CSE experts answer the questions raised during the webinar

Q: Rejuvenation of rivers also means new kind of adjustment, particularly in riparian tracts. How do we cope with excess run-off and flood waters?

Ans: Already the floods have begun in different parts of India. It really is an important question in terms of excess run-off and flood water. It's because we have not planned for floods adequately. Till now we have done flood management by trying to manage our rivers so that we can actually channelize our rivers.

We have to understand that the nature is more powerful than human beings and that we can't be so arrogant to think that we can actually bend rivers, the way we want it. And that really is happening. The floods have actually been exacerbated because of the impact embankment strategy that we have followed.

So, we need to do much more work on water conservation. If you do water conservation, you will find that you are able to channelize the flood waters so that it is spread across and then every drop of rain is harvested. And the river is harvested and that recharges the groundwater and that builds another viable economy using groundwater for farmers. And that's the whole traditional knowledge of water management. You can read Dying Wisdom for more information on traditional water harvesting systems.

Fourth Citizens' Report [SOE-4]: Dying Wisdom 
Dying Wisdom: Rise, Fall and Potential of India's Traditional Water Harvesting System provides a comprehensive overview of India's millennia-old traditions of water harvesting. This book triggered a nationwide interest in community-based water management.
https://csestore.cse.org.in/soe4-662.html

hide 

Q: Earthquakes are not considered as a climate change outcome. Do you think the increased frequency of earthquake in Delhi-NCR in year 2020 is linked or not linked to climate change?

Ans: I don't think you can link earthquakes to climate change.  Earthquakes are about seismic activity. Earthquakes are really about how we built and where we built. Nature is enormously more powerful than mankind’s beliefs and science.

What is very clear now is that we do have the ability to be able to make sure that people don't die when the next earthquake happens. And that's really about making sure that we are building properly, we don't build houses in an earthquake prone area and that’s where the use of science should be.  We should be able to build earthquake resistant homes. Because it's the buildings that kill, not the earthquake. The science of construction is very important. There are links to ground water withdrawal and dam building, in turn leading to earthquakes. Hence, we really need to plan ahead.

Recommended reading: Rains apart, blame the dams for Maharashtra, Karnataka floods: Report

hide 

Q: Locust swarms’ is the latest example of climate change, now the Government has no alternative than to spray WHO class II pesticides to control them. How do you see this as polluting the environment further for control of CC effects?

Ans: There is clearly a link between climate change and increasing cyclones which in turn is leading to unseasonal rainfall which in turn is leading to locust infestation. It's a very confounding world, where somebody like me who has fought against pesticides all my life.

I will tell you that when it comes to locusts (going by the available information that we have been able to gather) - at the scale of the infestation that we have today, where you have been getting zillions of these creatures literally going to destroy massive number of fields and livelihood, the government has no alternative but to spray pesticides. But it has to be done in a controlled manner with the best use of science not just indiscriminately. Yes, it will pollute the environment but this is the tough choice we have. We should be using our best ways to use pesticides.

Recommended reading: Locust attack: Excessive pesticide use will take its toll on Thar ecology

hide 

Q: How far can sustainable and human food production/ procurement and consumption help in preventing zoonotic diseases?

Ans: The entire issue of COVID-19 has brought biodiversity on to our plates. It is brought us into our kitchens. It is brought us into our homes. We must make this connection. UN has come up with a report which says how 75 per cent of the disease load in the world are zoonotic-related. It is really about our relationship with nature and with livestock. And this is where we have to become much more careful. We have to talk about what we will do in terms of food, how we will grow our food because it's really about the industrial food production systems that we have.

CSE is not against meat because we also understand the value of meat in terms of protein, in the life of a farmer, in different lifestyles and cultures. We are not saying meat is bad but the way we grow is definitely bad. The amount of meat we eat is definitely bad. We are destroying rainforests today; we are destroying forests today to grow our meat. Massive amount of Amazon is being cleared today. So where will all these viruses go, if not into humans? We need to understand the role and value of forests like Amazon.

hide 

Q: Can we expect winter with purified air with good AQI in the coming season?

Ans: Yes, we can definitely have it. The fact is that we have got clean air for the first time in our world. We managed to see blue skies. We have seen and heard birds singing. We understand the value of clean air. We treasure it today, so can we make sure that your combined interest in clean air pushes so that we can maintain the clean air, post COVID-19? It is possible. It means we will have to reduce the number of cars on the roads. And the irony is that COVID-19 is pushing us out of public transport into private transport. All over the world cities are saying what about the cycles. Instead of cars, why can't we talk about cycles as public private transport? Why can't we have e-bikes all over our city? Why can't we think about providing gas to industries so that we can clean up production in industries? Why can't we scrap our old commercial vehicles so that industry and air get a stimulus again? So, we can do it. It requires all of us to talk about it and to push it.

