HS 200: Environmental Studies

SOCIAL ISSUES AND THE ENVIRONMENT

Raile R. Ziipao, Ph.D

Assistant Professor of Sociology
Department of Humanities and Social Sciences
Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay
ziipao@hss.iitb.ac.in

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Essential Readings
➢ Risks and Reflexivity (Anthony Giddens, Scott Lash,
Ulrich Beck).
➢ Environmentalism of the poor (Ramachandra Guha and
Joan Martinez-Alier).
➢ Ecofeminism (Vandana Shiva).
➢ Ecology and Equity (Madhav Gadgil and Ramachandra
Guha).
➢ Sustainable development: Mapping different approaches
(Bill Hopwood, Mary Mellor and Geof O’Brien).

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 “The Earth Does Not Belong to Human
Beings: Human Beings Belong to the Earth”
Chief Seattle's Message

“The world grows smaller and smaller, more and more interdependent…today more than ever
before life must be characterised by a sense of Universal Responsibility, not only nation to
nation and human to human, but also human to other forms of life.”
His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama 3
 What does a social science perspective on environment offer?

Why are nature and the environment social science issues?

➢ Our perceptions of nature are shaped by society and culture (meanings and
beliefs).
➢ Our responses to environmental problems depends upon social structures and
relationship (power and institutions).
➢ Human societies are ultimately dependent upon natural life-support systems (the
global eco-system or bio-sphere).
➢ Our social organization is shaped by our material interventions into nature
(nature and technology).

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Source: Native American 5
What is nature?
How do we think of nature? How can we think of human-nature relationship? In
what ways have human beings changed, evolved, and adapted because of the need
to cope with nature?
Is nature socially constructed? Are nature and society separate entities? How do we
define, categorize, classify, or understand
natural objects?

Nature: Physical or cultural?

Social, cultural, economic, or political context of our

understanding or perception.

“What people do about their ecology depends on what they think

about themselves in relation to things around them” (Lynn,1967) Source: Survival International
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sY5mayJUlyY
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Nature:
➢ Sacred
➢ Wild and disordered, uncivilized, should be
controlled and dominated, tamed, cultivated,
civilized.
➢ Humans as part of nature, live with nature; nature
for or beyond humans?

Utilitarian or instrumental vs non-utilitarian

or intrinsic views Source: rrziipao

➢ Changing ideas and perceptions of nature and the environment

➢ Thinking sociologically about nature and the environment
• How have understandings of nature and the environment changed over
time?
• What social transformations have led to these shifts in perception?
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 Gandhi as an environmentalist
“God forbid that India should
ever take to industrialization
after the manner of the West.
The economic imperialism
of a single tiny kingdom
(England) is today keeping
the world in chains. if an
entire nation of 300 million
(India) took to similar
economic exploitation, it
would strip the world bare
like locust.”
December 1928
“The world has enough for everybody’s need, but not
enough for everybody’s greed”
“The distinguishing
characteristic of
modern civilization
is an indefinite
multiplicity of
wants.”
“Today the cities dominate and drain the villages so that
they are crumbling to ruin”
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 From Unsustainable to Sustainable Development

➢ Solution to problem? Choice of Technologies? Lifestyle? Philosophy? Ethics?

Attitudes? Economic models? Prevention?

➢ How much should we consume? (Ramachandra Guha, 2006)

➢ What is sustainability about?

• Ecology and Equity(Ramachandra Guha and Madhav Gadgil, 1995)

➢ When can we be sustainable? How can we lead sustainable lives? What changes
at which levels?

➢ Multiple perspectives

➢ Avoid silos.
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 From Unsustainable to Sustainable Development

Fig.1: Common three-ring sector view of Fig.2: Nested sustainable development- the economy dependent
sustainable development on society and both dependent on environment
Source: Giddings, Hopwood and O’Brien, 2002 Source: Giddings, Hopwood and O’Brien, 2002
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Harish Hande (Social Entrepreneur)

➢ Founder of SELCO India and

SELCO Foundation

“Delivering last mile sustainable

energy solutions that improve quality
of life and socio-economic
development for the poor”

2011 Ramon Magsaysay awardee for his technology with difference

SELCO Foundation: “Seeks to inspire and implement socially, financially and environmentally inclusive
solutions by improving access to sustainable energy. We make under-serve communities the central focus
of our thoughts, words and actions”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJFn9mGGIC0 11
Sustainable Development
➢ Brundtland Report: Our Common Future (1987)
“Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present
without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own
needs”
➢ Millennium Development Goals (MGDs): 2000-2015
➢ Agenda 2030 or Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
17 interconnected goals with 169 targets
SDG: Aiming at ending poverty, promoting prosperity and people’s well-being
while protecting the environment for next 15 years (2016-2030).

