Understanding Sustainable Development
- 3th March 2021
- Mumbai, India
- Climate Change | Energy | Pollution
Written By: Harsh Gupta
Sustainable development is a global concern, which everybody agrees on but bringing this global concern to public policies is a difficult task. The most accepted definition of sustainable definition is “To meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”.
India is presently emerging as an economic superpower but contrary there is another profile of India. We constitute about 20% of the world’s population, but we also contribute about 35% of the poor and 40% of illiterates in the world. Reports have stated that while India was having a green revolution, IT reforms, manufacturing reform, economic growth and so on, inequality in the income distribution have been growing simultaneously.
In our country around 700 million people in the rural area are directly dependent on the climate-sensitive sectors for their livelihood. As we all know about water level problems in our country. This problem was created by the people living in urban areas but is affecting the people living in the rural areas. Industries have violated all the pollution norms and have polluted our precious rivers and air. India, with a large area of its land under agriculture, is also prone to vagaries of weather conditions and climate change due to pollution. Bringing reforms in our development strategies is not only important for keeping pollution in control it is also important because of depleting levels of our non-renewable energy resources. Our country was heavily dependent on thermal power plants for electricity generation for centuries, but soon we realised we were polluting our air and depleting more precious coal just to run turbines. Soon we shifted to hydro power plants, we tried to harness the power of running water but in the recent past we have seen that nature can overthrow us from its way any time.
We have found solar power as an ultimate source of energy. To make apt use of it we need to educate our children so they can take use of the full potential of this source. We need to change the way we treat the environment as we have to leave it for our future generations to see. In order to achieve this, we have to create a feeling of self-realisation among people. We also need strict policies formed to punish those who exploit the environment. But, in the end it is through education we can make a better society that cares about the future generations.
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Source: News Agencies
Image Source: Google