Environmental & Sustainable Tourism

1.1 Definition, Scope and Importance

1.2 Need for public awareness
1.3 Renewable & Non-renewable Resources (Definition &
Importance)
1.4 Consumerism & Waste Products
Definition,
scope & importance
 Definition, scope & importance

Environmental studies involve an

Environmental studies is a
multidisciplinary subject that has a whole
gamut of sciences like botany, zoology,
physiology, geography, geology geophysics
and metrology to describe the biological
and physical nature of our environment.
understanding of philosophy, ethics,
psychology, demography, archaeology,
economics and political science. All these
varied disciplines give us a holistic view
of the environment for sustaining life on
earth on an infinite time scale.

Environmental science is the study of

nature and the facts about the
environment which can be defined as
"all social, economical, physical and
chemical factors that surrounds man

Branch of biology that deals with the
study of plants, including their
structure, properties, and
biochemical processes.
Geography is a field of science
devoted to the study of the lands,
features, inhabitants, and
phenomena of Earth.
Zoology is the study of all animals
of all shapes and sizes, from tiny
insects to large mammals. Zoologists
investigate what animals eat and
how they live, and how animals
interact with their habitats.
Geophysics deals with such things
as the movement of the Earth's crust
and the temperatures of its interior,
Earth's shape, its magnetic field etc.,
gravitational force.
Physiology is the branch of biology
that focuses on the study of the
functions and mechanisms of living
organisms, from the molecular and
cellular level to the level of whole
organisms and populations.
Meteorology is the science dealing
with the atmosphere and its
phenomena, including both weather
and climate.
 Definition, scope & importance

Certain factors need to be examined and worked upon

Major
Discover root Develop problem
environmental
causes solving skills
issues

Emphasis on action
Promote co-
participation and
operation in solving
seek solutions to
problems
problems
Need for public awareness
 Need for public awareness

● As soon as man acquired the ability to

generate fire the environment began to
get adversely affected. • Awareness shapes a hierarchy of
values and has an influence on the
● The end of the Middle Ages saw a sense of responsibility on the
growth in population, concentrated choice of values of life.
within cities.
• Environmental public awareness of
● This created areas that suffered from particular members of the
contamination, Air pollution began to community is affected by many
be recognized as a health issue while factors including cultural, ethnic
polluted water in densely populated and religious connections,
areas served as a conducive medium organization of family, professional
for transmission of diseases. and social life, type of level of
education, social status and
personal values of life.
 Need for public awareness
● Who shapes the attitude and
awareness of members of the
community?
Parents, Teachers, Colleagues,
Acquaintances, Fellow Workers,
Leaders, Media, Moral Authorities,
Scientists and Politicians.
● Environmental public awareness of
particular members of the
community is affected by many
factors including cultural, ethnic
and religious connections,
organization of family, professional
and social life, type of level of
education, social status and personal
values of life.
 Need for public awareness

• United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has outlined several key ways to increase awareness
of environmental issues worldwide through campaigns targeted to specific groups.

• Environmental education is just as important in the developing world as it is in industrialized nations;

however reaching out to certain countries can be very difficult due to language barriers, illiteracy and
cultural differences can prevent them from learning about these vital issues particularly in rural or
tribal areas.

• Education through media and specialized personnel can make a remarkable difference
ENVIRONMENTAL
DISASTERS OF THE WORLD
 Need for public awareness

Environmental Disasters of the World:

The London The Los Bhopal Gas Chernobyl

DDT Episode,
Smog, Angeles Smog, Tragedy, Disaster,

Alaska Oil Minamata The Tsunami

Itai-itai Disease, The Sars Flu,
Spill, Disease, (Indian Ocean),

The Iceland The Cloud

Halifax Dock The Earth The Bombay
Volcanic Burst in
Explosion, Quake in Japan, Dock Explosion
Eruption, Ladakh,
 Need for public awareness

• The above, are the examples of the far

reaching effects of pollution and natural
destruction of resources and the repeated
occurrences of such accidents have drawn
the attention of the world towards
environmental awareness.

• The government of India has also enacted a

comprehensive Environment (Protection)
Act 1986 to safeguard and protect the
environment. Environmental protection
requires both preventive and curative
measures.
 Need for public awareness

● Earth Summit at Rio de Janeiro in June

1972, here a Global Action Plan was
adopted with the aim of integrating
environmental imperatives with
developmental aspirations.
● The Indian Government has taken steps
towards environmental protection.
● Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA).
● The government has set up State Pollution
Control Boards for different industries and
has established Green benches in different
High Courts of India.
 Need for public awareness

• Social awareness can encourage people to use biogas and solar energy or non-
conventional energy.

• An informed citizen can raise his voice against using unfit air and water
resources and force the responsible agencies (industry) to treat the particular
resources before they are released into the natural environment.