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Sustainable Development: Mapping Different Approaches (Bill Hopwood, Mary
Mellor, Geoff O’Brien, 2005)
➢ Multiple approaches
➢ Multifaceted
➢ Making choices of different kinds, having the courage to do so.

Post-sustainable development (Stephen Morse, 2008)

➢ Questioning the ‘intentionality’ of development strategies
➢ Diversity of approaches, options, and needs, desires, aspirations
➢ No need for consensus on what is SD
➢ Participation, discourse and learning for SD
➢ SD as process, not outcome
➢ Indian context: problems of poverty, consequences of environmental
degradation; imperatives of growth and development
➢ Localization of SDGs
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Environmental Issues in Indian Context
➢ Conflicts and struggles
➢ Access
➢ Equity
➢ Justice
➢ Institutions
➢ Governance

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 Not Conservation or Protection but social conflicts around natural resources as
the central environmental problem.
➢ Who own resources?
➢ Who should own them?
➢ Who should manage resources?
➢ What technologies should be
used?
➢ Who makes these decisions?
“India has more environmental conflicts than any
other country in the world” (The Hindu, 2018)

India is ranked 169 among 180 nations on Environmental Performance Index 2020

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Struggles and conflict over resource
a. Forest Resources: Use and over-exploitation, deforestation, timber extraction,
mining, dams and their effects on forest and tribal/indigenous people.
• Forest Rights Act, Forest Conservation Act, Social Forestry, Joint Forest
Management
b. Water Resources: Use and over-utilization of surface and ground water, floods,
drought, conflicts over water, dams-benefits and problems
• Inter-state, inter-regional, inter-country conflicts; people vs government or
corporate; multi-purpose projects

Dams in Northeast India (short documentary)

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Struggles and conflict over resource
c. Mineral Resources: Use and exploitation, environmental effects of extracting and
using mineral resources.
• SAMATA Judgement
d. Nuclear Power: Post Fukushima perspective
• Chernobyl, Three Mile Island
• Koondankulam and Jaitapur
e. R&R
• Singur, Nandigram, Dam projects, Mining projects, Airports, other infrastructure
projects and its implication on both human and environment.
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The difficult questions of values and justice
Valuing nature, ecosystems, natural resource
➢ Economic value (production of goods and services)
➢ Life support: breathing, living, pollution, water purification, cleaning up,
regeneration, sustaining ecosystems, salinity control, disease control among
others
➢ Social and cultural values (life-fulfilling): religion, aesthetics, recreation
➢ Conservation: future use

Valuing as a way of organizing and using information to make informed choices-

beyond instrumental use of resources

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Valuing biodiversity
➢ Market value
➢ Non-market value
➢ For ecosystems

Valuing biodiversity and our duties and obligations for future generations

Loss of biodiversity: not substitutable, irreversible

Uniqueness of biodiversity as compared to other goods and services

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Environmental (in)justice
➢ NIMBY principle and environmental injustice: landfills, dumping grounds,
hazardous facilities
➢ Climate change and justice
➢ Access to the environment, R&R, compensation and justice: short vs long
term benefits
➢ Bourgeois environmentalism (Amita Baviskar)
➢ Environmentalism of the poor (Guha and Martinez-Alier)
➢ Infrastructure of injustice (Ziipao)

Environmental justice: questions of socio-economic inequality and prejudice

based on race, caste, gender, tribes, or class.

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Definition of environmental justice

“Fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race,

ethnicity, income, national origin, or educational level with respect to the
development, implementation and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations
and policies. Fair treatment means that no population, due to policy or economic
disempowerment, is forced to bear a disproportionate burden of the negative human
health or environmental impacts of pollution or other environmental consequences
resulting from industrial, municipal, and commercial operations or the execution of
federal, state, local, and tribal programs and policies”

