What does development mean to us?
In an effort to create and generate awareness amongst our growing minds AID Tempe will organize monthly discussions on various issues that affect us. It is important, that we understand these issues more deeply in order to provide competent and sustainable solutions to problems that we are seeking answers to. Below are the snippets from the first discussion held during weekly meeting on July 29, 2006:
Perhaps at no point in history have we been more environmentally aware than we are now. But the danger of an environmental catastrophe – if we are heading towards one – does not seem imminent to the majority of us. And this is the reason why concern for the environment is only slowly translating itself into action. Evolution has hardwired us to react only to immediate threats; we are therefore quick to consign environmental problems, whose effects accumulate gradually, to posterity. There is some truth to this: the effects of environmental mismanagement are already evident, but the brunt of our actions will be borne by those who come after us.
Development in its current form is at odds with the environment. Ever since we stopped being hunter-gatherers and took to agriculture ten thousand years ago – a remarkable shift, probably the most pivotal in human history, yet hardly recognized – we were destined to take the trajectory that has brought us to where we are now. And it appears that we shall continue along this path, though we have begun now to think of some corrective measures.
All this leads us to a number of important questions; it is difficult to have any clear or optimistic answers to these questions. But the answers to some of the questions might be clearer by the end of this century.
Can development ever be adapted to suit the environment? Can the world ever sustain a population of 8 or 10 billion? And will a growing population and diminishing resources lead to major conflicts, conflicts larger in scale than the world wars of the last century? Can developing countries ever hope to have the same standards of living that countries in Europe and North America enjoy? Will technological advancement, much maligned by some environmentalists, be an unexpected savior in some roundabout way?
-Hari
Vision of a Developed India
-Sudhir
How is development related to environmentalism? How much does development conflict with the environment, and is it always destined to be this way? Also, is environmentalism overemphasized?
Perhaps at no point in history have we been more environmentally aware than we are now. But the danger of an environmental catastrophe – if we are heading towards one – does not seem imminent to the majority of us. And this is the reason why concern for the environment is only slowly translating itself into action. Evolution has hardwired us to react only to immediate threats; we are therefore quick to consign environmental problems, whose effects accumulate gradually, to posterity. There is some truth to this: the effects of environmental mismanagement are already evident, but the brunt of our actions will be borne by those who come after us.
Development in its current form is at odds with the environment. Ever since we stopped being hunter-gatherers and took to agriculture ten thousand years ago – a remarkable shift, probably the most pivotal in human history, yet hardly recognized – we were destined to take the trajectory that has brought us to where we are now. And it appears that we shall continue along this path, though we have begun now to think of some corrective measures.
All this leads us to a number of important questions; it is difficult to have any clear or optimistic answers to these questions. But the answers to some of the questions might be clearer by the end of this century.
Can development ever be adapted to suit the environment? Can the world ever sustain a population of 8 or 10 billion? And will a growing population and diminishing resources lead to major conflicts, conflicts larger in scale than the world wars of the last century? Can developing countries ever hope to have the same standards of living that countries in Europe and North America enjoy? Will technological advancement, much maligned by some environmentalists, be an unexpected savior in some roundabout way?
-Hari
Vision of a Developed India
-Sudhir
posted by Pallavi @ 8/05/2006 08:57:00 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home