Infrastructure or Environment
Infrastructure or Environment
Introduction
Environment is more important than infrastructure. Current changes in climate can prove to be life threatening as this will impact the survival of the human race. Global warming is a major threat and those who dismiss it lightly will place the planet in further peril. Just because the changes are coming gradually, people are underestimating the damage that harming the environment can cause. Infrastructure is important to meet the needs of growing businesses and an expanding population. But sacrificing the environment in the name of infrastructure is even more perilous.
Viewpoint
• Inadequate infrastructure is posing a major challenge for many countries worldwide. But global warming is a major problem for the whole world. While some parts of the world will be less affected than the others, it is only a matter of time before we lose our planet if we continue on our current course.
• As businesses are establishing themselves, there are dismal reports of rainforests and wetlands being threatened. Livelihoods and the balance of nature are being lost in the race for growth and development. Infrastructure should not be constructed at the cost of the environment. This is because while buildings may improve manufacturing capabilities, they will contribute to changes in temperature and the melting of the ice caps.
• Earth is composed primarily of water. But the green forests and the natural habitats are essential for maintaining the precious balance that sustains life. If steps are not taken to prevent the environment from being damaged, what will extra infrastructure do? We will have no planet to leave to our future generations in the mad rush to build more skyscrapers and buildings. This will prove detrimental in the long run.
• Sustainable development and conservation of biodiversity should be the key agenda of those who want to provide infrastructure. The very purpose of infrastructure is to boost the wellbeing of society. But if it is harming us in the process, then what will it ultimately accomplish? Death and destruction will be the result of the mindless cutting of rainforests and the rampant pillage of nature.
• Apart from harming the ecological balance, development that is not eco-friendly will cause a rise in sea levels. This can cause serious problems for island nations and South East Asian countries located across the Pacific Ring of Fire. There is so much we do not know about our planet or the universe yet. But one thing is certain. If balance is lost, it can have serious repercussions for all of mankind.
Conclusion
Earth is a beautiful planet. It has lush forests and ample greenery. It has amazing natural resources to support and sustain life. But if man continues to succumb to avarice and greed, there will be nothing left of our way of life in the next 25 years or so. It is predicted that many parts of the world will face serious water shortage and resource crunch due to the overexploitation of natural resources. When cold waves and droughts threaten agricultural production, perhaps it is then that the captains of the industry will realize the gravity of the situation. Unless mankind learns lessons from these experiences and makes a change for the better, we will be as extinct as the Dodo bird soon.
Discussion
- RE: Infrastructure or Environment -Deepa Kaushik (05/04/14)
- Infrastructure and environment are two different things meeting at a verge. We can save both the environment with a good infrastructure, if we plan out the things wisely. Looking superficially, developing infrastructure require the derangement of the environment, but it is not so.
Every resource in the nature is of immense importance and it is our duty to safeguard them with utmost care. Developing infrastructure does not demand the destruction of the natural habitat and environment. An office space or a school or a hospital does not call up for the area at the river bed which is obviously of much importance as an agricultural land. Barren lands can be acquired for the construction. Similarly, every developmental requirement has an alternative. We just need to figure that out.
Infrastructure is definitely important in the fast growing economy to support the population and their upliftment. But the environment is the place where the population has to be allocated safely and securely. We cannot compromise on the environmental destruction just for the infrastructure. It is the need of the hour and the youth who are the future of the country should start initializing plans for the appropriate development of the economy by saving the environment.
- Infrastructure or Environment -Farhana Afreen (04/03/14)
Infrastructure or Environment
Increasing demand for more infrastructural development has led to more and more constructions at every nook and corner of the country. Advanced and easier way of life with more transportation means and routes have led to exploitation of the environmental sources that need preservation. Advancing infrastructure cannot deny harming environment in one way or the other. The question here arises whether sacrificing environment for the sake of infrastructure construction is more important? Choosing between environment and our own easy way of living is difficult. In all spheres of life, be it energy, transport, health, education or flood relief, we have to depend on infrastructural advancements.
A road made through clean and tidy rainforest to give the public access to the city. A built dam becomes a reservoir to supply drinking water to a budding settlement. A platform that is miles away from the seashore can be way in to oil reserves deep below the ocean floor. All of these are infrastructures that provide support for present day livelihood. Infrastructure is a crucial part of the development which has to come along with the increasing population, but the destructive impacts it has on the environment cannot be overlooked. The road passing through the rainforest may destruct habitation or interrupt the relocation way for a rare species. The dam may have abstracted water from freshwater locale already besieged of drought. A leakage from the oil platform may have killed marine creatures and left the beach contaminated. These matters are also not to be ignored during the construction of new infrastructures.
Mostly those in charge of infrastructure construction do not pay heed to environmental effects and hence do not make any such consideration when the design or planning is being done for the projects. The organization concerned with the construction must works with governments, industry and other leaders to promote the thoughtfulness of sustainability in these matters, including investigative and innovative ways to lessen environmental brunt and defending susceptible environment that may be permanently smashed by the constructional projects. Every care must be taken that the development of infrastructure do not harm nature or disturb the biodiversity of creatures.
Animals getting killed in railway and roadway platforms are often heard news in India. Railways cutting through forests have harmed elephants and other animals that were living peacefully in those regions. This has led to fight for space. The killings by animals that enter into cities are also due to the disturbance that humans have created in their otherwise peaceful habitat. Roads and railways connections to the remote areas have also augmented illegal hunting of endangered species.
Hydropower is a renewable resource, no doubt, but dams can have a destructive outcome on the environment. These projects need to be done very thoughtfully after studying the location very carefully and determining the effects it could have on the atmosphere. The infesters or companies who invest in these projects need to be aware of the adverse effects they could be unintentionally causing to the environment. Government must also make strict laws and policies that should ask the builders to deeply investigate the surrounding before approving any project in that particular area.
Similarly some areas are simply too susceptible to allow actions such as oil extraction or mining. Those areas need to be identified and protected from legal or illegal usage. Infrastructural development could simply not be stopped for the way our population is growing but better measures can be adopted to ensure that the environment, which is the source of life, is not destructed in the process.
