PRASHANT DESAI (B.
D-4)
SUBJECT: CHRISTIAN EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL CHANGE
SUBMITTED TO: REV. MRS. RACHEL BHAGH
TOPIC: CHRISTIN EDUCATION AND ECOLOGICAL CONCERNS
CONTENT
INTRODUCTION
1. ECOLOGICAL ISSUES IN THE INDIAN CONTEXT.
A) Overview of Environmental Issues
B) Different types of Environmental Issues in India
(1) Water
(2) Air Pollution
(3) Solid Waste
(4) Noise Pollution
(5) Greenhouse gas emission or Chemical Pollution
2. CHRISTIAN EDUCATION FOR ENHANCING A AWARENESS ABOUT ECOLOGICAL ISSUES
IN THE CONTEXT OF THE LOCAL PARISH.
A) Christians Response for Ecological Crisis
(1) Biblical Perspective
(2) Theological Perspective
(3) Sociological Perspective
CONCLUSION
BIBOGRAPHY
INTRODUCTION
The environmental issues in India become more serious every day and she is turning into a bit
of a mess on this front but with a serious lack of education and so many people, a huge amount
of which are in dire poverty, it's hardly surprising. The recent boom in its industries, little or no
environmental education, infrastructure nearly at bursting point not to mention the huge
deforestation that's going on. Environmental issues, major ecological issues in India and
Christian Educational response to that issues and concerns for enhancing a awareness about
ecological issues in the context of local parish.
1. ECOLOGICAL ISSUES IN THE INDIAN CONTEXT.
A) Overview of Environmental Issues
India, a country with the seventh largest landmass in the world, is a land of ancient traditions.
With over a billion people and at least 17 major languages, the diversity of India in terms of
culture and biological wealth is enormous. In spite of rapidly changing lifestyles, the traditions
of living in harmony with nature and of environmentally sound practices underpin the lives of
most people. It is against this backdrop that the country's EE strategy has been evolved. The
Constitution of India explicitly makes environmental conservation a duty. The Central
Government and all states within.1
India now has a Ministry or Department of Environment. Education departments recognize EE
as an essential part of education. The law courts of the country have been sympathetic to
environmental causes. India has a very large number of very active NGOs who are involved in a
variety of activities from policy analysis to school programs; from participatory natural
resources management to activism.2
B) Different types of environmental issues in india
The Environmental issues in India are huge. Whether it's the rapidly dropping water tables,
mass deforestation, land degradation or river contamination, India has it all and on a massive
scale. Below you can find information on all of India's most serious environmental problems.
(1) Water
Perhaps the largest of the environmental issues in India facing the people of India is inadequate
or lack of access to vital fresh water resources. As India's industries get bigger so will the
amount of water they require and the amounts are already beginning to spiral. As an example
we can use the Coca cola factory which was accused for years of messing up an entire eco
system. By simply diverting all the water to their factory, millions of people went without. The
company are also accused of causing huge droughts and contamination to a massive area by
exploiting an excessive amount of ground water and then replacing it with toxic discharge. The
rivers are on the front line of pollution in India. Millions of people depend on them for their
livelihoods but they are slowly being polluted and destroyed by sewage, chemicals and other
agricultural and industrial waste. These are some of the most polluted rivers in the world but
little seems to be to stem the incessant destruction. The story of deforestation is another of the
highly serious environmental issues in India. It is predicted that almost 5.3 Million hectares of
forest have been destroyed since the independence. Most of it being chopped down for
housing, industrialisation and river projects. It is estimated that the number of Mangrove
Forests have more than halved in the last 20 years.3
1 Kartikeya Sarabhai V. Meena Raghunathan , Shivani Jain Environmental Education : Some Experiences from India. (Japan:
Center for Environment Education , 2002), 78-80.
2 Dhirendra K Bajpeyi, (Ed). Deforestation, Environment and Sustainable Development: A Comparative Analysis. (USA:
Greenwood Publishing Group, 2001), 70-72.
3 Arvin Kumar, Water Pollution. (New Delhi: A.P.H.Publishing Corporation, 2004), 65-66.
(2) Air Pollution
India now has one of the worst qualities of air in the world. Without a doubt the main
contributor of air pollution in India is the transport system. In the big cities like Delhi and
Mumbai, millions of old and very dirty diesel engines churn out millions of tonnes more sulphur
than their western equivalents partly because of being old and partly because of the diesel. As a
result, the asthma rate for children in some of the larger cities is now at %50 and rising fast. 4
(3) Solid Waste
Trash and garbage disposal services, responsibility of local government workers in India, are
ineffective. Solid waste is routinely seen along India's streets and shopping plazas. Trash and
garbage is a common sight in urban and rural areas of India. It is a major source of pollution.
