Dr.
S. Ganesan
Regional
Director, IGNOU
Environment is every body’s
business. It has been observed that many individuals, who have the benefit of
education and are actively engaged in their professionals are often have strong
desire to educate themselves on environmental matters. They also want to play a
significant role in environmental management. To facilitate them, a number of
courses on environment are offered through regular university system and Open and
Distance Learning System. For example IGNOU provides following environment
education programmes:
Certificate
in Environmental Studies:
The programme is of use to general public, at
every age and at all levels of formal and non-formal education. Professionals,
ecologists, hydrologists, foresters, landscape architects, administrators and
planners, engineers, industrialists, agriculturists, etc. will find this
programme useful. The NGOs with their dissemination capabilities shall also
find it useful.
Appreciation
Course on Environment:
Environment is everybody’s
business. It has been observed that many individuals, who have the benefit of
education and are actively engaged in their professions, often have strong
desire to educate themselves one environmental matter. They also want to play a
significant role in environmental management of their neighborhood. Sometimes,
due to misinformation or availability of excessive information on a subject,
these individuals despite their enlightened background, are not in a position
to appreciate significant environmental issues. They are also sometimes misled
by adverse propaganda. Owing to these reasons, the Appreciation course on
Environment has been developed by the university in collaboration with Ministry
of Environment and Forests, Govt. of India, as a non-credit awareness course.
Post
Graduate Diploma in Environmental and Occupational Health
The Post Graduate Diploma in
Environmental and Occupational Health (PGDEOH) focuses on assessing the public
health risks associated with biological, chemical, physical, biomechanical and
psychosocial hazards in natural and built environments. Environmental health
specialists focus on the effect of environmental pollution on the health of
human beings. The human health is a reflection of socio-economic and physical
environment. The main link between the workplace and the general environment is
that the source of the hazard is usually the same, whether it is an agriculture
activity or an industrial activity. The programme aims at various concepts
related to general environment, environment at the work place, related hazards
and evaluation of health risk assessment by providing solutions to various
aspects of environmental health occupational hazard management, epidemiology,
health policy and management, and environmental health promotion. The
successful learners will be able to work with health practitioners, researchers
and policy makers to develop, evaluate and monitor health policies, programmes
and practices related to health environments.
Post
Graduate Diploma in Environment and Sustainable Development
Post Graduate Diploma in
Environment and Sustainable Development has been developed by the School of
Science, IGNOU in collaboration with the South Asia Foundation Learning
Initiative and other Open Universities of the SAARC region, namely, Open
University of Sri Lanka, Bangladesh Open University, Allama Iqbal Open
University, Pakistan, B.R. Ambedkar Open university, Hyderabad and BRAC
University, Bangladesh.
The objectives of environment education are:
·
Create
environmental consciousness among professionals, academicians and other members
of society who can play an active part in opinion making within the society so
that corrective environmental action could be encouraged;
·
Facilitate
development of environmental leadership among individuals who may
organize/participate in environment upgradation programmes.
·
Disseminate
information and exchange knowledge and experiences gained in the pursuit of the
goal of sustainable development.
·
Strengthen
regional co-operation in environmental capacity building especially in the area
of environmental management.
·
Educate
and train individuals from different walks of life, viz, development functionaries,
government, officials, journalists, policy makers, farmers, industries,
grassroots workers, environmentalists who have a stake in protecting the
environment as well as ensuring a better quality of life for the people of
their countries.