Environment Protection Agency, USA

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Demography and sustainable development
The problem of population
➢ Relate to lifestyles, and consumption: how much to consume?
The Real population problem
➢ Affluent society (Galbraith), issue of appetite
➢ “An American discharges in excess of 20 tons (of CO2) annually, a German 12
tons, a Japanese 9 tons, and an Indian less than one ton” (Guha, 2006)
➢ “The birth of a child in America has an impact on the global environment
equivalent to the birth of seventy Indonesian or Indian children” (Guha, 2006)
➢ “The birth of an American dog or cat was the equivalent, ecologically
speaking, the birth of a dozen Bangladeshi children”(as cited in Guha, 2006).
The role of technology
Development as the best contraceptive: Institutions, freedom, and policies, not
sterilization and population control.
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Source: Paul Robbins, 2012

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The issue of urbanization

➢ Urban-Rural contrast in consumption

➢ Density, migration and environmental impacts

➢ Air, water, soil and noise pollution

➢ Global warming

➢ Encroachment and destruction of critical ecosystems, biodiversity

➢ Sustainable urbanization

➢ The PURA model

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Source: Government of India, 2017 26
The issue of equity and social justice

Class and the use and abuse of natural resources (Guha and Gadgil)

➢ Omnivores: industrialists, rich farmers, urban middle classes

➢ Ecosystem people: rural, those who rely on natural resources (small and
marginal farmers, landless labour, pastoralists)

➢ Ecological refugees: displaced, evicted, resettled, migrants

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 Table 1.1: The Omnivore-Ecosystem People Binary

Omnivores Ecosystem People

Global, National, Local Reach Local Reach

Surplus Economy
Urban/Cosmopolitan
Sees itself as Modern/Scientific
Upper & Middle Classes
Separate from Resource Base
Subsistence Economy
Rural/Rooted
Is seen as Traditional/Authentic
Peasants, Dalits, Adivasis/Tribes
Close Relationship with Resource Base

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Wangari Maathai

2004: First African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for "her
contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace."

Wangari Maathai & The Green Belt Movement:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQU7JOxkGvo
Disparity between Northern and Southern countries (developed and developing)
➢ Full-stomach versus empty belly environmentalism (Guha)
➢ Conservation vs efficient and optimal use of resources
➢ Enabling access to basic needs
Urban-Rural equity issues
➢ Diversion of resources for urban consumption: where do cities get their
resources from?
➢ How much and what to rural and urban people consume?
➢ Can cities produce resources? What kind of ecosystem services do they offer?

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Gender Equity and Environmental issues
➢ Involvement of women in environmental movements
➢ Differential needs and perspectives of men and women
➢ Differential impacts of environmental pollution and degradation on men and
women
➢ Ecofeminism (Shiva): Ethics of caring and responsibility
Equitable use of resources: who should use, how much, for what purpose, pricing
Ethics: Universal access for basic needs?

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Environmental Movements
➢ Collective mobilization around issues of concern linking environmental issues to
livelihoods and life.
➢ Shrinking rural livelihood from village commons and forests (food, fuel, fodder, fiber,
timber, manure, bamboo, medicinal herbs, oils, materials for housebuilding, handicrafts,
resin, honey, spices among others) due to growing degradation of environment and
increasing statization and privatization.
➢ Disappearing forest, deteriorating soil conditions, depleting water resources, erosion of
local/indigenous knowledge system.
➢ The erosion of community resource management system and replacing with joint forest
management.
➢ History of resistance to environmental encroachment and resource grab: the continuing
problem of resource curse. 32
Environmental and health consequences of chemical intensive agriculture

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 Chipko Movement

In Conversation: Sunderlal Bahuguna with Dr. George A. James

In 1987, the Chipko Movement was awarded the Right Livelihood

Award (Alternative Nobel Prize) 34
Impact of Chipko Movement
➢ Chipko had a very humane appeal
➢ The Forest Conservation Act of 1980
➢ Creation of the environment ministry
➢ Cultural response of the people’s love for their environment
➢ Pro-poor environmentalism
➢ Protest against the commercial exploitation, stopping tree auctions, keeping a
vigil against illegal felling.
➢ State’s initiative of tree plantation to address the problem of deforestation and
fuelwood shortage.

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Silent Valley: People’s Movement that Saved a Forest
➢ Save silent valley movement
➢ 1973: The Planning Commission
approves hydroelectric project across
Kunthipuzha river.
➢ Protest begin to mount against the
project.
➢ 1979: Project began
➢ 1981: Indira Gandhi declares that
Silent Valley will be protected.
➢ 1983: The Silent Valley project
called off. Source: Conservation India
➢ 1985: Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi formally inaugurate Silent
Valley National Park. 36
Sardar Sarovar Project (Narmada): Irrigation, Drinking Water, Hydro-
electric power, Flood control

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Plachimada: Private ownership vs public access to water (Coca Cola)

To whom does ground water belong?

