Poverty, inequity, and environmental degradation: The key issues confronting the environment and sustainable development in Asia

2022 ◽  
pp. 155-174
Author(s):  
Anoja Wickramasinghe
Author(s):  
Ranabir Samaddar

The author's reflections on the concept of sustainability move within a historicalsociological frame, and it is in this context that the author arises a fundamental question: is the world able to sustain other wars and mass destructions or, instead, it is necessary to listen to a new need the path of sustainable development. The work gives a unique perspective on the birth and evolution of the concept of sustainability, as it does not focus on data and technical analysis, but places this issue in a comprehensive framework, illustrating a number of ties between the need for a path of sustainability and global key issues, and providing important secondary issues.


2015 ◽  
Vol 78 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maisarah Makmor ◽  
Zulhabri Ismail

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is a planning tool to identify, predict and evaluate potential environmental impacts and mitigation measures in the early stages of proposed projects. Although EIA has been implemented in Malaysia for over 25 years, the EIA practices have yet to achieve the parameters of effective environmental management and sustainable development. Hence, this research aims to improve the EIA process in Malaysia. Three objectives were utilised in this research which are to recognise the fundamentals of EIA process and procedures applied in Malaysia, to analyse the issues in relation to the EIA preparation and submission conducted in Malaysia and to propose a set of recommendations to further improve the current EIA process in Malaysia. Mixed methods approach was embarked composed of qualitative instruments via document review and semi-structured interviews and quantitative instrument utilising questionnaire survey. Key issues on the EIA process in Malaysia were gathered from qualitative data collected. Analysis of data collected resulted to recommendations on the key issues regarding EIA. 25 proposed recommendations to improve the EIA process were contextualised and validated via questionnaire survey. Ergo, this research established an improved EIA process in Malaysia towards sustainable development to ameliorate the EIA practices in Malaysia. 


Author(s):  
Debashis Mazumdar ◽  
Mainak Bhattacharjee ◽  
Jayeeta Roy Chowdhury

One major concern that has emerged in the post-globalization period is climate change. Given that pollution and environmental degradation is a public bad, the adverse change in the climate of one region will have ubiquitous effect and therefore will hamper the process of sustainable development across the globe. There are substantial links between international trade and environmental issues – one being that of the perverted comparative advantage which evolves mainly out of the neglect of environmental damage caused by productive activities. In this chapter, an attempt has been made to build a theoretical framework related to intra-industry trade with production differentiation based on the environmental quality of the goods and price to address how liberalization of trade happens to affect the environment of the trading nations. The study shows a steep decline in the environmental quality of the good that was relatively cleaner under autarky while a meagre improvement in the environmental quality of the relatively dirtier good. Hence, it is revealed hereby how trade alters the nature of international inequality in the environmental quality of the productive activities.


2021 ◽  
pp. 21-72
Author(s):  
Christina Ergas

The prevailing notion of sustainable development has remained ineffective at reducing environmental degradation and social inequalities. The chapter argues that sustainable development, as it has been conceived, is actually a shell game for creating neocolonial dependency in the developing world rather than more sustainable, self-sufficient nations. This chapter explains the history of colonization and urbanization, contextualizing the problem of weak, neoliberal, sustainable development using social science environmental theories, such as climate denialism, ecofeminism, environmental justice, metabolic rift, and treadmill of production. It then provides an alternative, a radical sustainability that is at once socially and ecologically egalitarian, or transformative, and restores the health of people and the planet, or regenerative. These cases are presented as alternatives to sustainable development and as examples of radical sustainability and self-sufficient, autonomous development.


2006 ◽  
Vol 08 (01) ◽  
pp. 61-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
ALISON BODURTHA QUA-ENOO ◽  
KATE SCHENDEL ◽  
NEVIL QUINN

South Africa introduced a visionary policy for water resource management in 1998. The South African National Water Act (Act 36 of 1998) contains several innovative mechanisms with the potential to transform water resource management within the country and abroad. The Reserve is one of these innovations, guaranteeing a basic water requirement for both human needs and ecosystem health. This article discusses the process of Reserve determination and implementation in South Africa and identifies challenges and opportunities for successful implementation. Based on the perceptions of 28 water managers, consultants, and researchers, the key issues and recommendations for improving implementation are presented. The major findings indicate that political support, the capacity of the implementing organization, supporting policies, strong linkages between policy actors and effective monitoring programs are key issues in the successful implementation of sustainable development policy mechanisms.


2016 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 209-233 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claire Brighton

AbstractPoverty and environmental degradation are two of the gravest issues facing the planet today. The most obvious means of addressing each issue, however, appears ostensibly to undermine the other. While environmental and development strategies are largely associated with the concept of sustainable development that emerged in the 1990s, the debate between these two interests dates back to the 1940s. This article seeks to fill an apparent gap in environmental scholarship by presenting a history of the environmental protection/development relationship. It will argue that, rather than being the product of an organic development process, the concept of sustainable development and the principles underlying it were consciously shaped by a number of international actors with vested interests in their trajectory. Understanding why and how this was permitted is important not only for its capacity to throw light on the past, but also for its ability to assist in understanding and predicting the future.


Author(s):  
Barun Kumar Thakur ◽  
Himanshu Sekhar Rout ◽  
Tamali Chakraborty

Environmental problems are multidisciplinary in nature. Some problems are global and regional while some are local. This paper is an attempt to study the local environmental problems in India and establish their linkage with environmental degradation and human well-being. It also lists India's major environmental problems and suggests changes in policies for sustainable development in India. The paper particularly focuses on water and water contamination related water-borne diseases which affect human well-being and other health aspects. Due to such hindrances, India is finding it hard to achieve the Millennium Development Goal of environmental sustainability.


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