Environment And Natural Resources | Class 12
Political Science
The Chapter Introduces Student Environmental Concerns In Global Politics. It
also highlights the common Property resources and the rights of the indigenous
people. The chapter also mentions the global commons and their relevance in
contemporary world politics.
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Environmental Concerns In Global Politics
What are the current environmental concerns?
● Until recently, 'global politics' was only considered in a limited sense: wars and
treaties, the rise and fall of state authority, the connection between governments
that represent their countries in the international arena, and the role of
intergovernmental organisations.
● We already broadened the definition of world politics to include topics such as
poverty and diseases.
● That may not have been a tough step to take, because we all believe
governments are in charge of these things.
● In that sense, they are part of international politics.
How do you think these concerns fall within the scope of
contemporary world politics?
● Cultivable land is scarcely expanding globally, while a significant amount of
existing agricultural land is losing fertility. Grasslands and fisheries have been
overgrazed. Water bodies have been drastically depleted and polluted, putting a
serious constraint on food production.
● According to the United Nations Development Programme's 2006 Human
Development Report, 1.2 billion people in poor countries lack access to safe
drinking water and 2.6 billion lack access to sanitation, resulting in the death of
almost three million children each year.
● Natural forests — which help to stabilise the climate, regulate water supplies, and
house the majority of the world's species on land — are being degraded and
people displaced. The loss of biodiversity continues as a result of habitat
destruction in species-rich places.
● Consistent declines in the overall amount of ozone in the Earth's stratosphere
(often referred to as the ozone hole) pose a serious threat to ecosystems and
human health.
● Globally, coastal pollution is also increasing. While the open sea remains
relatively clean, coastal waterways are becoming progressively contaminated,
primarily as a result of land-based activities. If left unchecked, the intensive
human settlement of coastal zones worldwide will result in continued
deterioration of the marine environment's quality.
● If various governments take action to halt the aforementioned environmental
damage, these issues will have political ramifications. The majority of them are
so complex that no single government can adequately solve them.
● As a result, they must integrate themselves into 'global politics.' Environmental
and natural resource issues are, in a broader sense, political.
● Who is responsible for environmental degradation?
● Who bears the cost? And who is ultimately accountable for corrective action?
● Who gets to use how much of the Earth's natural resources?
● All of these issues raise the question of who possesses the most power. As such,
they are profoundly political issues.
● Although environmental issues have a long history, from the 1960s onward,
knowledge of the environmental repercussions of economic growth took on an
increasingly political dimension.
Earth Summit
● In 1972, the Club of Rome, a global think tank, produced a book titled Limits to
Growth, which highlighted the probable depletion of Earth's resources in the face
of a fast-rising global population.
● Worldwide organisations, such as the United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP), began convening international conferences and sponsoring in-depth
studies in order to achieve a more coordinated and effective response to
environmental concerns.
● Since then, the environment has risen to prominence as a major issue in world
politics.
● The growing importance of environmental issues in global politics was firmly
established at the United Nations Conference on the Environment and
Development in June 1992 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil which is also known as the
Earth Summit.
● The conference drew 170 states, thousands of non-governmental organisations,
and numerous international enterprises.
● Five years earlier, the 1987 Brundtland Report, Our Common Future, warned that
old economic growth patterns were unsustainable in the long run, particularly in
light of the South's desires for additional industrial development.
● At the Rio Summit, it was clear that the established and wealthy countries of the
First World, collectively referred to as the 'global North,' had a different
environmental agenda than the impoverished and developing countries of the
Third World, collectively referred to as the 'global South.'
● Unlike the Northern states, which were concerned about ozone depletion and
global warming, the Southern states were concerned about the relationship
between economic development and environmental management.
●
● The Rio Summit resulted in the adoption of treaties on climate change,
biodiversity, and forestry, as well as the recommendation of a list of development
principles dubbed 'Agenda 21'.
● However, it left significant disagreements and challenges unaddressed. There
was agreement on the importance of balancing economic expansion with
environmental stewardship.
● This method of growth is frequently referred to as sustainable development.'
● However, the issue was how this was to be accomplished. Certain critics have
argued that Agenda 21 was skewed toward economic growth rather than
ecological preservation.
Protection of the Global Commons
What are 'Global Commons'?
● The term 'commons' refers to community-owned resources rather than privately
held ones. Similarly, some parts of the world are not under the sovereign
jurisdiction of any single country and hence require international community
control.
● Humanitas res communis, or global commons, is the term used to describe these
areas. Examples include the earth's atmosphere, Antarctica (see Box), the ocean
floor, and outer space.
● It is difficult to work together on global commons challenges. The 1959 Antarctic
Treaty, the 1987 Montreal Protocol, and the 1991 Antarctic Environmental
Protocol are just a few of the ground-breaking agreements that have been
drafted.