·
Disseminate
information on national and international
environmental issues;
Target populations for
Environmental Education are:
·
Development
functionaries
·
Government
officials
·
Journalists
·
Policy
makers
·
Farmers/agriculturists
·
Industrialists
·
Grassroots
workers
·
Environmentalists
·
Ecologists
·
Hydrologists
·
Foresters
·
Landscape
architects
·
Administrators
and Planners
·
Engineers
We live on earth in different types
of surroundings. This surrounding is our environment. We eat, breathe, clothe
ourselves, reproduce and then die. The next generation comes and the cycle goes
on; and the human race flourishes one earth. The physical environment on the
earth provides favorable conditions for the existence and growth of different
life forms, including man. These living beings constitute the biological
environment. Both the physical and biological environments are in a close
interaction with each other and form a stable self perpetuating system. In
prehistoric days man lived in harmony with nature; but in the course of his
evolution, man has developed a new type of environment, the man made
environment. Man is a social animal; the socio-cultural environment also plays
an important role in his life.
Each and every living organism
has specific surroundings or medium with which it continuously interacts and to
which it is fully adapted. This surrounding is the ‘natural environment’. The
word ‘natural environment’ brings to mind broad aspects of landscape such as
soil, water, desert or mountains which can be more exactly described in terms
of physical influences such as differences in moisture. Temperature, textures
of soil and biological influences. Thus, environment is the sum total of living
and non -living components; influences and events surrounding an organism.
Living components are called ‘biotic’ components while non-living are called ‘abiotic’
components.
No organism can live alone
without interacting with other organisms so each has other organisms as a
necessary part of its environment. We know that all animals are directly or
indirectly dependent upon green plants. However, plants also depend on animals
for a few things such as pollination of flowers and dispersal of seeds or
fruits.
Insufficient
Public Awareness and its reasons
Public awareness can play a
vital role in environmental management. Damage to environment is caused by the
activities of individuals who are not conscious and who do not have adequate
knowledge of the environment. For example, when we cut forests on a large scale
to get timber and fuel wood or clear land for agriculture, we damage the
environment. Similarly, when we through liquid or solid wastes into ponds,
rivers, lakes or oceans. We damage the aquatic environment. When pollutants in
large quantities are allowed to enter the atmosphere, it leads to air
pollution. We learnt that unscientific agricultural practices and unplanned
industrial processes and even grazing of pastures can damage the environment.
There is no doubt that agriculture is essential, grazing of animals is
unavoidable, forests have to be harvested for their produce, industries and
thermal power plants have to be set up, dams have to be built and automobiles
have to run for transporting people and goods. We cannot do away with these.
However, we can certainly do these things in a scientific and planned manner so
that the balance of the ecosystem does not get disturbed. Every natural system
has a limited capacity to absorb shocks. If these shocks exceed the limit,
repair becomes difficult.
For example, if we harvest mature trees from a
forest and leave the young one’s to grow, the forest will continue to grow and
provide timber and fuel continuously. Similarly, if a water body receives
biodegradable wastes in a controlled way, which means that it does not contain
toxic chemicals, the water body can take care of the wastes without undergoing
drastic changes. However, if the same water body is used for dumping all kinds
of wastes in unlimited quantities, the water body will become polluted,
resulting in damage and death of the aquatic life in it. If the pastures are
used for grazing of animals in a scientific manner, the pasture can remain
useful indefinitely. However, if the pasture is overgrazed, greenery will soon
vanish. Wind and water erosion will take away the fertile soil and the area
will be rendered barren.
Thus we can use our natural
resources and environment in two possible ways. The one, where the environment
is not endangered and we get the benefits indefinitely. The other alternative
is to use the resources and environment, in an unscrupulous manner. In the
latter case, we may get more benefits for some time, no doubt, but in the long
run we will be the losers. Obviously, every wise person would like to go for
the first alternative. However, many a time people adopt the second alternative
due to ignorance and lack of information. For example, if a herdsman is told of
the consequences of overgrazing, he would never like to go for it. Similarly,
if a person living in a forest is explained about the ill-effects of
over-exploitation of forests, he would like to desist from it. Therefore, the
important point is to make people aware of these things. Hence, environmental
awareness becomes imperative.
(The author is Regional
Director of IGNOU, Regional Centre, Port Blair and can be reached at rcportblair@ignou.ac.in (M-8900936718)
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