As the business sectors take on practices of sustainability and environmental conservation, the demand for skilled environmental professionals across sectors is increasing by the day. This has called for an emphasis on environmental studies as an imperative and professionally viable market stream that would also enable generations to come to combat the looming challenges of climate change and inter-generational equity.
The current public health crisis and the ensuing lockdown has restricted the general populace to their homes while the economy and businesses have since struggled to find the pre-lockdown momentum. However, the resilience of the citizenry is evident from the sudden influx of webinars that have been available for everyone on topics of their choice.
The field of environment, climate change and energy, governance and policy has benefitted from such webinars where discussions have panned across continents with experts from various environmental fields sharing the same platform, webspace and discussion panels. While discussions in such environmental space range from science-based extrapolations to class action lawsuits, a single thread that runs through most of these discussions is the importance of environmental education and awareness. A common denominator that distinctly emerges from all such discussions is that of equipping the youth with proper tools of environmental studies and insights to take reasoned decisions towards a sustainable future. This addresses the twin purposes of improving behaviour across generations to reduce our carbon footprint while alerting the community on the benefits of sustainable development.
The importance of environmental education in legitimising such day-to-day decisions cannot be overstated. From knowing that to manufacture a pair of everyday jeans requires approximately 10,000 litres of water to understanding the transboundary displacement of communities due to climate change--all require a basic understanding of the environment.
Thus, in order to combat the looming dangers of climate change, conserving natural resources and appreciating the fiscal intangibility and fragile nature of flora and fauna around us, environmental studies need to form the basis of curricula. Following are some of the points that help establish why basic environmental education is imperative for the youth and the generations to come:
Scope of environment: Environment encompasses everything around us --the air we breathe, the food we eat, the water we drink. The conservation of the Sundarbans delta is as important for the sustenance of life for a denizen of Delhi as is the conservation of her local aquifer. In the Indian context, according to the Environment Protection Act, 1986, “environment” includes water, air and land and the inter-relationship which exists among and between water, air and land, and human beings, other living creatures, plants, microorganisms and property. This definition shows the vast scope of the environment as a subject matter. To be educated in environmental studies is to be educated in life.
Ancestral property, inheritance and inter-generational equity: A significant percentage of civil litigation relates to inheritance, with successors fighting for a legitimate share in the properties of their parents and ancestors. As a society, we have grown to agitate and strive for our rightful share in property we are to inherit. Similarly, inter-generational equity envisages that we are merely custodians or borrowers of the present environment from our future generations. Thus, the current environment is the ancestral property of future generations and there lies a rightful claim on the preserved state of the environment by these generations. To agitate and strive for a share of the pristine environment, the youth and future generations need to be educated and informed.
To help make informed choices: It takes around 12000 litres of water to make a single smartphone. For us to truly conserve the environment, we need to make educated and informed decisions--all of which bear on various facets of environment.
Climate change: The harmful effects of climate change are all around us. The disruption of seasonal cycles, severity of droughts and floods, global warming, climate change migration--both human and non-human species centric, water security, stringent environmental diplomacy are all direct and indirect effects of governing and managing the current climate crisis. It is thus imperative that this generation and the future generations are educated in environmental studies, to understand the world around them and to establish the link between each individual’s choices and his/her impact on climate.
Exhausting fossil fuels: The only way earth will be able to sustain life is by switching over to renewable energy at scale. Fossil fuel-based sources are limited and their environmental impact in terms of air and water pollution is tremendous. Renewable energy is clearly the way forward. Self-sustaining solar panels, grid connectivity, net/back metering are all pieces of a puzzle that needs to be solved at the earliest. Cleaner energy also takes from bio-mimicry which is fast becoming one of the most efficient branches of engineering. These considerations form the crux of our response to the environmental challenges that await us--and require experts who specialise in these specific subjects.
The generation that stands at the precipice of choosing a career path for their future is, in fact, both the subject and the judge of the environmental challenges that we are to face in times to come. This means that the demand for environmental professionals will continue to grow exponentially. From environmental risk management to international environmental relations, the public and private sectors alike are opening up new opportunities for such specialised fields. We need to meet this demand with a supply of dedicated environmental-studies career professionals to deal with the challenges in science, governance, psychology, management, philosophy, engineering, law, policy and public health within the paradigm of environment, energy and climate change.
The next few generations are the subject matter of the climate crisis. They are the ones who will be affected by it the most, and it is their actions that will affect the sustenance of life on Earth. The impact of studying the environment is thus not just informative but existential. Each of us in the time to come needs to be better informed, rational and equipped to take on this challenge. The professional opportunities and the scale of the market would thus follow.
(Armin Rosencranz and Eeshan Chaturvedi are the Dean and Assistant Dean, respectively, Jindal School of Environment and Sustainability)