Development and the Environment by Senesa Kariyawasam

In a country where we cut down our forests, and have no regard for our heritage sights; do we really even have a slightest thought as to what the environment does for us? Do we try to develop alongside the environment?

Young hearts, intellectual minds, creating dialogue one day at a time, to change not only the country but the world. In the latest episode of ‘Seethala Eethala’, a young set of speakers took the floor searching for solutions on the topic of ‘Development and the Environment’. Regarding the topic of discussion, there is a word that strongly stands in the middle, which is ‘Sustainability’. Everything except you and I belong to nature, and thus, if we are to develop ourselves and the surrounding environment, sustainability should definitely apply. Development is something that could be divided into economical development, cultural development, religious development, political development, educational development, etc. In this article, we elaborate on problems that arose in development and the environment, and their solutions. 

Dinithi Gunathilaka (Debating Captain of Sirimavo Bandaranayake Vidyalaya, Colombo), who was introduced as the first speaker, spoke her thoughts on the matter. An essentiality of including the word ‘environment’ with development won’t emerge to the floor unless the present society moves on with a development associated with the environment but unluckily that is currently active in the opposite way, she noted. 

Consequences of adverse development 

An approximation of 1 billion of the world’s population are unable to use purified water, and around 5000 people have faced death by consuming impure water due to the unavailability of pure water on a daily basis. Three million children under the age of 5 face death annually all around due to adverse development which has resulted in a global community with mass environmental pollution. When it comes to Sri Lanka, we are a country owning 70% of resource evergreen land, but unfortunately, 70% had depreciated to 40% by the present day due to development without environment. This is where the crisis is, where humanity faces adverse and hazardous consequences due to the so-called development for betterment causing considerable deaths.

50% of the world’s population had to pack up their things and move towards urbanized cities with various intentions, and by 2050, it is predicted that 68% will be further encouraged and/or interested in moving towards urbanization. Society as a whole has worn the spectacles of believing in a development equal to the implementation of mass road construction projects and building construction, including highly urbanized platforms, but excluding the environment from the true definition of ‘Development’. 

Green Building Concept

The emergence of the ‘Green Building’ concept to the world is a supplement to take action against this problem of ‘environment-destroying development’. Green building (sustainable building/ green construction) is the concept of creating structures and processes that are environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building’s life-cycle.The ‘Green Building’ concept is currently applied in Sri Lankan projects too, but in a less percentage compared to other countries. Furthermore, in the urbanization concept, today, 70% of waste is produced within urbanized areas of the world. Out of the world’s population, 80% of power and energy are consumed in urban areas and 68% of power and energy consumed by urban buildings. Together with all that, urban cities consume 13.6% of water. During such a situation, ‘green building’ concept is an uplifting component which can be managed by shortening and preserving the use of water supply to 60% higher than normal. Researches had found that a man’s productivity increases 30% more than an average person within environmental development. This enables them to rebuild and conserve the diversity in nature and also to re-establish 40% of lost evergreens.

Therefore, the ‘green building’ concept will be far more effective and efficient in producing an advanced productive person to the world with sustainable development which will hold hands in the winning world.

Demand for oxygen in future

Lakvindu Vithanage (Media Director, DCYA Sri Lanka)saw ‘Development and Environment’ from a different angle when he creatively presented a little story. “Right now, I am on the 02nd of October, 2080. Slight darkness starts to fall after twilight. A personal diary was turned over on a student’s table when I spotted a statement saying, ‘Today, I went to Colombo with my father to buy oxygen, but it was unavailable, therefore, we filled oxygen at the Gampaha station’. ” Driving the spectators’ imaginations for 2080, Vithanage predicts four future generations where such statements will be written in daily diaries, bringing up a responsibility where the current generations should take actions against a world without oxygen, mainly by conserving the environment, as Gunethilaka also explained in her speech. 

Maybe it’s our ancestors’ fault that they had misused development thus; the present generation has had to face global warming and a lot more unfavorable circumstances of the environment.  We often enjoy the beauty of skyscrapers, fully luxurious hotels, restaurants, mass roads, and highway constructions etc. but on one side of all that falls a little alley, paving the way for taller garbage mountains which ruin the surrounding with an awful odor. 

