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Chapter – 17
Environment and Natural Resources

Important environmental issues

• In the previous chapters, we have discussed about wars and treaties, state powers,
governments, international organizations etc. In this chapter we shall look at the major
environmental issues such as:
1. Decline in area of cultivable land.
2. Water pollution.
3. Deforestation.
4. Pollution of Coastal areas.
5. Ozone Depletion.
6. Global Warming.
7. Over exploitation.
Environmental Programmes
• Awareness of the environmental consequences of economic growth acquired a political
character from 1960 onwards.
• In 1972, The Club of Rome published a book, ‘Limits to Growth’. It brought out the
potential depletion of the earth’s resources, due to the rapid growth of world population.
• Detailed studies on environmental problems were undertaken by various international
agencies like United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
The Earth Summit – 1992
• The UN Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in
June 1992 was called the Earth Summit.
• It was attended by 170 countries, thousands of Non-Governmental Organizations and
multinational corporations.
• It warned the traditional economic growth that was not sustainable in the long run.
• The Rio Summit revealed the different agenda of Global North and Global South.
• Global North – rich and developed countries. They focussed on ozone depletion.
• Global South – poor and developing countries. They concerned about economic
development and environmental management.
• The Rio summit came out with ‘Agenda 21’ regarding climate change, biodiversity and
forestry.
• The concept of sustainable development was discussed in the summit, which is combining
economic growth with ecological responsibility.
• ‘Agenda 21’ was in favour of economic growth and not ecological conservation.
The Protection of Global Commons
• Commons are those resources which are not owned by anyone but rather shared by a
community.
• Similarly, there are some areas or regions of the world which are located outside the
sovereign jurisdiction of any one state, and therefore require common governance by the
international community. These are known as global commons.
• It includes the earth’s atmosphere, Antarctica, the ocean floor and outer space.

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Common But Differentiated Responsibilities

• There is different approach and opinion with regard to the ecological conservation between
the countries of North and South.
• Northern Countries want everyone to be equally responsible for ecological conservation,
whereas Southern countries feel that much of the ecological degradation is the product of
industrial development undertaken by the developed countries. If they have caused more
degradation, they must take more responsibility.
• The Rio Declaration of 1992 accepted the Southern countries’ point of view. It is known as
‘Common but differentiated responsibilities’.
Kyoto Protocol
• It is an international agreement that asked the developed countries to cut down their
emission of greenhouse gases.
• The per capita emission in developing countries is very low. These countries like India,
China and other developing nations are exempt from the stipulation of Kyoto Protocol.
Common Property Resources
• It means property common to all.
• People have the rights, at the same time, responsibilities to use and protect the common
property. They are the real custodians of common property.
India’s Stand on Environmental Issues
• India has already taken various steps in the fight against global warming. They are:
1. India’s Natural Auto-fuel policy insists on clearer fuels for vehicles.
2. The Electricity Act of 2003 encourages the use of renewable energy.
3. Import of natural gas and adoption of clean coal technologies show that India is serious
about greenhouse gas emissions.
4. 11 million hectares of land have been set aside for bio diesel production.
Environmental Movements
• Environmental movements are the most vibrant and powerful ones across the globe. New
forms of political action are born within these social movements.
• Diversity is the main feature of contemporary environmental movements. For example:
Forest movements, Anti-dam movements, pro-river movements and movements against the
mineral industries.
Resource Geopolitics
• It is all about who gets what, when, where and how.
• Global European power expansion was mainly for resources.
• They made voyages to get domination over the overseas resources.
Important Resources in Global Strategy
1. Oil
• The global economy relied on oil for much of the 20 th century as a portable and
indispensable fuel.
• The immense wealth associated with oil generates political struggles to control, and the
history of petroleum is also the history of war and struggle.

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2. Water
• Water is another crucial resource that is relevant to global politics.
• Regional variations and the increasing scarcity of freshwater in some parts of the world
point to the possibility of disagreements over shared water resources as a leading source of
conflicts in the 21st century.
The Indigenous Peoples and Their Rights
• Indigenous peoples are population consisting of descendants of the people who inhabited
the present territory. Later on people of different culture or ethnic origin came to these
places from other parts of the world and defeated the original inhabitants.
• Indigenous people today live more in conformity with their particular social, economic, and
cultural customs and traditions than the institutions of the country of which they now form a
part.
• Like other social movements, indigenous people speak of their struggles, their agenda and
their rights.
• The indigenous voices in world politics call for the admission of indigenous people to the
world community as equals.
• The loss of land, which also means the loss of an economic resource base, is the most
obvious threat to the survival of indigenous people.

JOBY JOHN
HSST (jr) Political Science
GHSS Adhoor, Kasaragod