THE_NEED_FOR_SUSTAINABLE_DEVELOPMENT…..
“We
do not inherit the earth from our ancestors;
We
borrow it from our children” – Lakota.
The term “sustainable development” is
defined as development to achieve the needs of the present generation without
compromising with the needs of the future. Over the recent years the importance
of sustainable development has come into the limelight. However recent
incidences in our country express the need to promote this concept from paper
to practice. There are three recent events which come into mind when we talk
about sustainable development.
The
first is the recent Volkswagen scandal more popularly known as the “diesel
dupe”. According to BBC, In September, the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) found that
many VW cars being sold in America had a "defeat device" - or
software - in diesel engines that could detect when they were being tested,
changing the performance accordingly to improve results. The German car giant
has since admitted cheating emissions tests in the US. The
EPA has said that the engines had computer software that could sense test
scenarios by monitoring speed, engine operation, air pressure and even the
position of the steering wheel.
When
the cars were operating under controlled laboratory conditions - which
typically involve putting them on a stationary test rig - the device appears to
have put the vehicle into a sort of safety mode in which the engine ran below
normal power and performance. Once on the road, the engines switched out of
this test mode.
Moving
forward we come to the Chennai floods in December, where the nation witnessed hundreds
of lives lost followed by the huge it to the IT business. The major cause for
these floods lies with decades of
haphazard unplanned development, which has blocked the natural drains of the
city.
Lastly
a matter of highest concern: the rising levels of air pollution in our capital
city Delhi, which has now replaced Beijing as the most polluted city in the
world.
It
is high time that we move from reactive measures to preventive ones, before we
face a disaster we are incapable of countering. However we cannot ignore the
fact that growth is needed in our country for sustaining the present population
and create a better future. These recent incidences only serve as a reminder
that in our race for development, we must always make sure we do not overexploit
our current resources. If we fail to do so, the future of this country will not
be a pretty sight. Therefore sustainable development plays a key role, and
needs to be brought from the “part of the curriculum in education” stage to
“actual and more intensive implementation” stage.
-
Ms
. K. Chaitra, BBA (Hons) II year.