Conservation of Environment

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Various facets of of our life that are ignored during discussion on the conservation of environment

Conservation of Environment

Nowadays considerable degradation of our environment is going on and a lot needs to be done for saving our environment. Here, it is the most important to know, who and what cause the degradation of environment. Then only we can think of ways to save our environment.

Good environment means good forest cover, pure water & air, normal noise level within natural limits and balance of ecological cycles. Environmental balance keeps various materials in rotation, from one form into other. A fact behind it is that, material in each form is useful to life of some or other living bodies. Therefore is consumed & converted into subsequent forms, but really no waste is generated at all, at any stage of conversion cycle.

Now it should be noted that it is only we, the members of the mankind, whose activities cause a major threat to environment. All living bodies other than human beings live within their limits as stipulated by the Nature. But we, the members of mankind, indulge in various industrial activities, tourism etc. and cause damage to our environment. Changing our habits & lifestyle will lead to reduced consumption of materials & goods, which will subsequently reduce consumption of natural resources. It is our habits & life styles that necessitate conversion of materials from one form into some other forms (for consumption) and in this process, generate some other materials which are not useful to any living bodies at all. These useless materials are practically the 'waste' and the end result is degradation of environment.

Reducing the activities of mankind will lead to reduction in consumption of natural resources. But reducing the population of mankind will be more dominant in reducing activities of mankind. Thus population reduction will prove a major factor in saving our environment. This may sound somewhat abnormal or ridiculous to readers, but it is the need of time. Some active steps or policy measures or incentives, which are not only likely to keep population growth under control but also explicitly reduce present population figure, will definite reduce degradation of environment (as explained above). Allowing voluntary self-termination of life, to all persons of any age and providing some official means or mechanism to execute such self-termination successfully, will go a long way in this direction.

Now first consider the case of increasing scarcity of water and decreasing level of overground and underground water. Here please take note of one fact that, such scarcity occurs mainly due to increasing need of ever-increasing population of human beings and various activities (including industrial use) of this population at correspondingly increasing proportion. Halting the flow of water in rivers & springs and accumulating it within dams, for using over a period of months (from one monsoon to next monsoon), is proposed by may persons, as one of the remedies for this problem. But when we halt the flow of water and consume it without allowing it to drain to seas, we actually reduce the amount of water that can evaporate and become available as rains during subsequent monsoon. Many persons conveniently forget this recycling of water. The same is valid and true of another suggested remedy that, we should stop evaporation of water from large lakes, by spreading a thin film of plastic on the surface of water reservoir. The fact is that, whatever water evaporates during eight to nine months period, actually accumulates in air and pours down as rain during the succeeding year's monsoon. Till that time, it keeps the surrounding area damp and maintains sustainable environment for other living bodies and ecological cycles. Any disturbances continued for many years on a large scale, as normally happens, are more likely to cause some major environmental hazard in future.
Now consider the second case of hydrogen as a non-conventional fuel to satisfy the growing need of energy for more & more mechanized way of life & work. Separating hydrogen gas from sea water by carrying out a process of electrolytic dissociation of water is being studied & researched as a new means of generation of energy on large scale. Here also, it will definitely cause heavy separation & deposition of salt from water in the oceans and affect the marine biology and associated ecological cycle.
There is a third case of fertilizers used to increase productivity of crops and farm lands. Use of such fertilizers is advocated mainly to satisfy the increasing need of food for ever-growing population. But prolonged used of fertilizers & chemicals & drugs to increase the quantity of crop output simply results in deterioration of fertility of land in the long run. Subsequently such land needs to be abandoned when it becomes saline and useless for farming. This is also a case of environmental hazard.
The fourth case is of noise pollution . Nowadays, with increasing advances in entertainment technology, more and more number of people use music systems and loud speakers during their leisure time at homes or during festivals in public places. The sound levels generated by such loud music and even other sources (like engines & horns of automobiles, aeroplanes, machines in factories, diesel generator sets etc.) cause a lot of disturbances in the atmosphere. It affects the minds and behaviour of human beings and animals and birds also.
Similarly there is a case of proliferation of airwaves . Due to recent trend of mobile phones, private TV and radio channels, satellite communication for telephone & defence purpose, there is practically huge bombarding of a lot of airwaves onto our bodies and brains. This is true not only for human beings but for animals, birds and trees also. I personally believe that continuous bombarding of these airwaves, which can penetrate even concrete walls and enter the interiors of halls & buildings, causes a slow and steady destructive effect on our minds. The increasing tendency of angry & impatient & hot temperament and violent behaviour among many persons is an early symptom of the devastating aftereffects of all these airwaves. This is definitely a case of environmental degradation.
There is another case of use of plastic material , which does not deteriorate and is inherently, environment non-friendly. Just banning manufacture & use of plastic bags of thickness less than certain microns (40 microns or otherwise) is not a real solution. In order to save our land from plastic garbage/waste, we need to stop manufacture of plastic material itself in factories. Recently some of the scientists have invented some variety of plastic material that dissolves fully in water. But again, after complete dissolution in water, the water itself does not remain pure but becomes a solution of plastic. Such contaminated water is definitely not suitable for drinking purpose and even may not be suitable for the life of aquatic organisms also.
I shall discuss one more important case of cement . Nowadays, millions of tonnes of cement is manufactured and used for constructing buildings, concrete roads, bridges, dams etc. Many people know that water is required for curing of cement that causes hardening and setting of cement as required. Here also, saline water is not acceptable, only river water free of all salts is used for technical reasons. Actually, water chemically reacts with cement (in certain proportion) during the process of hardening and setting. Thus, with every million tonne of cement consumption, there is proportionate quantity of water permanently disappearing from water reservoirs, causing shortage of water for drinking & irrigation purpose. Now you consider the scale and quantity of cement consumed for construction already done & being done, all over India (and even the world) and how much water has permanently vanished from the reservoirs. This is true not just for cement actually used in construction. It is equally true for cement manufactured & wasted anywhere because, once some water (even the moisture in open air) comes in contact with such cement, the process of hardening & setting will start automatically, consuming the available water during this process.

After considering so many cases, I hope, you will agree that the increasing population and correspondingly increasing activities & consumer lifestyles of the human beings is the root cause of environmental degradation. That's why I claimed in the beginning of this article that, there is a need for some different viewpoint & thinking & action plan, to tackle the manmade disaster (and not just a problem) of environmental degradation. More discussion on this topic will be presented separately.

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This article was written on 2002/06/27 and last uploaded on -- 2004/03/21.
© Ajay Phalnikar, E-mail : ajay_asp2000@yahoo.com
Contact Address :-- A/10/7, Jeevan Nagar Society, Mithagar Road, Mulund (East), Mumbai 400081, India

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