HS 200: Environmental Studies

D.Parthasarathy
Department of Humanities and Social Sciences
Inter-Disciplinary Program in Climate Studies

Co-Instructors:
Prof. Neha Gupta (Economics) and Prof. Siby George (Philosophy)

Module: Socio-political, cultural, and governance issues

1. The gap between knowledge and action
2. Key inspirations and moments that affected environmental thinking linked to human
development
3. Linking science and social sciences to address environmental challenges
4. The Indian context: beyond conservation: access and conflicts over resources
a. Alternative imaginations
5. Sustainability and Environmental Management: Learning from Governance Failures and
Successes
a. Commons as an alternative governance strategy for sustainable environmental
governance
6. The politics of climate change
The Human costs of environmental degradation and inaction
Stupidity? Ignorance? Arrogance? Selfishness? Shortsighted? Uncaring?

Is Narendra Modi a climate sceptic?

India’s PM used to call climate action a moral duty,
now he tells students ‘climate has not changed, we
have changed’ (from Guardian newspaper)
India may need a whopping $1 trillion by 2030 to
adapt to climate change, says new report
Development, Economic Growth and Environment: Facts, Myths, Evidence, Lies, Ignorance

Judges, Bureaucrats and Politicians: Balance? Both? How? Which choices? What
technologies? What policies?

Giddens’ Paradox
Why zoonotic diseases are fast spreading to humans
https://www.downtoearth.org.in/coverage/forests/why-zoonotic-diseases-are-spreading-to-humans-at-a-faster-rate-60598

"Daszak and his colleagues have analyzed approximately 500 human infectious diseases from
the past century. They found that the emergence of new pathogens tends to happen in places
where a dense population has been changing the landscape - by building roads and mines,
cutting down forests and intensifying agriculture. “China is not the only hotspot,” he says,
noting that other major emerging economies, such as India, Nigeria and Brazil, are also at great
risk.“
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-chinas-bat-woman-hunted-down-viruses-from-sars-to-the-new-coronavirus1 /

India plans to fell ancient forest to create 40 new coalfields

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/08/india-prime-minister-narendra-modi-plans-to-fell-ancient-forest-to-create-40-new-coal-
How can the social sciences and humanities help us to better
understand environmental issues? Beyond economics
Environment Quiz
Wangari Maathai

2004: First African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for "her

contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace." 
Minamata

Large scale effects of industrial pollution: mercury poisoning

Rachel Carson – Silent Spring

Environmental and health consequences of chemical intensive

agriculture
Endosulfan
Harish Hande

2011: awarded Ramon Magsaysay award for “his pragmatic efforts

to put solar power technology in the hands of the poor, through
his social enterprise SELCO India”
Asking questions as a way to addressing environmental issues –
science, social science, and the planet
So why are nature and the environment sociological issues?

 Our perceptions of nature are shaped by society and culture

(meanings and beliefs).

 Our responses to environmental problems depend upon social

structures and relationships (power and institutions).

 Human societies are ultimately dependent upon natural life-support

systems (the global eco-system or ‘bio-sphere’).

 Our social organisation is shaped by our material interventions into

nature (labour and technology).

Environment versus Development?

Environment AND Development
Environment beyond Development: About Life Itself
Understanding environmental issues: Addressing ecological, socio-
cultural, economic concerns: making difficult choices

Cups: Plastic, Styrofoam, paper, or clay / ceramic?

Plastics or Natural?
Chemical or Organic?
Fossil Fuels or bio-fuels?
Solar or Fossil Fuels

Caste / Class / Technology / Science – The Problem of Choice

What is eco-friendly / environment friendly?

Roundup – He ecofriendly aahe! (Monsanto Pamphlet)

The problem of inequality: Caste, Gender, and Environmental debates

•Green is the new saffron?

•Caste –Class – Gender - Resource Access interface

• Impacts of environmental degradation and climate change on dalits, adivasis,
women, and other marginalized social groups

Gender
•Ecofeminism: feminist approach to ecological issues
• Vandana Shiva and Maria Mies

•Gender and natural resources: access, ownership, equality, welfare

Bina Agrawal
Understanding Environment-Society Interactions and
their consequences
FLASHPOINTS
Chipko
Silent Valley
Water conflicts
Plachimada – Coca Cola and Groundwater
Dams and mutli-purpose projects
Bhopal
Green revolution
Sardar Sarovar Project (Narmada): Irrigation, Drinking
Water, Hydro-electric power, Flood control
Small scale water solutions?

Belachiwadi Check Dam

Gudwan Check Dam
http://www.cse.iitb.ac.in/~ctara/dam/

Bilgaon

Belachiwadi
Tarun Bharat Sangh: Rajendra Singh
Rejuvenation of rivers, surface water and groundwater by
Tarun Bharat Sangh in Rajasthan using Johads and other
traditional techniques
Natural Resource Management in Rural India: How Anna Hazare greened
Ralegan: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBfjsdICGT0
Green Revolution
Application of advances in agricultural and related sciences
• Input use
• HYV Seeds
• Chemical fertilizers and weedicides / pesticides
• Water
• Mechanization
Green revolution as a regional phenomenon: soil, water, crop, peasant
proprietor / entrepreneurial class
Positive Impacts
Food production –
increased output (doubling) and self sufficiency of grains
Yield gains
• Increase in area under HYV
Positive Impacts
Economic growth / poverty reduction
• Increased incomes for farm households
• Economic growth related to growth in irrigation, manufacture of
inputs
• Dams and hydro-power
• Easing of external debt situation
• Agricultural labour migration and remittances
Social Impact
• employment growth in agriculture and industry
• migration of workers from ‘backward’ areas
Political Impact
• Less dependence on food aid and western nations
• Political support for the Congress party
Adverse Impacts
Increased inter regional disparities in agricultural production and
prosperity
• Irrigation, monsoon, agrarian structure
• Semi-arid tropics and arid areas neglected
Inter crop disparity – rice and wheat