● The challenge of obtaining consensus on shared environmental agendas based
on imprecise scientific facts and time frames is a key issue that underpins all
ecological issues.
● In this way, the discovery of the Antarctic ozone hole in the mid-1980s revealed
both the benefits and risks of dealing with global environmental issues.
● Similarly, the history of outer space as a global commons illustrates that
disparities in the management of these domains have a significant impact.
● The primary focus here, as with the earth's atmosphere and ocean floor, is
technical advancement and industrial development. This is crucial since the
benefits of exploitative space operations for current and future generations are
far from equal.
● Responsibilities are shared but differentiated.
● There is a difference in how countries in the north and south tackle
environmental issues.
● The affluent countries of the North want to address the current situation of the
environment and want everyone to share equally in the responsibility for
ecological conservation.
● The developing countries of the South feel that wealthier countries' industrial
progress is to blame for a major percentage of the world's environmental
degradation.
● They must face a higher share of the burden of reversing the harm today if they
have contributed to greater degradation.
● Furthermore, developing countries are becoming more industrialised and should
not be subjected to the same restrictions as developed countries.
● As a result, in the creation, application, and interpretation of international
environmental law laws, the special needs of developing nations must be taken
into account.
● The concept of shared but differentiated responsibilities was supported in the Rio
Declaration at the 1992 Earth Summit.
● "States shall engage in the spirit of global partnership to conserve, protect, and
restore the Earth's ecosystem's health and integrity," according to the relevant
portion of the Rio Declaration.
● In light of the many contributors to global environmental deterioration, states
have common but distinct responsibilities.
● Given the stresses their societies exert on the global environment and the
technological and financial resources at their disposal, the industrialised
countries recognise their responsibility in the international pursuit of sustainable
development."
● Furthermore, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
(UNFCCC) of 1992 specifies that parties should act "on an equitable basis and in
accordance with their shared but distinct responsibilities and various capabilities"
to maintain the climate system.
● Industrialised countries accounted for the lion's share of historical and current
global greenhouse gas emissions, according to the parties to the Convention.
● Furthermore, it was acknowledged that emerging countries' per capita emissions
remain low. As a result, the Kyoto Protocol's stipulations were waived for China,
India, and other emerging countries.
What is the Kyoto Protocol?
● The Kyoto Protocol is an international agreement that sets greenhouse gas
emission reduction targets for developed countries. Certain gases, such as
carbon dioxide, methane, and hydrofluorocarbons, are thought to be at least
largely responsible for global warming, a rise in global temperature that threatens
life on Earth.
● On the basis of the UNFCCC's principles, the protocol was adopted in 1997 in
Kyoto, Japan.
Common Property Resources
● The common property of the group is represented by a common property. In
terms of the nature, levels of use, and upkeep of a given resource, the underlying
norm is that group members have both rights and obligations.
● Many Indian village communities, for example, have defined their members'
rights and responsibilities over centuries of practice and mutual understanding.
● Due to a combination of factors such as privatisation, agricultural intensification,
population growth, and ecosystem degradation, the common property has shrunk
in size, quality, and availability in many parts of the world
● A common property regime is an apt description of the institutional arrangement
for managing sacred groves on state-owned forest land.
● Village communities along South India's forest belt have traditionally managed
sacred groves.
● India's Position on Environmental Issues
Kyoto Protocol and India
● India signed and ratified the Kyoto Protocol in 1997 in August 2002. India, China,
and other developing countries were exempt from the Kyoto Protocol's
requirements because their contribution to greenhouse gas emissions during the
industrialisation period (which is thought to be the cause of today's global
warming and climate change) was minimal.
● On the other hand, opponents of the Kyoto Protocol argue that India and China,
as well as other developing countries, will eventually become major contributors
to greenhouse gas emissions.
● At the G-8 meeting in June 2005, India pointed out that developing countries' per
capita emission rates are a fraction of those in developed countries. India
believes that developed countries, which have accumulated emissions over a
long period of time, bear primary responsibility for reducing emissions, based on
the principle of shared but differentiated responsibility.
● India's international negotiating stance is heavily based on the UNFCCC's
historical responsibility principles.
● This acknowledges that developed countries are responsible for the majority of
historical and current greenhouse gas emissions while also emphasising that "the
developing country parties' first and overriding priorities are economic and social
development."
● As a result, India is wary of recent UNFCCC discussions about requiring rapidly
industrialising countries (like Brazil, China, and India) to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions.
● This, India believes, goes against the UNFCCC's spirit.
● It also doesn't seem fair to impose restrictions on India when its per capita
carbon emissions are expected to increase by less than half of the global
average of 3.8 tonnes in 2030.
