Unfortunately, it is the Human activities that are causing greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere to increase. We all do not need scientific data to know that global warming is on the increase, every one of us feel it. What the scientific data predicts is indeed alarming, taking 1990 as the baseline, the climate change indicated for year 2100 is so much greater than any climate change man has experienced in the last 10,000 years. The International community has been working together to minimize these risks through the 1992 convention on climate change and its 1997 Kyoto protocol.
You may now wonder where, do I, or rather the Friedrich-Naumann-Foundation comes into the picture. The Friedrich-Naumann-Foundation that I represent considers that the principles of a Free Market Economy and the Rule of Law are the basis of individual liberty in a civic society. The Foundation has in its vision an international society in which all exchange of cooperation and competition between different people, states, communities and cultures take place in an environment of freedom.
Liberals were the first to put the issue of environmental protection on the political agenda of Germany in the early 1970s. But, creating awareness was an uphill task, and still is. Well, nothing is impossible, if one has the commitment. Germany, for example is a country that has taken to the task of environmental protection with a deep commitment.
We find in South Asia, the situation is more difficult, where, in complex, fragmented and multi-layered societies, environmental consciousness is only just awakening, or, perhaps I shall call it reawakening, as traditional societies knew how to use their natural resources wisely. If one thinks that Environmental protection is a new fangled thing, the truth is far away from it. Lord Buddha himself explained the importance of all individuals realizing their responsibility for preserving the environment to make it a part of daily life, of creating the same attitude in their families and spreading it to the community, as did the other religious visionaries who advocated living in complete harmony with one’s environment.
South Asian countries face very similar environmental problems. The forest cover has shrunk to dangerous 8-10% of the territory all over the subcontinent. The sea eats into the shores of Sri Lanka as well as Pakistan. Clean water has become a scarcity; dams create water logging, salination and displacement of inhabitants. The bio diversity is fast diminishing, many medicinal herbs have disappeared, tigers, rhinos and wild elephants need to be sheltered in National Parks, and even there, they are not safe from reckless hunters. Cities grow faster than the planers envisage, and as a result the civic amenities do not increase at the same pace. Power, water supply, waste management and traffic control breakdown at regular intervals. Even Tourism can be considered as a mixed blessing as it adds to pollution. The answer lies in people taking responsibility for this single earth that is home to all of us. We cannot leave it to the developed countries to find all the solutions; we all must show a deep commitment.
We have witnessed some in our own country – I have seen how Ms. Sophie Punte, ignoring the many discomforts and inconveniences, along with the dedicated SMED staff tirelessly going through the educating process of the Industrialists in Thulhiriya.
Some may blame all the ills of the environment on the free market and fast economic development. The concept of "limits to growth" has come out of this theory. The reality is different. Environmental protection and preservation must be tackled along with economic development and not at the cost of economic growth. Environmental protection will also need investment of enormous resources, which can only be generated from economic growth, not without it.
We need to tackle the problems with a positive attitude. Instead of believing that the plant earth is doomed to extinction, we must believe in the capacity of the human beings to stop the process of erosion and change course. Few would disagree that changes have to start at the attitudinal level. We cannot remain silent subjects; we must become vocal citizens and participate in finding solutions. The answer is not for the civic society to clash with the administrators, but to find a common platform for individuals, government agencies and the Industry to approach issues pragmatically and tackle them coherently. The discourse on environment is still mostly confined to the literate.
Different idioms may be mutually incomprehensible and modes of expression may differ. Yet we can get over this by becoming more sensitive and perceptive to each other’s problems (Like the administrators to the issue of the industrialists and vise versa). A two-way flow of information needs to be established to collect data from the grass root level and in turn to disseminate knowledge to them.
To create awareness of the responsibility of each individual towards the ecosystem should not only become a part of our basic education, but an essential part of our daily life.
Let me leave you with this thought:
Responsibility towards future generations should be a primary concern with us, as freedom would have no meaning in a world of destruction, human dignity cannot grow in suffocation.
Sagarica Delgoda
Country Representative/FNSt – Sri Lanka
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