5th Lecture disentangles 21st century intricacies about Sustainable Development

Alluring narratives: Mr. Chandra Bhushan, Deputy Director, Centre for Science and Environment, New Delhi offering Wangari Maathai Day special 5th lecture as part of the Wangari Maathai Memorial Lecture Series on Environment, Development and Society at Ambo campus of Micro Business College on 17 March. PHOTO: TESHALE CHALUMA, MICRO BUSINESS COLLEGE 

When burgeoning human activities started impacting the natural environment, there began the Anthropocene period. According to researches, the starting of this must be somewhere around 1610, a century after the America was found, and Europeans began their colonial creations.  Every coin has got two sides and the Anthropocene era had also got both positive and negative aspects. On one side it started altering the natural settings of environment and its resources. On the other hand, the world started witnessing a prolific exchange of commodities between far distant countries. 

There was a concomitant increase in the concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide by 40, 150 and 20 percentages. As green house gases started accumulating,  the earth started warming. It is notable that the carbon emission by way of fossil fuels, cement and flurry are many times more than that due to forestry and land use. 

While examining just 132 years till 2012, we see a considerable 0.850C increase in global temperature. Last three decades were the warmest. Oceans received 26 percent more acidity. During last three decade, our arctic expanse shrunk by 0.73-1.07 million km2 per decade. Incidents of climatic extremities like floods, typhoons, droughts, cloudburst etc are gradually increasing from below 10 during 1900-1909 to over 350 during 2000-2010. 

These are not any fairy tale, but truth that hovers! The 5th Wangari Maathai Memorial Lecture made by Mr. Chandra Bhushan, Deputy Director, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), India has exposed this and more that has been happening in our planet due to man’s run for development. His lecture that was appropriately titled, ‘Challenge of the Balance: A 21st Century Narrative on Environment and Development for Developing Countries’, just lived to its luring title. When development becomes inevitable for the developing countries, a major challenge that would emerge is assuring equal prosperity for the natural environment. 

Mr. Bushan’s was an adept presentation laced with lucid explanations, enabling listeners understand that the poor - whether individuals, communities or countries - would be at the losing end in today’s kind of marathon behind development. For example, between 2001 and 2006, low income countries lost about 0.3% of their GDP due to extreme events; whereas the developed nations lost only about 0.1%. 

Besides students and teachers from Micro Business College, there were professors and students, including post graduate students of Environmental Science attending the lecture. Notable was the presence of a number of government officers representing critical sectors related to water resource, energy and environment.

President of Micro Business College, Mr. Abera Tilahun gave opening remarks. Mr. Abera Tilahun recollected the immense of contributions made by the founder of the CSE, the late Anil Agarwal, especially in setting productive debates on the idea 'sustainable development' that has later led to scrupulous consideration of the poor and deprived communities into the domains of sustainable development. 

Coordinator (Research, Development and Communication), Mr. Sivakumar K.P. welcomed participants. Vice Dean, Mr. Megersa Nuresa proposed vote of thanks.