● India's emissions are expected to rise from 0.9 tonnes per capita in 2000 to 1.6
tonnes per capita in 2030. The Indian government is already contributing to
global efforts through a number of programmes. Cleaner fuels are required for
vehicles in India's National Auto-fuel Policy, for example.
● The Energy Conservation Act of 2001 outlines strategies for improving energy
efficiency.
● For example, the Electricity Act of 2003 encourages the use of renewable
energy. In recent years, India has made significant efforts, such as importing
natural gas and encouraging the use of clean coal technologies.
● The government plans to launch a National Mission on Biodiesel in 2011–2012,
which will entail the use of approximately 11 million hectares of land to produce
biodiesel. India also has one of the most extensive renewable energy
programmes in the world.
● In 1997, India conducted a review of the implementation of the Rio Earth Summit
agreements. One of the key findings was that no significant progress had been
made in terms of transferring new and additional financial resources, as well as
environmentally sound technology, to developing countries on favourable terms.
● In order for developing countries to meet their UNFCCC commitments, India
believes that developed countries must take immediate steps to provide financial
resources and clean technologies.
● India also believes that SAARC countries should take a united stance on major
global environmental issues in order for the region's voice to be heard more
clearly.
Is there a single environmental movement or several?
● Governments have reacted to the threat of global environmental degradation until
now. However, rather than governments, some of the most significant responses
to this challenge have come from groups of environmentally conscious
volunteers working in different parts of the world.
● Some work on a global scale, but the vast majority work on a local level.
Environmental movements are among the most active, diverse, and powerful
social movements in the world today.
● Within social movements, new forms of political action emerge or are reinvented.
These movements generate new ideas and long-term perspectives on what we
should and shouldn't do in our individual and collective lives.
● Here are a few examples of how today's environmental movements are
characterised by diversity. Forest movements in the southern hemisphere, such
as those in Mexico, Chile, Brazil, Malaysia, Indonesia, continental Africa, and
India (to name a few), are under severe stress.
● Forest clearance in the Third World continues at an alarming rate, despite three
decades of environmental activism. The destruction of the world's last great
forests has increased in the last decade.
● The minerals industry is one of the most powerful forms of industry on the planet.
A large number of economies in the South are now reopening to MNCs as a
result of global economic liberalisation.
● The mineral industry's extraction of earth, use of chemicals, pollution of
waterways and land, clearance of native vegetation, and displacement of
communities, among other factors, continue to be criticised and opposed around
the world.
● A vast network of groups and organisations in the Philippines, for example,
waged a campaign against the Western Mining Corporation (WMC), an
Australian multinational corporation.
● Anti-nuclear sentiments and advocacy for Australian indigenous peoples' basic
rights are driving much of the opposition to the company in Australia.
● The anti-mega-dam movement is another group of people fighting mega-dams.
Every country where a mega-dam is being built is likely to face opposition from
environmental groups.
● Anti-dam movements are increasingly being replaced by pro-river movements for
more sustainable and equitable management of river systems and valleys.
● The first anti-dam movement in the North was the campaign to save the Franklin
River and its surrounding forests in Australia, which began in the early 1980s.
This was an anti-dam campaign as well as a campaign for wilderness and
forests.
● From Turkey to Thailand to South Africa, and from Indonesia to China,
mega-dam construction is on the rise.
● Some of the most powerful anti-dam and pro-river movements in the world have
originated in India.
● The Narmada Bachao Andolan is one of the most well-known of these
movements. It's worth noting that in India's anti-dam and other environmental
movements, nonviolence is the most common theme.
Resource Geopolitics
● In resource geopolitics, it's all about who gets what, when, where, and how.
Resources have been a significant means and motivation for European power
expansion on a global scale.
● They have also been the focus of inter-state rivalry. Trade, war, and power have
dominated Western geopolitical thinking about resources, with an emphasis on
overseas resources and maritime navigation.
● Naval timber supply became a top priority for major European powers in the 17th
century, as sea power itself was based on access to timber. The critical
importance of ensuring an uninterrupted supply of strategic resources,
particularly oil, was well established during both World Wars.
● Throughout the Cold War, the industrialised countries of the North employed a
variety of strategies to ensure a constant flow of resources.
● Military forces were stationed near extraction sites and along communication
corridors, strategic resources were accumulated, efforts were made to prop up
friendly governments in producing countries, and multinational corporations
benefited from favourable international agreements.
● Western strategic thinking in the traditional sense was still preoccupied with
access to supplies, which the Soviet Union could threaten.
● Western control of the Gulf of Mexico's oil and strategic minerals in Southern and
Central Africa were major concerns.