• Global environmental issues like ozone layer depletion, climatic changes, acid
rain and bio-diversity losses are the result of rapid industrialization, fast
urbanization leading to deforestation and other problems
 Need for public awareness

In India we have major problems of solid waste disposal, sanitation and air and water pollution. Major
problems of developing countries like India are their poverty and illiteracy that has generated number
of misconceptions and superstitions such as:

Diseases are caused by Curse of Famines, floods, droughts are god's Rainfall is dependent on god's
Gods and demons. punishment for the sins of men grace.

Cities are polluted not villages

(totally untrue: villages are polluted
due to burning of fossil fuels and Deforestation is the result of
cow dung cakes and wood, while industrial revolution but
cities are polluted due to industrial urbanization is responsible for this
effluents and automobile
emissions).
 Need for public awareness

• To get rid of these superstitions awareness is

imperative in India, everyone from an
environment conscious farmer to a policy maker
knows about the consequences of his activities on
nature.

• While it is true that industrialization supports the green

revolution, the fact remains that it is responsible for the speedy
consumption and pollution of natural resources.
Industrialization is likely to be less of a health hazard if
growing green belts around industrial areas and maintaining
wild life sanctuaries and. national parks are made compulsory.
This will help in maintaining ecological balance and result in
higher agricultural productivity.
Environmental disasters around
the world
 The London Smog

● The London Smog of 1952 engulfed London from 5th to 9th Dec. The fog mixed with black smoke
emitted from homes and factories to create deadly smog. The smog killed 12000 people and shocked
the world and thus started the realization of the environment movement.
 The Los Angeles Smog

● The Los Angeles Smog July 26, 1943 The first recognized episodes of ‘smog’ occurred in Los Angeles in the
summer of 1943. Visibility was only three blocks. People suffered from burning eyes and lungs, and nausea.
The phenomenon was termed a "gas attack" and blamed on a nearby butadiene plant. But when the plant was
shut down, the smog did not abate. In 1947, the Los Angeles County Air Pollution Control District – the first
such body in the nation – was formed. The district regulated obvious culprits, like smoke-belching power plants
and oil refineries, but still the smog persisted.
 The Chernobyl Disaster

● The Chernobyl Disaster: was a catastrophic nuclear accident that occurred on 26th April 1986 at
the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine which was then under the direct jurisdiction of the
Soviet Union. An explosion and fire in the Reactor No.-4 released large quantities of radioactive
particles into the atmosphere, which spread over much of Western USSR and Europe. It is
considered to be and one of the only two classified as a level 7 event on the International Nuclear
Event.
 The Alaska Oil Spill

● The Alaska Oil Spill: The Exxon Valdez an oil tanker bound for Long Beach,
California, on 24th March 1989, struck Prince William Sound's Bligh Reef and spilled
260,000 to 750,000 barrels of crude oil; It is considered to be one of the most
devastating human caused environmental disaster.
DDT Episode

DDT Episode: is an organochlorine

insecticide which is colorless, crystalline
solid, tasteless, and almost odorless
chemical compound. DDT and other
pesticides can cause cancer and their
agricultural use was a threat to humans,
wildlife and particularly to birds. Its effect
on human life and ecology was disastrous.
The realization of this deadly pesticide
resulted in large public outcry that
eventually led to the ban of DDT for
agriculture use
 Minamata Disease
● Minamata Disease
This disease was first
discovered in Minamata City
● Itai Itai Disease: (it hurts it
Japan in 1955
This highly toxic chemical bio-
accumulated in the shell fish
and fish in the Minamata Bay
which when eaten by the local
populace resulted in mercury
poisoning.
Itai Itai Disease
hurts disease) was the
documented case of mass
cadmium poisoning in
Toyoma Prefecture Japan
starting around 1912. The
cadmium poisoning caused
softening of the bones and
kidney failure.
 SARS Bird Flu

● (SARS) Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome is a severe pneumonia-like respiratory

disease that first came to worldwide attention in South East Asia in February 2003. The
SARS coronavirus was a new variant that may have been transmitted from animals to
humans. This disease can be spread through close contact with an infected person even
something as common as a cough or a sneeze. There is severe inflammation of the air sacs
of the lungs. The flu currently causes 250000 to 500000 deaths worldwide each year.
 The Tsunami

● Tsunami triggered by the 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake hit the southern peninsular coast on 26th
December 2004. Andaman and Nicobar islands were the worst hit due to their proximity with the
epicenter of the earthquake. The official death toll of those missing and dead is approximately
7000. Indira Point the Southernmost point of the Great Nicobar Island and of India itself subsided
and the light house was damaged. Major sea resorts of Sri Lanka were severely affected being
washed away and causing untold damage. .
 Iceland Volcanic Eruption

