Political Science (a) & Environmental Studies (b)
(comparison at glance)
(a)Deals with power relations in society
(b)Deals with Environment in its various forms, including man
(a)Policy aspects of governance
(b)Represents life system
(a)As a subject, it shows mandatory steps for the conservation of environment
(b)Depends on legal system for conservation
(a)Extends constitutional means for the conservation of environment
(b)Holistic in nature and all inclusive in approach
(a)It represents constitutional means for the protection and conservation
(b)Mostly voluntary in nature.
(a)Structural and institutional legal framework
(b) Environmental studies seem to deal with multiple phenomenon of nature
(a)Constitutionalism in many ways
(b)Deep or shallow ecology paradigm
(a)Legal support to environmental problems
(b)Need Political support to sustain and for growth
(a)It provides legal norms, rules, punishment for violators of environmental laws
(b)Mostly voluntary and non-reciprocity
(a)The subject matter of Political science is related to power and power relations in society
(a)The subject matter of environmental studies is related to environment in its manifested forms.
(a)Narrow
(a)Broad
(a)May be confined its area of study, in certain cases within the legal framework of nation-state
(b)Trans-boundary regime. Environment has no limits set my man.
Industrialisation and Environment:
Industrialisation is a process where large-scale replacement of man with machine happened in an unprecedented manner. It was a transformation of the world at large. Due to industrialisation, the primitive agriculture economy invariably transformed to industrial economy. In the words of Jim Chappelow ‘Individual manual labour was replaced by mechanised mass production, and craftsmen were replaced by assembly lines.’
Industrial revolution started in the late 1800s in Britain with the invention of steam engine. In consequent with this event, mass production of basic and commercial goods were happened. Along with changes in manufacturing sector, there were seen tremendous expansion in transportation, finance and communication industries. Industrialisation made the world prone to ‘productive forces’ subsequently led to great depressions, emergence of socialist economy, accumulation of wealth by the world’s richest few, monopolisation of market etc.
The Industrial Revolution and Population Growth:
Industrial revolution had an impact on science and technology and research and development. Health sector had been revamped with the invention of new medicines that could manage mortality rate at arrest. Thus, the most prolific evidence of the Industrial Revolution is seen in the worldwide growth of human population. The world’s human population growth rate floated around .1 percent (.001) per year for seven to eight centuries after 1 C.E. At the dawn of the Industrial Revolution in the mid-1700s, this population had grown by about 57 percent to 700 million. It would reach one billion in 1800. During the 20th century, world population growth would take on exponential proportions, growing to six billion people just before the start of the 21stcentury. That’s a 400 percent population increase in a single century. In the 250 years since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution to today, the world’s population has increased by over six billion people! World Population Day is observed worldwide each year on July 11. It was inspired by the day of five billion which was observed on July 11, 1987 and was made official in 1989 by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).
Human population growth is connected with simultaneous changes in land use, use of natural and synthetic resources, generation of energy, the use of water bodies and atmosphere etc. Pollution- air, water, surface, soil-in many forms become a feature of the day. This exponential population growth led to the exponential requirements for resources, energy, food, housing and land, as well as the exponential increase in waste by-products. Rachel Carson, above, is widely credited with launching the modern environmental movement. Her acclaimed book, Silent Spring, described the harmful effects of pesticides and other human activity on the environment. In 2006, Silent Spring was named one of the 25 greatest science books of all time by Discover Magazine.
The Fossil Fuel Economy:
It was a fossil fuel initiated industrial revolution that changed the conventional mode of production drastically. ‘While this propelled human progress to extraordinary levels, it came at extraordinary costs to our environment, and ultimately to the health of all living things’.American geophysicist M.King Hubbert predicted that fossil fuel production, in particular oil, would reach its peak (Hubbert’s Peak) starting in 1970 and would go into steady decline against the rising energy demands of the population.
Major impacts of Industrialisation are:
Global Warming; which likely leads to
i. Rising Sea Levels
ii. Rise in the Earth’s Temperature
iii. Risk of species extinction
iv. Growing presence of tsunamis, typhoons, floods and other natural disasters.
v. Melting ice caps and increase in sea level
vi.Epidemics of various kinds likely to spread
Pollution
Industry is a major source of pollution. Different sources of pollution are there like burning coal, fossil fuels like oil, natural gas and petroleum. Chemical solvents used in industries, untreated gas and liquid waste being released into the environment and irresponsible disposal of radioactive materials etc.; all lead to environmental pollution. Important causes of industrial pollution can be listed as
Lack of political will to legislate on prevention of pollution. Lack of planned industrial development; pre and post studies related to environmental impact assessment, lack of surveillance on possible pollution due to industrial discharge Use of obsolete technology which leads to pollution. To avoid huge investment in Research and Development, Companies may retain and resort to traditional methods to produce high end products Unscrupulous extraction of natural resources eventually leads soil degradation, defacing of topography, environmental disaster etc. Water Pollution, Soil Pollution, Air Pollution,Wildlife Extinction, Global Warming, Bio-diversity loss, Atmospheric Deposition, etc. are the major impact of industrialisation.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi.
|