Discipline to develop with nature

Social development, which is a major segment of development, is also spoken within his speech. George Floyd, who was killed by a Police officer, became the symbol of various revolts and campaigns against racism. The speaker had managed to bring up the effect of lack of social development in the community where this news could be only considered as a normal incident. The USA is known to be in the list of countries which have reached the peak of development, where their economy is always accelerating, a powerful country in military and riches. Yet, when comparing the previously mentioned situation with America’s development status; there emerges a doubt; does economical development alone decide the country’s development?  Although the environment is the main topic, here the speech describes society development because both the living and non-living environments should be considered in the topic ‘Development and Environment’. Therefore, all components categorized under development come into play. Thus, discipline in society, which was addressed through Lakvindu, directs society to have the discipline to develop with nature. 

Giving an approach to the 17 sustainable goals implemented by the UN opens spectators’ eyes towards sustainable development, not only economically but humanly too. ‘Development’ is a common ideology anyone is familiar with. ‘Sustainable Development’ is a new ideology that has been applied all around the world, but we aren’t familiar because we haven’t yet applied that ideology in our system. 

What is Sustainable Development?

Sustainable development is developing the present while preserving resources for future generations. Two timely problems in Sri Lanka were discussed relating to ‘Development and Environment’ in Ashen Peeris’s speech, along with a few more concepts which will change the future of Sri Lankan ‘development’ areas; deforestation and environmental pollution due to development and filling marshy lands for constructions. Ashen Peeris is a graduate with a BSC(Hons) in biotechnology.

Deforestation & environmental pollution

Firstly, how do deforestation and environmental pollution occur in Sri Lanka? Building hotels and rest resorts for the development of the tourism industry results in deforestation. “One well grown tree is capable of satisfying the need of oxygen for four people at once. Consequently, cutting down one tree is equal to killing four people,” said Ashen Peeris. Development of tourism could be covered by applying the concept of ‘ecotourism’ that will enable the industry to stand in development by conserving the environment.

Secondly, filling marshy lands for construction, where outsized ratios of marshy lands are filled to fulfill the need to commence house building or mass apartment construction projects, also results in environmental pollution. And where there are such apartments and flats, people living in those buildings and surroundings often face natural disasters such as landscapes and floods. Why do such natural disasters occur? When marshy lands are filled for construction purposes, nature becomes imbalanced, because marshy lands play a significant role in functioning as a water container during rain/monsoon rain periods, and acts as a water supplier during drought/rainless time periods.

Global Warming

Moving further to global warming, today, as a consequence of adverse development, global warming has arisen all around the Earth’s atmosphere, thinning the ozone layer. What are the steps we have taken against global warming as a country? Most foreign developing countries have come up with solutions for the ‘greenhouse gas effect’, where electric vehicle users are nature lovers, whereas our country’s most electric vehicle users use it for their well-being. The intention doesn’t matter, but the way it is used does. 

Carbon Footprint

Carbon footprint is a new concept to the world, where the carbon footprint of any product or any person is calculated according to the carbon emission during the process of production. In the atmosphere, as a result of our activities, 60% of an average person’s ecological footprint is carbon. Also, researchers had concluded that, over the past century, the emitting of greenhouse gases had increased global warming significantly. 10% of the population that earns the most money has, according to research,  just about the same collective carbon footprint as the remaining 90%. Therefore, it is our entire system that is dysfunctional at the end of the day. Two ways are introduced to minimize carbon footprint; carbon offsets, and addressing the root causes.

When the pandemic struck the world, everyone and everything on Earth took a pause. And then again every activity started rising back again in a few months time, once again mainly global warming and climate change.

Error in business and sustainable development

Generally, any person living in the village will always choose places to enjoy luxury in the concrete forests, but a city person would love to visit villages where birds sing their unique melodies, climb up mountains, swim in a river, and enjoy relaxation. Notice the change between rural choice and urban choice. A concrete forest brings physical luxury but not mental luxury by means of happiness and relaxation because of the stressful and busy lifestyle, lesser green in the surrounding, and polluted air, and one will definitely want to escape urban environments and find the natural environment and its beauty at a point they realize the reality.

