1. Human Relationship to the Environment:
Taking Individual Responsibility
By Deven Björn Murti

2. Introduction Deven Björn Murti
Fifth visit to India over thirty year span
Developed interest in environment in high school; took bachelors minor in Env. & Resource Studies; master’s degree in Env. & Community
Have interned at several organizations
Interest in India from spiritual, cultural, wanted to learn about real India
Mahatma Gandhi is a central inspiration.

3. Format Initial presentation to introduce ideas (10 minutes?)
Questions to speaker and to audience
What projects are you involved in?
How are you helping to save the Indian environment?
What are your questions to me?
Group discussion of environmental ideas and concerns.

4. What is environment? We have physical bodies.
Our bodies interact with external world.
We eat, breathe, drink, sense (hear, smell, feel, see, touch)
Environment is totality of external experience of nature.
Our physical well-being is directly related to the quality of our environment.
Air, water,

5. Nature’s Role
Nature is the primary system that supports life on Earth through certain conditions:
Water, land, air, temperature, sunlight, etc.
Life on Earth has developed a balance through ecosystems for last 10,000 years.
Cycles of nature, e.g., humans breathe in O2, emit CO2, plants breathe in CO2 , emit O2
Plants absorb sunlight> cows eat grass> cows emit dung> soil absorb nutrients> plants absorb sunlight.
survival of the fittest

6. Biosphere Biosphere, total living Earth system
All of the ecosystems on the planet along with their interactions.
The sphere of all air, water, and land in which all life is found.

7. Humans are part of biosphere
Humans are part and parcel of biosphere.
Humans are dependent on narrow set of biospheric conditions
Uncontrolled and careless human actions are breaking down Earth’s ecological balance.

8. Industrialization Advantages:
Efficiency comes through mass production.
Creates jobs, markets, and wealth
Increases buying power, consumerism
Less dependence/greater self sufficiency
Finished (value added) products, rather than raw materials, are exported to keep money in India.

9. Industrialization (cont’d)
Disadvantages
Dislocation of workers away from villages to large cities so relationships become more disconnected.
Growing cities must share scarce natural resources.
Pollution from modern transportation
Greater use of fossil fuels and energy consumption - global warming
Improper release of industrial waste pollutes water.
Water table is being lowered throughout India
e.g. Narmada Dam project’s human & environmental costs

10. Why does society allow environmental degradation?
Consumers are unwilling to pay for clean technologies, which results in no profit incentive for producers.
Polarization between poor and wealthy so don’t feel part of same society.
Lack of information and education.
People are complacent because they don’t feel empowered.

11. East & West Development
India and China are emerging as global economic powers- but for the present appear to be less concerned with environmental decline.
Corruption - lack of enforcement (funds & whistleblowers)
India need not make the same mistakes as America and Europe made during their development.
Prevention is less costly than cleaning up the mess afterwards
The “greening of America” – gathering momentum
New watchword in West is sustainable development.

12. What is sustainable development?
One comprehensive definition of sustainability is found in Paul Hawkin’s book, The Ecology of Commerce:
“The economic state where the demands placed upon the environment by people and commerce can be met without reducing the capacity of the environment to provide for future generations.
It can also be expressed in the simple terms of an
economic golden rule for the restorative economy: leave the world better than you found it, take no more than you need, try not to harm the environment, make amends if you do.”

13. Why is there interest in sustainable development?
People are increasingly aware of and concerned about environment because:
Personal health & survival concerns make people less willing to live in polluted environments.
Environment is a global issue. Pollution has no boundaries. Deforestation of the Amazon, global warming, hole in ozone layer should be of interest to India too.
People are exposed to environmental issues in the global media and increasingly identify with the problems.

14. Who’s interested in sustainable development?
Environmental Activists
Scientists & researchers
Consumers conscious of the environment
Corporations see the growing interest as a market opportunity.
Health professionals
Insurance companies - global warming

15. Precautionary Approach to Environmental Concerns
In the past, humans have been reactive to feedback received from disgruntled consumers, environmental legislation, or from environmental crises. In the future we need to be proactive, using precaution.
Precautionary Approach - “Where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing cost-effective measures to prevent environmental degradation.” (United Nations Rio Declaration, 1992)

16. Dilemma - How to foster development and give attention to the environment?
United Nations - Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, 2005 – 2014.
Improving the quality of education and reorienting its goals to recognize the importance of sustainable development must be one of UNESCO’s and the world’s highest priorities.

17. How can individuals take responsibility for helping the environment?
Each person acting responsibly can make a big difference. This idea has been tried successfully by Gandhiji in India.
Become involved. Learn more. Redeeming the human relationship to the environment is the great challenge of our generation.
Invest in idealism: Connect what one learns with what one does.
Importance of making use of individual contacts.
My personal story about using my inspiration to start a club, Students for Environmental Action Coalition in my high school.

18. Group Brainstorm and Discussion
What projects are you involved in?
How are you helping to save the Indian environment?
What are your questions to me?