Equity issue: large farmers, small / marginal farmers,

- Scale neutrality
Environmental / sustainability issues:
• Irrigation / water: soil salinity, disease, ground water depletion
• Pesticide / herbicide – soil contamination, human impacts
• Chemical fertilizers; micronutrient deficiencies
• Genetic diversity / monocropping
• Soil fertility, micronutrient deficiencies
Crop-livestock interaction: fodder problems
Adverse Impacts

Employment and Gender issues

• Women’s employment
• Women’s status at household level

Social conflicts
• Water conflicts

Alternatives
Biotechnology and / Genetic engineering?
Organic agriculture?
Land reforms?
Cropping pattern changes?
Conventional Breeding?
India: Not Conservation or Protection but social conflicts around
natural resources as the central environmental problem
Empty Stomach versus Full Belly Environmentalism
Who owns resources?
Who should own them?
Who should manage resources?
What technologies should be used?
•Questions about natural resource use, management,
ownership, and costs
Why are there struggles / conflicts around natural resources?
Why are we not able to share resources equitably?
To whom should resources belong? Private, public, common?
How should resources be governed or managed? Rules and
Regulations, customs and traditions
•Questions about natural resource use, management,
ownership, and costs (contd)
Why does resource degradation occur?
Should resources be shared equitably, or be owned / used only
by those who can afford to pay?
Which form of ownership or control is better for preventing
resource depletion?
Should we pay for resources? How much should we pay?
Socio-Ecological interpretations of political, economic and
environmental changes
1. Decline of the Mayan Civilization:    
Major factor - environmental degradation by people: deforestation, soil
erosion and water management problems, resulted in less food
Problems exacerbated by droughts, been partly caused by humans
through deforestation.
Chronic warfare made matters worse, as more and more people
fought over less and less land and resources
Jared Diamond - author of Guns, Germs and Steel and Collapse: How Societies
Choose or Fail to Succeed
http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/1996/2/
2. How Japan survived environmental degradation (Jared Diamond
contd.)
Crisis of deforestation, caused by peace and prosperity afterTokugawa 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
43. 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

Cuba: attempting world's most ambitious and extensive transition

from conventional agriculture to organic farming
Cuba: 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
Socio-ecological movements: reimagining the relationship
between environment, development, and governance
Chipko Movement
Chipko: Government, Paper Mills / Loggers, People

Sunderlal Bahuguna

Chandi Prasad Bhatt

 Forest Rights Act: Government, Forest based communities

Experiments in Resource Governance to promote equitable access and

environmental sustainability
1. Forest Rights Act: Gajab Kahani - Struggle for Forest Rights:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EES2KtIdI3k
Plachimada: Private ownership vs public access to water (Coca
Cola)

To whom does ground water belong?

Adivasi Samkrashana Sangham (Adivasi

Protection Front)
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? For
preventing resource degradation or depletion?
• Regulation
• Ownership
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?

Free rider – overuse and exploitation?
COMMONS: Tragedy or
Mutual Benefit?

Understanding the commons:

http://www.youtube.com/wa
tch?v=otmrkhEFSZM
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?
Elinor Ostrom: Governance of the Commons (contd.)

• Multifaceted nature of human–ecosystem interaction

• Diverse social-ecological system problems
• No singular or unique "panacea" for these problems
Politics of Climate Change

Giddens paradox:

Climate scientists are increasingly certain about the nature and intensity of
anthropogenic climate change
BUT
The general public is becoming less concerned that it is a crucial issue calling for
immediate comprehensive, global action

Significance of climate change is not understood until it is too late; by the time we grasp
it and attempt to act upon it, it is too late

It is too abstract to act upon; people want to see dramatic shifts

Reasons for Giddens’ Paradox
1. well-funded campaigns against policy proposals to reduce carbon emissions,
often involving disinformation, by those who would lose financially, notably
companies involved in fossil fuels
2. difficulties lay people have in appreciating climate science and the concepts of
risk and uncertainty
3. ‘free rider’ issue – why should any country which is only a small contributor to
the global emissions total take a lead in tackling the issue
4. The primacy that many countries, especially those in the developing world,
place on economic development.
Solutions
New Policy approach: four principles

1. People – including some politicians – have to be convinced that it is an

immediate problem that must be tackled now; not to do so will make the
medium-term scenarios even more pessimistic.
2. While securing a global agreement at major conferences – such as that
scheduled for Paris in 2015 – is desirable, much more impact is likely to
come from regional, even bilateral, agreements, especially if they involve
one or more of the USA, the EU, India, China and Brazil giving a lead
that others will follow.
3. The fossil fuel companies’ power has to be challenged.
4. Finally, local activism has to be promoted, to underpin and stimulate
national and international political action.