Recommended reading: World Environment Day: Our agenda for clean air by Sunita Narain

hide 

Q: What future do you see for Punjab farmers, who are baffled with the labour shortage post COVID-19 and on top of it, the three ordinances in the name of marketing reforms?

Ans: Punjab farmers are facing with labour shortages and they are also understanding the value of labour and they will understand how they will have to do things differently.  As far as the marketing reforms of government is concerned, I think we have to talk about this in the future far more seriously.

Recommended reading: Why Punjab stands to lose from farmers’ produce trade and commerce ordinance

hide 

Q: After this pandemic, from the environmental point of view, what will happen to waste generation and pollution, etc?

Ans: The disease undoes so many years of work where we have fought against single use plastics. But this is where the opportunity is. That how do we do segregation? How do we make sure that biomedical waste gets managed and treated? How do we make sure that this waste is a resource and that the value has been given to the recycler who actually manage this waste? This are the questions that should be front up, in front of us. 

hide 

Q: Do you see a strong connection of China's development programs at the cost of Environment as one of the main reasons for the spread of virus, instead of focusing on this, are we focusing for the mitigation of this disaster at the wrong end?

Ans: It's an interconnected world, so what China does internally does affect us. The virus come from China because of their relationship with nature. They were eating wild animals - that’s at least the most commonly-held theory as of now. Nobody quite knows which animal it was? But the problem is that what China does in China has impacted the world because of the interconnected nature of the world.  

The second issue is the wider issue that it's not about the China - it’s about the globalisation and China has, of course, thrived on that model of globalisation. In 1992, when the world came up with WTO, when the world discussed GAT, came up with free trade in the arrangement in which you open up the whole market and you would therefore shift production to where it was cheaper to produced.

The developed world would benefit also because production would be cheap, consumption would increase, services would increase. The first world has benefited from globalisation as much as China. But the fact is that that globalisation model is built on discounting the cost of labour and environment. As we are keen to bring Chinese model to India, we must remember how this global model is, Should India do the same? Should we also have huge industrialisation without worrying about the cost of environment? 

Recommended reading: Spread of Corona is a result of Globalization

hide 

Q: What are the key policy and programme level actions required to ensure sustainability of a greener and cleaner environment, specially post COVID-19?

Ans: Regarding environmental policy, the question is that what will be the environmental policy of India in the context of globalisation? When we want to compete with the rest of the world, we also want to discount the cost of environment. That is why we will also dilute our laws. We would not want opposition from local people. It's not China, it's the model that has succeeded because it could be authoritarian and undemocratic model which shut out the voices of local people. It is in that context that we need to talk about both China and dilution of environmental safeguards in India.

hide 

Q: Environmental education has been reduced to ritual. How do we make it effective?

Ans: Yes, it has. And that's why CSE’s Green Educators Network is important. Our effort is taking this ritual of the education and make it something that students get benefit from. That's why we have done two Readers:  Environment Education Reader and Climate Change Reader. We are working on a third reader specifically along the UGC course curriculum.

We need to make sure that environmental course (EVS) does not lose its relevance. It's the unique opportunity given by Supreme Court to instil some interest for environment in the young minds. I am not expecting them to become experts but the environmental course we have, is the great opportunity to excite students to make the linkages between different subjects that are there, because environment is an multi-disciplinary subject. It's about making the issues live, making them interested in the real world outside - that's where our effort is, as a network. We have tried to make linkages in the subjects you are teaching with some of the activities that you can do. So please take a look at the Readers we have done and you can then adapt according to the local areas.

To Join our Green Educators’ Network, click here

hide 

Q: What will be the new normal of Research in environment education?

Ans: Universities are teaching through online mode but the fact is whether that is sustainable at all? Whether that's going to bring in equity to society, because many people do not have ability to go online? Whether that mean that students will lose the ability to socialize, to understand community issues?

I am hoping that this will be temporary. The new normal will not mean that the campuses will become remote access. Because then we will lose the education. Education is not about books, it's about building people's character, it's about making them socialize, making them understand their role in society and for that, a group is important and any technology can’t replace this.

Recommended reading:  Without pens, pencils and copies, how will we study?

hide 

Q: Please comment on getting the livelihoods to normalcy. Any possible solution for livelihoods?

Ans: Most important thing is the livelihood of the poor, of the vulnerable and of the people connected to the land. Rebuilding the water system, local market and local production are the livelihoods we need to invest in, and that’s where the options of the future will be.

hide 

Q: What can we do after knowing all the situations of Environment due to pandemic at own level?

Ans: At our own level, our foremost job is to communicate the knowledge. As an educator in society, I see your role as taking the knowledge out, sharing my concerns with people, sharing my hope with people, giving them a sense of direction and direct them what we can do next. While you take your classes, even if there are few students who take the learning forward, then the effect is multiplied.

Please see the video recording of the Webinar for the complete session.

hide