Environmental experts in an international conference held in Doon University warned of an immediate environmental crisis facing societies and emphasised on the urgent need for apdopting holistic solutions to the crisis.
Speaking at the event organised by School of Environment and Natural Resources, Doon University in collaboration with the Tarab ling Institute, Dehradun and Doon library and Research Centre, they reminded the gathering of the grim challenges that environmental threats pose for humanity.
Delivering the keynote address, the university vice chancellor Professor VK Jain pointed at the depletion of natural resources and environmental degradation taking place at an alarming rate. Highlighting some of the Government initiatives, he outlined the major causes behind this crisis in terms of energy consumption patterns promoted by the west, and an uregulated transport sector causing fuel emissions in developing countries.
lene Handleberg of the Tarab ling Institute, Dehradun said, “Depending on the cultural framework, one may consider nature as a gift to be honoured, or a set of exploitable material resources, or a vast interrelated web of existences. And, depending on the associated values, one’s action in nature can dramatically vary, from protection to destruction.”
Fromer vice chancellor of Garhwal University, Professor SP Singh mused on the probability of alternative imagination of economic growth which is not based on carbon economy. lack of data in several areas make predictions about the future is difficult to make. There is a need to establish a large monitoring network in the Himalaya to measure changes in climate. Equally important is to document and analyse societal responses to both environmental and economic changes to know the future scenarios, he said.
DlRC director BK Joshi emphasised on alternative model of growth and outlined the need for preserving environment while fulfilling the developmental imperatives of modern society by balancing the conflicting needs of both the perspectives.
In his address Professor Tarik Chekchak from Sciences and Environment Equipe Cousteau, France said, "Our generation currently witness the human driven sixth mass extinctions of species, the disruption of key atmospheric, geologic and hydrologic cycles, among other lasting impacts. In 1987, the Brundtland Commission of the United Nations defined sustainable development as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” The dean and head of SENR, Doon University, Professor Kusum Arunachalam, other faculty members and students were also present on the occasion.