Adivasi Samkrashana Sangham (Adivasi

Protection Front)

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Human-Wildlife Conflicts
➢ Commons, private land, encroachment, ecological degradation and
human-wildlife conflicts
➢ Conflict between conservation of biodiversity and sustainable resource
use – and – livelihood/lives of people
➢ Avoid polarization perspectives from a sustainable development approach
➢ Recognized the precariousness of lives and livelihoods in India and the
importance of environmental conservation to avoid human-wildlife
conflicts
Tiger widows of Sunderbans and Leopards of Bollywood

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Legal aspects of environmental issues and sustainable development

➢ Forest Rights Act: Issues, institutions, conflicts, equality, governance,

science, human interaction with nature
➢ Environment Protection Act: Motivations, violations, development vs
environments vs disaster arguments.
➢ LG Polymers case (Visakhapatnam Tragedy)
➢ Draft Environment Impact Assessment (EIA), 2020

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How Japan survived environmental degradation
➢ Crisis of deforestation, caused by peace and prosperity after Tokugawa shoguns'
military triumph that ended 150 years of civil war in 17th C

➢ Japan's population & economic explosion economy - rampant logging for

construction of palaces and cities, and for fuel and fertilizer

➢ Shoguns’ response: negative and positive measures

• Reduced wood consumption: turn to light-timbered construction
• Fuel-efficient stoves and heaters
• Coal as a source of energy
➢ Increased wood production by developing and carefully managing plantation
forests
➢ Both shoguns and the Japanese farmers took a long-term view
➢Today: highest human population density of any large developed country -yet
Japan is more than 70 percent forested
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The case of Cuba: Organic Agriculture
➢ Early 1990s- collapse of socialist bloc and the U.S. embargo– decrease in
agricultural inputs and foodstuffs
➢ Cuban response to crisis: redesign their system of food production and distribution
➢ World’s most ambitious and extensive transition from conventional agriculture to
organic farming
➢ First country to address food production under the premise that sustainable access
to safe, nutritious food is a human right
➢ Self sufficient in food using organic methods, surplus generated in cities.
Organoponico an agricultural revolution

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Environment, Governance, and the State
➢ How do humans interact with ecosystems to maintain long-term sustainable
resource yields?
➢ What form of ownership and governance is best for sustainability?
• Regulation
• Ownership

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Government, private, or common for efficient resource management?

Common Pool Resources: Water, irrigation systems, pasture / grazing land,

forests, fisheries, oil fields, minerals

Garett Hardin: Tragedy of the Commons?

Open Access, Free rider – overuse and exploitation

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COMMONS: Tragedy or Mutual
Benefit?

Understanding the commons

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How do humans interact with ecosystems to maintain long-term sustainable
resource yields?
Multiplicity of governance and ownership arrangements
Elinor Ostrom: Governance of the Commons
How societies develop diverse institutional arrangements for managing natural
resources and avoiding ecosystem collapse and prevent resource exhaustion?
They develop rules, norms, institutions, principles

Elinor Ostrom on managing "common pool" resources:

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Elinor Ostrom: Governance of the Commons
➢ Multifaceted mature of human-ecosystem interaction
➢ Diverse social-ecological system problems
➢ No singular or unique panacea for these problems

‘Bureaucrats sometimes do not have the correct information while citizens

and users of resources do’
-Elinor Ostrom

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“Design Principles" for stable common pool resource management
Improve efficiency, prevent resource exhaustion, and avoid ecosystem collapse
1. Define boundaries clearly (to exclude external un-entitled parties)
2. Adapt rules regarding appropriation & provision of common resources to local
conditions
3. Collective-choice arrangements: allow resource appropriators to participate in
decision-making process
4. Effective monitoring (by monitors part of or accountable to appropriators)
5. Graduated sanctions for resource appropriators who violate community rules
6. Mechanisms of conflict resolution that are cheap and easy of access
7. Self-determination of community recognized by higher-level authorities
8. For larger common-pool resources: organize through multiple layers of nested 48
 Greening the commons: Strategies for India
Madhav Gadgil and Ramachandra Guha

1. Identification of common lands

2. Legal status of common lands
3. Managing the common lands
4. Problems of special groups outside of village society
5. Provision of technical inputs
6. Market forces

How Anna Hazare greened Ralegan Siddhi village

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