The majority approach sustainability in an erroneous manner because the major figures in corporations and people who are capable of transforming the country towards the right are misled. Nevertheless, by inculcating the core principles of sustainability parallel to business activities, makes a vast positive difference in any performance. Also, including such principles in our country’s system should be a necessity, but not a want or a piece of jewellery that a country uses to be proud.

Every tiny moment you throw a toffee wrapper or a shopping bag away, step back to think twice of the final destination of those polythene materials. Instead, you can reuse those materials. 

Interrelationship between the Environment and Development

The combination of atmosphere, hydrosphere, and lithosphere is the environment, and humanity, society, political, and economical systems and their changes become development. These are the key ingredients of environment and development but majority of country and business developers view these two definitions as two separate concepts that do not overlap. However, in reality, they should combine together for sustainable development.  Infrastructural facilities and green zones equally contribute towards environmental development. 

“A healthy, prosperous environment is equal to successive long-term foundations of development,” said  Sithji Kawishma (Undergraduate in BA (Hons), University Ambassador). By 2030, Singapore is willing to reach a ‘green plan’ project and as a sub-project under it  is ‘city in nature’, where 1 million trees are implanted, and a portion of  1000 acres of land is allocated to establish green zones. 

There is a difference observed when an egg and a potato are put into boiling water, how both of them react in extremely different ways. It is only what it is made of. What is Sri Lanka made of and what is Singapore made of? That is the question that emerges here. Have we made use of what we are made of? Did we really put ourselves in the boiling water and found that the result came out strong?  In terms of development and the environment, no, we did not.

Overcome Adverse Development

Imagine you could invent anything, imagine you were a scientist and you could discover anything you desire. Imagine you could change the world. This is the kind of mentality in every young mind in any industry, but the least of their concern is towards the environment. Picking up on passion towards the environment, the gathered speakers shared a common passion towards protecting the environment at least during 50% of their lives, where they are involved in non- governmental activities towards saving the environment. Your passion often revolves around something part of your personality which is instilled in you from birth. Lesser priority is given by businesses to eco-friendly and environmental conservation projects unless the project features in a profit maximized way for the company. Instead of planning to change the world at first, start your journey by taking the smallest step towards instilling the passion in yourself and then spread it to others. Next, start growing mini crops of vegetables, meeting your family requirement. The more you start taking actions on the smallest scale, the more you generate love and passion for this subject. When you make a problem personal, that is when you start an immense change.

Finally, in conclusion, eco-friendly products are very expensive (unaffordable for general citizens) in price. That is the major problem that was identified through this discussion. Making sustainable development more widespread, and therefore, more accessible, would solve this issue. We will have to protect the environment only if there’s someone to destroy the natural environment, whereas in sustainable development, we play both roles in destroying and protecting. Therefore, we should first stop destroying, then the environment is already protected . 

Let us take steps forward to develop with the environment

You, reading this article, may be a company owner or an official working in the sustainability sector. If you are, don’t use sustainability to only push up your brand. Pay attention to the co-values of sustainable development and start truly loving the environment. Adapt your system for where attention should be equally paid for both development and environment sectors. Don’t let development overlap the environment. The environment is destroyed by polythene and plastic, go for better alternatives. Unfortunately, right now alternatives are only being invented but not taken into use. On one side lies the need for infrastructural development and the other side, protecting the environment. In between lies sustainable development. The best recommendation for anyone is to follow the middle path – sustainable development. 

Higher usage of natural resources, the gradually increasing population, and no change in lifestyle will result in the further collapse of the natural balance. In this discussion, these speakers spoke about current problems threatening the environment and development and concluded by bringing up solutions to sustainably develop the country towards betterment. If you, as an individual, need to run a race from the start till the end, you will do that, but if you run a certain distance and find yourself lost, change your direction or take a rest and get back on track. You will have to cancel your expectation of winning or success. Thus, you should take this race in consistent steps, following the track in terms of achieving sustainable development. But remember, even if one athlete wins, it doesn’t matter who we are, the change will have begun. That is what Seethala Eethala did to promote the environment and development.