Bidhan Chandra Das
Environment is deteriorating throughout the planet. The rate of deterioration is faster than ever. Almost everywhere, the abiotic components of the environment, viz. soil, water and air are polluted and the biotic components of it, viz. animals, plants and the microbes on this planet are under threats. It is no doubt that all these problems are due to anthropogenic activities. Man has searched for comforts, conveniences and coins; and for these reasons he destroyed the environment. His misacts helped to increase the global temperature. Now, the environment is taking the revenge in the form of climate change.
Cyclones, water surges, floods, droughts, forest fires, thunderbolts, glacier melting, sea level rise, excess salinity, increase of sea water acidity, etc. are the evidences of the impacts of climate change. These are happening very frequently in recent times. We (Homo sapiens) appeared on this planet about 300,000 years ago. But, we did not do much wrong against our Mother Earth till the end of the last glacial age, about 11,000 years ago.
It has been said that the degradation of environment started somewhat markedly with the start of first industrial revolution in the eighteenth century. It was the ‘process of change from an agrarian and handicraft economy to one dominated by industry and machine manufacturing (Britannica)’. We have polluted our soil, water and air. We have destroyed our forests, water bodies, grasslands and made serious imbalance in the ecosystem. But we are now trapped by our own trap!
War Damaging the Environment
A proxy Third World War (based on Russia–Ukraine) has already begun. The war has emitted million tons of greenhouse gases that warm the Earth's atmosphere. It has caused catastrophic harm to the environment. The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and partners ‘points to a toxic legacy for generations to come’. Billions of dollars are being spent to win the war but at the same time billions of people are suffering from multidimensional poverty on this planet. According to the most influential journal Nature (07 March 2023, 615, 386), ‘The world has lurched a step closer to the prospect of nuclear war.’ If the nuclear war breaks out then where will be the safest place on Earth?
Soil Degradation
The UN report says that 33% of soils on this planet are degraded. Food and Agriculture (FAO) warns that 90 per cent of Earth’s topsoil at risk by 2050 (27 July 2022). FAO warned that the equivalent of one soccer pitch of earth erodes, every five seconds. Do we know that it takes around a thousand years to create just a few centimetres of topsoil? Industrial and commercial pollution, unplanned urban expansion, unsustainable agriculture practices and climate change are the main drivers of soil degradation. Soil is considered as alive. This is because, ‘one teaspoon of soil contains more living organisms than there are people in the world’ (State of knowledge of soil biodiversity: FAO, 2020). Most of the countries do not have any satisfactory record of their soil biodiversity, the integral part for soil health. Soil not only produce 95 per cent of the foods we eat but also helps to clean our water, mitigate climate change and provides the basis for medicines.
Freshwater Scarcity
According to UN Water (2020 and 2021) reports, about 2.3 billion people live in water-stressed countries, out of which 733 million live in extreme and critically water-stressed countries. The report says that ‘almost 3.2 billion people on this planet live in agricultural areas with high to very high-water shortages or scarcity, of whom 1.2 billion people – roughly one-sixth of the world’s population – live in acutely water-constrained agricultural areas’. World Bank warns that groundwater resources are under threat due to overexploitation, pollution and climate change. We may think that we have plenty of water in our planet, so what is the problem? Problem is, ‘water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink! (Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem). As per the statistics provided in The United States Geological Survey, the proportions of water in our planet are: Saline water (Oceans, Seas, & Bays) 96.54%; Ice caps, Glaciers, & Permanent Snow 1.74%; Groundwater (Freshwater 0.76% and Saline water 0.93%)1.69%; Soil Moisture 0.001%; Ground Ice & Permafrost 0.022%; Lakes (Freshwater 0.007% and Saline water 0.006%) 0.013%; Atmosphere 0.001%; Swamp Water 0.0008%; Rivers 0.0002% and Biological Water 0.0001%. If we consider these percentages, then can we say that we have enough water for our use in our planet?
Air Pollution
CNN reports (14 March 2023) that only 13 countries and territories had ‘healthy’ air quality in 2022. World Economic Forum says 99% of the world’s population experiences air pollution levels exceeding WHO guidelines, clearly necessitating action to limit our risk. UNEP (30 Aug 2022) says that ‘air pollution is the greatest environmental threat to public health globally and accounts for an estimated 7 million premature deaths every year’. The key air pollutants are: particulate matter, black carbon, sulphur oxides, nitrogen oxides (including nitrogen monoxide and nitrogen dioxide), ammonia, carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide, methane, ozone, non-methane volatile organic compounds, including benzene, certain metals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons etc. The main anthropogenic sources of these pollutants are: burning of fossil fuels in electricity generation, transport, industries and households; industrial processes and solvent use, for example in the chemical and mining industries; agriculture; waste treatment etc. The natural sources include volcanic eruptions, windblown dust, sea-salt spray and emissions of volatile organic compounds from plants.
