What is environmental sustainability and why is it important?

 Environmental sustainability is a topic that everyone seems to be talking about… from building eco homes and conscious communities to adopting sustainable food, renewable energy in our lifestyle.

Maybe turning to low impact furniture and clothing, but what does the term ‘ environmental sustainability’ really mean?

There are many definitions that are used but the concept was coined in the 1987 report “Our Common Future”.

They recognised the link inequality, poverty and environmental degradation and the way out to this environmental crisis would be to eradicate these issues.

The various definitions of environmental sustainability leads to more queries about the incredible role we have to play.

As a species whose constantly evolving, this definition pertains to change the way we live… how should we change the way we live and conduct business on this planet to ensure?

What many of us can do is change our living conditions in the form of eco-village, sustainability. Reevaluating the work done (permaculture, green building, sustainable agriculture).

Developing new technologies (green technologies, renewable energy).

Why do we need sustainable practices?

While the issue of environmental degradation and biodiversity has long been recognized, the individual responsibility that the issue at hand demands is not lived up to. There has to be an inbred understanding about ‘the interlinkedness’ of our actions… how we as a community share the responsibility for our collective actions. The air we breathe, the water we drink, the land we live on don’t recognize national lines- so it is up to each and every individual to take care.

There are many initiatives that one person can partake in- large, small, national and global- we can always take part in it. Looking after environmental health is crucial to making sure that our future generations have access to clean, green, healthy lives.

Many projects are underway, which range from cleaning up the beaches to awareness programs for kids belonging to lower strata.

You can also take up or initiate our personal projects something that you as an individual are passionate about. Involve other household members with you as well.

Mission Sustainability: Population VS Planet – The talk of this century

 

On average, 83 million people are added to the world population every year. As per the latest estimates by the UN, we will have a global population of 9 billion by 2030.

However, we only have one planet to live on- Earth and it has finite resources to sustain human needs. If the human population keeps growing at the current rate, our planet will not be able to keep up.

And that is the problem!

That’s what prompted Pradip Burman to launch this year-long initiative ‘Mission Sustainability: Population VS Planet’ in partnership with WION.

Through this initiative we aim to aware, educate and empower the current generation with solid facts and teach them the way for stabilizing the population for a better future. The population is directly linked to climate change, global warming, ecological disruption and biodiversity loss. And our planet is reeling under the burden of population explosion and the multiplying needs of humans. And there is nothing inexplicable about it.

Today, you and I are witnesses to the rising housing crisis, deepening poverty, growing unemployment, and declining health in our country due to unsustainable overpopulation. Among these environmental and economic crises, the two most apparent challenges that we face today are air pollution and climate change.

Recently, some of the prominent metro cities in India were rated as the most polluted cities in the world. This shows the quality of the air we breathe today. As for climate change, in the past few years, we have seen rising temperatures in India and shorter winter seasons. That is a sign of climate change and global warming that we face.

The connection between air pollution, climate change and population, is simple. More population leads to more vehicles, more pollution and higher climate temperatures.

But how do we save our planet from the impending disaster?

I feel, education is the key to saving our planet. By inculcating environmental awareness as part of school education and empowering the youth to be climate warriors, we can make future generations a part of the ‘Save the Planet’ movement.

Mobius Foundation understands the importance of education and instils this as a basis in each of its projects. Some of these initiatives include:

Project Aakar: It aims to spread awareness and promote population stabilization methods especially to the rural population of India.

World Environment School: There is a growing need to understand the environment and adopt a sustainable lifestyle. This school aims to teach students just that.

Gyan Anant Vidyalaya: Situated in Atrouli village, the school makes quality education accessible to the rural area and emphasis on educating the youth there about the environment.

'Mission Sustainability - Population vs Planet' India's population: 1.38 billion and counting How should India stabilise its population growth?

 This segment brings to you a discussion with Pradip Burman, Chairman of Best Ngo in India Mobius Foundation about the objectives & benefits of the project ‘Aakar’, established by Mobius Foundation, which runs several outreach programmes to counsel women and couples planning to start families. The foundation also organises a monthly Happy Family Day, or Khushal Pariwar Divas, to create awareness about sustainable population.

Read more on-https://www.wionews.com/videos/mission-sustainability-population-vs-planet-indias-population-138-billion-and-counting-how-should-india-stabilise-its-population-growth-377946