● After the Cold War ended and the Soviet Union disintegrated, the security of
supply for a variety of minerals, particularly radioactive materials, has remained a
concern for government and business decisions.
● On the other hand, oil continues to be the most critical resource in global
strategy.
● For the majority of the twentieth century, oil was a readily available and
indispensable source of energy for the global economy.
● Due to the immense wealth associated with oil, political conflicts over its control
abound, and the history of petroleum is also a history of war and struggle.
● This is more evident in West and Central Asia than anywhere else on Earth.
Around 30% of the world's oil production is produced in West Asia, specifically
the Gulf region.
● It controls approximately 64% of known global reserves, making it the only region
capable of meeting any significant increase in oil demand. Saudi Arabia is the
world's largest producer, accounting for nearly a quarter of global reserves.
● Iraq is second only to Saudi Arabia in terms of known reserves. Additionally,
because large swaths of Iraqi territory remain unexplored, actual reserves may
be much larger.
● The United States, Europe, Japan, and, increasingly, India and China are located
far from the region's petroleum-consuming countries.
● Water is another critical resource that is relevant to global politics. Regional
disparities and the increasing scarcity of fresh water in some parts of the world
indicate that disagreements over shared water resources could become a major
source of conflict in the twenty-first century.
● The term "water wars" was coined by some world political commentators to
describe the possibility of violent conflict over this life-sustaining resource.
● Countries that share a river can disagree on a variety of issues. A typical
disagreement is between a downstream (lower riparian) state and an upstream
(upper riparian) state over pollution, excessive irrigation, or the construction of
dams by the upstream state, which may reduce or degrade the quality of water
available to the downstream state.
● States have used force to protect or seize freshwater resources. Two examples
are the 1950s and 1960s conflict between Israel, Syria, and Jordan over each
side's attempts to divert water from the Jordan and Yarmuk rivers, as well as
more recent threats between Turkey, Syria, and Iraq over the construction of
dams on the Euphrates River.
● Numerous studies have discovered that countries that share rivers — and there
are a large number of them — engage in military conflicts with one another.
Indigenous Peoples and their Rights
● The issue of indigenous peoples combines environmental, resource, and political
concerns. Indigenous populations, according to the United Nations, are
descendants of peoples who lived in a country's current territory at the time when
people of a different culture or ethnic origin arrived from other parts of the world
and overcame them.
● Indigenous peoples today follow their own social, economic, and cultural customs
and traditions more than the institutions of the country to which they have now
become a part.
What are the common interests of the world's estimated 30 million
indigenous peoples, including those in India?
● There are 20 lakh indigenous people in the Philippines' Cordillera region, ten lakh
Mapuche in Chile, six lakh tribal people in Bangladesh's Chittagong Hill Tracts,
35 lakh North Americans, 50,000 Kuna east of the Panama Canal, and ten lakh
Small Peoples in the Soviet North.
● Indigenous people, like other social movements, talk about their struggles,
agendas, and rights.
● Indigenous peoples should be admitted to the world community as equals,
according to indigenous voices in world politics. Indigenous peoples live in
Central and South America, Africa, India (where they are referred to as Tribals),
and Southeast Asia.
● Over thousands of years, the Polynesian, Melanesian, and Micronesian peoples
inhabited many of the present-day island states in the Oceania region (including
Australia and New Zealand).
● They are pleading with governments to accept indigenous nations' continued
existence as enduring communities with distinct identities. Indigenous peoples all
over the world use the phrase "since time immemorial" to describe their
continued occupation of the lands from which they came.
● Indigenous societies' worldviews on land and the variety of life systems
supported by it are strikingly similar, regardless of their geographical location.
The most obvious threat to indigenous people's survival is the loss of land, which
also means the loss of an economic resource base.
● Is it possible to have political autonomy without being bound by the means of
physical survival?
● The Scheduled Tribes, who make up nearly 8% of India's population, are
commonly referred to as "indigenous people."
● With the exception of a few small groups of hunters and gatherers, the majority of
India's indigenous peoples rely on land cultivation for their survival.
● They had free access to as much land as they could cultivate for centuries, if not
millennia. Areas that had previously been inhabited by Scheduled Tribe
communities were only subjected to outside forces after the establishment of
British colonial rule.
● Despite having constitutional protection in political representation, they have not
reaped any of the benefits of the country's development.
● They have, in fact, paid a high price for development, as they are the single
largest group of people displaced by various development projects since
independence.
● For a long time, issues concerning indigenous peoples' rights have been ignored
in domestic and international politics. Growing international contacts among
indigenous leaders from around the world in the 1970s sparked a sense of
shared concern and experiences.
● In 1975, the World Council of Indigenous Peoples was established. The Council
went on to become the first of 11 indigenous NGOs to be granted UN
consultative status.