Plastic Pollution
Plastic pollution is another increasing threat to our planet. The world produces about 400 million tons of plastic waste a year (Jun 22, 2022; World Economic Forum). At least 14 million tons of plastic winds up in the ocean every year, and plastic makes up 80% of all marine debris found (IUCN 2021). A growing plastic smog [In the ocean, ultraviolet light makes plastic brittle and wave action crushes it, breaking it down into microplastics (<150 μm); pieces smaller than a grain of rice. If not consumed by marine life, these fragments slowly settle to the sea floor], now estimated to be over 170 trillion plastic particles afloat in the world’s oceans [Eriksen et al., 2023: PLoS ONE 18(3)]. Plastics is compared with time bomb by the scientist. This is because most of the plastics are non-degradable in natural environment and need 500 years to decompose. The alarming news is that microplastics have entered into our body. Starting from the production to recycle of plastics, they add significant amount of green house gas, which we generally overlook.
Deaths Due to Environmental Degradation
On the occasion of the World Health Day, The World Health Organization (WHO) wrote (7 April 2022) that ‘More than 13 million deaths around the world, including 1.4 million in Europe each year, are caused by avoidable environmental factors.... This figure takes into account the accelerating climate crisis, which is the single biggest health threat facing humanity, but also includes air pollution, inadequate sanitation and clean water, exposure to chemicals and radiation, and unsafe urban environments.’ Such statistics indicate that we are now living in an environment like toxic gas chamber! This is really alarming!
Environmental Degradation in Bangladesh
If we now turn to our country Bangladesh, we may find that our environment is also deteriorating. Numerous documents/ publications made by our government, non-government agencies, International Organizations, independent researches etc. say that our air, land, water bodies, forests as well as natural resources are under various threats. Last year (2022), Bangladesh ranked 5th from 1st, among most air polluted countries in the World (IQAir, 19 March 2023). We ranked first in 2021. Air pollution was the second largest cause of deaths and disability in Bangladesh in 2019 and costed about 3.9 to 4.4 percent of the country’s GDP (December 4, 2022: World Bank). Soil Resource Development Institute, Bangladesh (2020) says, ‘Degraded land in respect to soil nutrient depletion was found around 10.96 million ha’ in Bangladesh. Water pollution is another major problem in this country and a systematic review shows deterioration of both surface and ground water quality in Bangladesh (Parwin et al., 2022). Plastic pollution is also increasing in this country. Plastic debris and microplastics in the inland and marine environment has raised concerns in Bangladesh (Islam et al., 2022)
The impacts of climate change in Bangladesh are expected to be so overwhelming that it will cascade through all sectors of the economy starting from food security to water management, and from safeguarding ecosystems to securing energy, hindering overall socioeconomic development and prosperity of the country (United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 2021)
Revised Treatments, Conserving the Environment
All the above-mentioned facts and figures indicate that our environment is now very sick and needs revised treatments. In fact, every country is suffering from the various environmental crisis with different degrees. It cannot be denied that efforts are being made to keep our environment clean and healthy. But the reality is, in spite of tremendous national and international efforts, we have failed to reach our targets. This is mainly due to lack of holistic approach to address the problems. In this connection, an example from Bangladesh can be cited.
The various UN organizations (COP, UNEP, CBD, IUCN etc.) repeatedly mentioned that the biodiversity loss is one of the major problems on this planet. Accordingly, Bangladesh has been trying to work on this aspect. But when we plan or talk about the conservation of biodiversity in Bangladesh, we only give importance on the tetrapod (mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians). This group of animal represents only 3.68% of all discovered organisms on this planet. The reality is, we do not have any satisfactory picture of our biodiversity for Bangladesh. It is pity to mention that most of us in this country ignore the role of non-tetrapods, mainly invertebrates that represent 80% of our total explored biodiversity. Thus, we are trying to conserve our biodiversity ignoring or excluding majority animals of our country. Shall we be able to make a right plan to protect the health and welfare of vulnerable family without knowing the number of members and their characters of that family? Accordingly, instead of cylindrical approach, we need to apply holistic approach, where each and every group of organisms will get importance. We have to remember that non-tetrapods build the backbone of biodiversity for any ecosystem. The same holistic approach can also be applied to the soil and water conservation. All abiotic and biotic components of soil and water should be considered.
Another problem, is when we try to conserve our environment (biotic or abiotic components), we generally do this from the instrumental point of view. That is to say, we judge first what materialistic (instrumental) benefit it can return from our efforts. Thus, when we look towards a tree, we think that how much logs I may have from the tree or how much fire wood I may get. We never think about the intrinsic value of that tree, the other side of the utilitarianism. Similarly, when we look at an animal or at any water body or at a grassland, we always think our materialistic benefits i.e. we measure instrumental values. We never consider their intrinsic values. This is the main reason for our failure. Accordingly, the time has come to change our approach from being anthropocentric to become ecocentric to conserve the environment.
Bidhan Chandra Das is a Professor (P.R.L.) at Rajshahi University
TDM/SNE
