worldwide, 50% of the Mangroves of the

coast and wetlands have been destroyed

• Over 40 years India too have lost 50% of

mangrove forests, the super cyclone of

Orissa 1999 accentuated damage to

property and life due to lack of mangrove

cover

Natural Disasters

• More than 200 million people are effected

by disasters in a year. Floods, drought,

and windstorms account for more than

90% of the people killed in natural

disaster.

• India is the most disaster prone country in

the SE Asian region. 10 thousand people

in Orissa cyclone, 16,000 in Gujarat earth

quake and 30000 in 2004 Tsunami

Indian Ocean Tsunami 2004

Bam Earthquake 2004

Devastations

Muzaffarabad Earthquake 2005

Hurricane Katrina 2005

Destructions

Orissa Super Cyclone 1999

Bangladesh Cyclone 2007

Damages

Kobe Earthquake 1995

Sichuan Earthquake 2008

Nepal- Bihar Flood 2008

Sufferings

Tsunami

222222

Natural Calamity - TSUNAMI

For Example Effects: 26 December 2004

Deaths Bhopal Gas Tragedy 1984

ENERGY

• 2 Billion people around the world go

without adequate energy

• India imports more than 50% of its oil

needs, primarily for transportation

Global warming

Environmental Effects of

Global Warming• Melting of permafrost and polar ice

• Rising sea level

• Spread of pests and disease

• Ecological impacts (e.g. disturbed life

cycle of flora-fauna)

This image is of the Easton Glacier on Mount

Baker in the North Cascades of Washington

taken in 2003. It shows the terminus position of

the glacier in 1985 as well.