Indian cities alone generate more than 100 million tons of solid waste a year. Street corners are
piled with trash. Public places and sidewalks are despoiled with filth and litter, rivers and canals
act as garbage dumps. In part, India's garbage crisis is from rising consumption. 5 India's waste
problem also points to a stunning failure of governance. Along with waste-to-energy projects,
some cities and towns such as Pune, Maharashtra are introducing competition and the
privatisation of solid waste collection, street cleaning operations and bio-mining to dispose the
waste. A scientific study suggests public private partnership is, in Indian context, more useful in
solid waste management. According to this study, government and municipal corporations
must encourage based local management through collection, transport and segregation and
disposal of solid waste.6
(4) Noise Pollution
The Supreme Court of India which is in New Delhi gave a significant verdict on noise pollution in
2005. Unnecessary honking of vehicles makes for a high decibel level of noise in cities. The use
of loudspeakers for political purposes and for sermons by temples and mosques makes noise
pollution in residential areas worse. In January 2010, Government of India published norms of
permissible noise levels in urban and rural areas.7
(5) Greenhouse gas emission or Chemical Pollution
India was the third largest emitter of carbon dioxide in 2009 at 1.65 Gt per year, after China (6.9
Gt per year) and the United States (5.2 Gt per year). With 17 percent of world population, India
contributed some 5 percent of human-sourced carbon dioxide emission; compared to China's
24 percent share.8 On per capita basis, India emitted about 1.4 tons of carbon dioxide per
4 Marquita K. Hill, Understanding Environmental Pollution. (Combridge: Combridge University, 2004), 78-79.
5Murray J. Harris, And Raised Immortal, Marshalls. (Theological Library. MarshaIls, 1983), 35-37.
6 Majula Sharma, and Anjula Sharma. Soil and Land Pollution. (Meerut: Goel Publishing House, 2011), 45-47.
7 Marquita K. Hill, Understanding Environmental Pollution…. 80-82.
8 K.R Gupta and Maria Anna Lankowska, Prasenjit Maiti (eds), Global Environment: Problems and Policies. (New Delhi:
Atlantic Publishers and Distributors, 2008), 88-89.
person, in comparison to the United States’ 17 tons per person, and a world average of 5.3 tons
per person.9
2. CHRISTIAN EDUCATION FOR ENHANCING A AWARENESS ABOUT ECOLOGICAL
ISSUES IN THE CONTEXT OF THE LOCAL PARISH.
A) Christians Response for Ecological Crisis
Ecological Crisis is one of the burning issues in today's world. Since the aim of Christian
Education is for social change, we should work for the change of society so that they will
concern for the destruction of ecology. As Christian Education, we can work for the ecological
concerns from the Biblical point of view, theological point of view and sociological and political
point of view.
(1) Biblical Perspective
Christians for Environmental Stewardship is dedicated to reaching the Evangelical and
Conservative Christian churches with a scriptural message of environmental stewardship. We
measure our stewardship by healthy ecosystems and sustainable, responsible consumption. We
are calling on all Christians to search the scriptures to better understand the heart of God in
relation to His creation.10 The Bible says that God expects, even demands, that we be stewards
of His creation. Scripture is undisputable. God created the different species of plants and
animals, blessed them, protected them and made a covenant with them. 11
(2) Theological Perspective
The whole bedrock of environmental care is that God is the creator of heaven and earth (Gn.
1:1). The whole creation is an expression of God, so as we begin to understand the creation we
can begin to get an idea of the creator; that is why the apostle Paul declares that God’s eternal
qualities can be understood from what he has made (Rom. 1:20). 12 A White headmen
‘ecological understanding of nature’ has been developed by L. Charles Birch and John B. Cobb,
Jr. This ecological model depicts entities as events rather than objects. Reality is best thought of
as organisms rather than material or mental substances,8 hence the interest of
environmentalists. Jesus’ incarnation displays the love and concern of God for his creation (cf.
Jn. 3:16).13 Jesus came to save not only humanity, but the whole earth. Humanity and the earth
are inextricably bound together: we are to care for the earth. Jesus on the cross redeemed the
whole of creation: the cross has global effects. The cross lies at the heart of Christianity; it
follows, then, that it must be central to a Christian environmental ethic. 14 The imagery of the
cross represents all that Jesus has done: the cross is Paul’s unique shorthand means of referring
to Jesus’ death, resurrection and all that it has accomplished. If the earth is to be destroyed at
9 Majula Sharma, and Anjula Sharma. Soil and Land Pollution. (Meerut: Goel Publishing House, 2011), 55-56.
10 Erich Sauer, From Eternity to Eternity. (Paternoster, 1954), 57-56.
11 Sharon H Ringe, and H C Paul Kim (Eds). Literary Encounters withe Reign of God. (New York: T & T Clark International,
2004), 90-93.
12 Erich Sauer, From Eternity to Eternity…60-62.
13 Herbert. Lojyer, All the Doctrines of the Bible. (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 1964), 77-79.
14 Erich Sauer, From Eternity to Eternity…64-65.
the parousia, as many popular commentators have suggested - notably those of a
dispensational persuasion then environmental action is at best ’patching up a dying man’s coat’
and a waste of time.15
(3) Sociological Perspective
Firstly, the Green Movement, What does it mean to be green? What is a green world-view?
