A new ethics for a sustainable planet (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 3: Environment
Prelims level: Greenhouse gases
Mains level: Environment impact assessment

Context

• Brazil’s Amazon forests are ablaze with dozens of fires, most of them set intentionally by loggers and others seeking greater access to forest land.
• How long the fires can continue is unclear. But at this scale, they are paving the way for a global climate catastrophe.

Key implications from the forest fires

• The burning of the world’s largest forest reserves, the withdrawal of the world’s leading polluter from a major international treaty and the U.K.’s isolationist policies may appear to be the triumph of nationalist ideology.
• But these actions have consequences that far transcend national boundaries and impact all creatures that share life on the planet.
• While energy and transport are mainly responsible for the accumulation of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere, changes in land use patterns too have made significant contributions.
• Deforestation, industrial agricultural systems and desertification are major drivers of climate change.
• Agriculture, forestry and other land use activities accounted for a little less than a quarter (23%) of the total net anthropogenic emissions of GHGs between 2007-2016.
• The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recently brought out a special report on Climate Change and Land that covers desertification, land degradation, sustainable land management, food security and greenhouse gas fluxes in terrestrial ecosystems.
• Very wide in its scope, the report makes it clear that unless land is managed in a sustainable manner, the diminishing chance that humanity will survive climate change will become smaller still.

Land management

• Land is part and parcel of people’s lives. It provides food, water, livelihoods, biodiversity and a range of other benefits from its ecosystems.
• Land use is indeed interlocked with several aspects of life on earth.
• Soils have become depleted with heavy use of chemicals, farms have few or no friendly insects, monoculture has led to a reduction in the use of indigenous crop varieties with useful characteristics, groundwater is depleted and polluted farm runoffs are contributing to contaminated water bodies while destroying biodiversity.
• We have created a system that no longer supports agricultural households, and the stresses have led to farmer suicides.
• Managing land better for farming would entail implementing more sustainable agricultural practices.
• It would mean, for instance, reducing chemical input drastically, and taking the practice of food production closer to natural methods of agroecology, as these would reduce emissions and enhance resilience to warming.
• The report calls for avoiding conversion of grassland to cropland, bringing in equitable management of water in agriculture, crop diversification, agroforestry and investment in local and indigenous seed varieties that can withstand higher temperatures.
• It also recommends practices that increase soil carbon and reduce salinisation.

Establishing sustainable food systems

• Establishing sustainable food systems means reducing food waste, which is estimated to be a quarter of the food produced.
• It also necessitates eating locally grown food and cutting meat consumption.
• Alongside these changes, it is important to put an end to deforestation, while conserving mangroves, peatland and other wetlands.
• To make these significant changes and reduce inequality and poverty, land use policy should incorporate better access to markets for small and marginal farmers, empower women farmers, expand agricultural services and strengthen land tenure systems.
• Sustainable land management can reduce multiple stressors on ecosystems and societies.
• It will also help societies adapt better to warmer climates and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

Conclusion

• In thinking about how to address the transnational challenges of climate change and land, the narrow lens of nationalism is no longer serving us.
• We need a new planetary ethics that supports alternative systems for the future, for a sustainable earth.
• It is one that cultivates the growth of ecological sensibilities, supports pluralism, enhances quality of life, shifts values away from consumerism and creates new identities and cultures that transcend conventional boundaries.
• More recently, Fridays for Future and Fossil Fuel Divestment are part of such evolving sensibilities.
• How we move forward with these successes to create a sense of solidarity across boundaries, instead of building fortress worlds, will contribute to the path we build.

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Prelims Questions:

Q.1) With reference to the BASIC countries, consider the following statements:
1. It is a bloc of four advanced developing countries namely Brazil, South Africa, India and China, formed by an agreement in 1990.
2. Its 28th Ministerial meeting on Climate Change held recently in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
A. 1 only
B. 2 only
C. Both 1 and 2
D. Neither 1 nor 2

Correct Answer: B
Mains Questions:
Q.1) Viewing the transnational challenge of climate change through the narrow lens of nationalism will only spell disaster. Give your arguments in this regard the process of sustainable development.