● Iceland Volcanic Eruption: The 2010 eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull in Iceland caused
enormous disruption to air travel across western and northern Europe from April 2010
and continued into May 2010. The eruption was declared officially over in October
2010.
 Halifax

● This explosion occurred on the morning of Thursday December 06th 1917. SS Mont Blanc, a French
cargo ship fully laden with war time explosives collided with the Norwegian vessel SS Imo. A fire on
board the French ship ignited her volatile cargo causing a cataclysmic explosion that devastated the
city of Halifax. Approximately 2000 people were killed and 9000 injured. The blast was the largest
man-made explosion prior to the development of Nuclear Weapons..
 The Bombay Doc explosion

● The Bombay Dock Explosion: occurred on 14th April 1944 in the Victoria Dock of
Bombay when the freighter SS Stikine carrying a mixed cargo of cotton bales, gold and
ammunition in tons exploded and caught fire.
 Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Hiroshima and Nagasaki

● On 6th August 1945 the United
States used a massive atomic
weapon against Hiroshima (Japan).
● This atomic bomb named "Little
Boy" equivalent of 20,000 tons of
TNT flattened the city killing tens
of thousands of civilians. While
Japan was still trying comprehend
this devastation, three days on 9th
August later United States struck
again, this time on Nagasaki, the
bomb was named "Fat Boy".
 Tsar Bomb

● Bomb is the nick name for the AN602 Hydrogen Bomb, history's most powerful
thermonuclear weapon ever detonated. Only one bomb of this type was ever officially built
in Ukraine and was tested on October 30th 1961 in the Novaya Zemlya Island in the Russian
Arctic Sea. This hydrogen bomb weighed 57 megatons = 1400 times more than the
Hiroshima and Nagasaki explosion, and = 3800 Hiroshima Bombs: Its fire power was ten
times more than that of World War ll. The light generated by this explosion could be 1000
kms away and it measured 5.25 on the Richter scale. Glass windows and doors cracked 900
kms away in Norway and Finland. The mushroom smoke that rose on explosion could be
viewed 160 kms away. This rose to a height of 64 kms i.e. 7 times the height of Mount
Everest. The aircraft that dropped the bomb only had 188 seconds to fly away from the site
to avoid being caught in its trap. Although there was no loss of life, there was an
unaccounted hazard to the environment, marine life and devastating after effects. The figures
above are indicative and one cannot even stop to imagine how disastrous it would have been
for the entire world had this bomb been detonated on a war ground or targeted as a weapon
of mass destruction only for claiming supremacy of power.
Renewable & Non-Renewable
resources
 Renewable resources

Definition - Renewable resources are those that can be replaced as they are used up, examples would be
Sun, Wind, Soil, Air, Water, Wood, Sunlight, Geo Thermal and Bio Mass & Bio Energy.
 Non- renewable resources

Definition - A resource of economic value that cannot be readily replaced by natural means on a level
equal to its consumption. Their use is not sustainable because their formation takes billions of years.
Consumerism
&
waste products
 Consumerism & consumer

● Who is a consumer?
● What is Consumerism?
A consumer is a person or a group of
Consumerism is a social and economic order
people who are the final users of products
that is based on the systematic creation and
and or services generated within a local
fostering of a desire to purchase goods and
system
services in ever greater amounts.
 Consumerism & consumer

●In India, The Consumer Protection Act of

1986 clearly lays down the rights of the
consumer.

●Today energies are fast depleting: (single

use products, injections, syringes, paper
cups, foil trays, cans, bottles, disposables,
plastic cartons).

●Industrial waste: gases, mineral refuse, e-

waste, bio-medical waste, agriculture
waste, fertilizer, pesticides, human and
animal excreta are all threats to
environment management.
 Consumerism & consumer

Factors responsible for degrading environment

Technology

Population

Consumption
 Waste products

• Many products are luxurious and non-degradable that takes years to decompose: plastic
being the scourge of them all.

• 20% of the world's richest consume 86% of the world's resources

 Waste products

What is the solution for the same ?

• Reducing unnecessary product purchases

• Use or purchase products that can be used many times.

• As consumers we make choices that affect the earth's natural resources including its energy
supplies.

• Our choices have positive or negative effects depends on our understanding of the consumer
product life cycle.
 Walmart

● WALMART
A huge departmental sore is working on monumental footings to channelize resources and try to minimize wastage
in the stores.
 Unilever

● UNILEVER
Has also taken on war footing measures to
prevent the depletion of natural resources
by trying to come out with measures of
growing food products with less water and
fertilizers, removing of chemicals from
children's toys, stopping of illegal mining
practices of extraction of copper, gold and
silver, encouraging waste management plan
and trying to accelerate the scale of
sustainability innovation.