These are two important questions that need to be addressed. Green is one of those ‘slippery’
words that have an elastic definition; it can be stretched to mean what we want. For the
majority it is erroneously seen as a synonym for environmental however, it means, much more
than that. Jonathon Porritt, until recently director of Friends of the Earth, states that ‘Whereas
concern for the environment is an essential part of being green, it is by no means the same as
being green’.16 Central to green thinking and politics are what Capra and Spretnak call the ‘four
pillars’ ecology, social responsibility, grassroots democracy and non-violence.17
Secondly, the term ecology is understood in a wider sense than its strict scientific definition; it
means ‘understanding ourselves and our environment as part of nature’. Underlying the
concept of ecology is the need to find our place in the ecosystem. 18 Porritt sums it up as the
need to ‘remind people of the inseparable links between ourselves and the planet on which we
depend’. Thirdly, this is understood to mean ‘social justice and an assurance that the poor and
working class will not get hurt by programmes to restructure the economy and our consumer
society ecologically’.19 Fourthly, this is the concept that democracy should be decentralized and
direct, i.e. it takes into account the ’wishes and opinions of eve -body affected by political and
social economic policies, especially those who currently have very little say. 20
Finally, According to Petra Kelly of Die Grunion, the German Green party, non- violence is ‘the
essential ingredient in an ecological society’. Non-violence is the abolition of both personal and
structural oppression: ‘humane goals cannot be achieved by inhumane means’. One prominent
green thinker, John Button, describes ‘green’ as: A set of beliefs and concomitant lifestyle that
stresses the importance of respect for the earth and all its inhabitants, using only what
resources are necessary and appropriate, acknowledging the rights of all forms of life, and
recognising that all that exists is part of one interconnected whole.21
CONCLUSION
It could be understood from the above discussion that ecological crisis in India is crucial issue.
It needs to be addressed and as Christian educators, it is great responsibilities for each and
15 Ian. McHarg, Design with Nature. (Natural History Press, 1989), 88-89.
16 Porritt, Seeing Green. (Basil Blackwell, 1984), 56-57.
17 Fritjof Capra and Charlene Spretnak, Green Politics. (Hutchinson, 1984), 67-69.,
18 William W Cobern (Ed). Socio-Cultural Perspective on Science Education: An International Dialogue.
(Netherlands: Kluewer Acaemic Publisher, 1998), 99-102.
19 Porritt, Seeing Green. (Basil Blackwell, 1984), 60-61.
20 Aparna. Sawhney, The Face of Environmental Management in India. (England: Ashgate Publishing Limitted, 2004), 80-82.
21 John. Button, A Dictionary of Green Ideas. (Routledge, 1988), 79-83.
every one of us to raise our voice and to work for preservation of our ecology. Fighting with
green or destroying the ecology is not only destroying God's creation, but it also brings
destruction to us. In this point of view, we can say that destroying our ecology is one of the
ways of suicide. As Christian, educators, we can draw the lesson from the Biblical perspective,
from theological point of view and also from sociological or political point of view.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bajpeyi, Dhirendra K (Ed). Deforestation, Environment and Sustainable Development: A
Comparative Analysis. USA: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2001.
Button, John. A Dictionary of Green Ideas. Routledge, 1988.
Capra Fritjof and Charlene Spretnak, Green Politics. Hutchinson, 1984.
Cobern, William W (Ed). Socio-Cultural Perspective on Science Education: An International
Dialogue.Netherlands: Kluewer Acaemic Publisher, 1998.
Kumar, Arvin. Water Pollution. New Delhi: A.P.H.Publishing Corporation, 2004.
Gupta,K.R and Maria Anna Lankowska, Prasenjit Maiti (eds), Global Environment: Problems and
Policies. New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers and Distributors, 2008.
Harris,Murray J. And Raised Immortal, Marshalls. Theological Library. MarshaIls, 1983.
Hill, Marquita K. Understanding Environmental Pollution. Combridge: Combridge University,
2004.
Lojyer, Herbert. All the Doctrines of the Bible. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 1964.
McHarg, Ian. Design with Nature. Natural History Press, 1989.
Prairie, Brush. “Christian Eco-theology: inhttp://www.christianecology.org/Stewardship.html
UBS Library access on 3th August, 2016.
Porritt, Seeing Green. Basil Blackwell, 1984.
Ringe, Sharon H and H C Paul Kim (Eds). Literary Encounters withe Reign of God.New York: T & T
Clark International, 2004.
Sarabhai Kartikeya V. Meena Raghunathan , Shivani Jain Environmental Education : Some
Experiences from India. Japan: Center for Environment Education , 2002.
Sawhney, Aparna. The Face of Environmental Management in India. England: Ashgate
Publishing Limitted, 2004.
Sauer, Erich From Eternity to Eternity. Paternoster, 1954.
Sharma, Majula and Anjula Sharma. Soil and Land Pollution. Meerut: Goel Publishing House,
2011.
