STATE OF GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT

 welcome to the course environmental impact assessment before we get into the details to

understand environmental impact assessment as what is it how do we define it what purpose does it

serve how did it start and where do we as a nation position ourselves in the

process let us first walk through the world environmental status

we need to know what is the situation that one we are trying to curtail

for this reason we will skim through the report of global environmental outlook 6

which focuses on healthy planet healthy people published by united nations

environmental program in 2019 and while we go through this we are going to reflect upon the need for

environmental impact assessment in particular we will look at chapter 2

and chapter 5 of the report to understand the environmental scenario at the global level concerning the drivers

of environmental change and environmental status today we will cover only environmental concerns related with

air so accordingly our coverage would include

drivers of environmental change we will look into human activities that generate

emissions we will review the global environmental status concerning air

we will discuss the impact of human activities on human health and well-being food security and ecosystems

so accordingly the expected learning outcomes after completion of this session include

that you should be able to identify and discuss the drivers of environmental

change you should be able to discuss and review the human activities that generate

emissions further you should be able to synthesize the global environmental status of air

and reflect upon the needs of eia you should be also able to review the

impact of climate change on human health and well-being food security and

ecosystems and reflect upon why and how we are really

dealing with eia referring from the report there has been sequential transition in

the environmental movement so we have been observing uh environmental movement for some time

initially the movement focused on conservation of future

then the focus was on preservation with value seen in the nature like why we

should really preserve the nato the modern environmental movement which is now we see is more about the risk the

risk that environmental degradation possesses to human health and well-being

industrialization in 19th century world war one led to deflection

rapid outdoor recreation brought many people with direct contact with

environmental degradation and heightened and commitment for preservation

post-world war ii rapid economic growth created concerns for quality of life

you may recollect the great smog of london the deadly smog that covered the city of

london for five days from december 5th to 9th in 1952

caused by a combination of industrial pollution and high pressure weather conditions

this combination of smoke and fog brought the city to near standstill and

resulted in thousands of deaths because of this its consequence prompted the passing of

clean air act four years later which marked a turning point in the history of environmentalism

key voice which brought up environmental risk was rachel carson through her writing on silent spring in

1962 she highlighted the environmental risk of commonly used insecticides

her book is considered most influential in the history of environmental movement

you may also reflect upon mobile gas tragedy where gas leak incident took

place on the night of 2nd and 3rd december in 1984 at union

carbide india limited pesticide plant in bhopal madhya pradesh

in our country you can think about all the incidences which are which took place to realize the risk involved

environmental risk involved increasingly there are concerns that the

enormous gain in life expectancy and quality of life since the industrial

revolution are in danger of being reversed so we are already here where we are starting seeing these changes

the report which we are looking into looks into what is the state of the global environment how is it changing

and what are the major factors and drivers both positive and negative influencing these changes

in the report five drivers are reviewed first we see is the population growth

and demographics then we see urbanization as another drive then we see economic development

and we also see new technological forces and one also identifies climate change

as an independent driver to the change in the environment which we are

experiencing the report states that these have led to wealth all urbanization has led to wealth but might

also cause trouble for us looking a bit closer between today and 2050 the global

urban population will continue to increase urbanization has been going on

throughout history but now the major concern is the pace of urbanization it's

happening very fast the scale in which it is happening the urbanization is happening and the impact the urban areas

have accelerated sharply over the environment in recent decades

as we see large population keep flowing into the cities this inflow

can place great strain on the environmental institutional resources

and infrastructure and this is going on increasing the people

we have to manage in cities money we have to put into cities the urban transportation

which has to be taken care of water supply and severe system which one needs to provide

for the city so all the pressure is increasing all these infrastructure in the figure from the report we see that

the countries with levels of urbanization and the rate of growth

in the countries with low level of urbanization meaning the urbanization is happening

in a lower level but there is high growth rate in population urban citizens

are considered highly vulnerable which you can see here in red color

as per the report indian cities are highly vulnerable the vulnerability how in this report they

are calculating the vulnerability is calculated by adding the urban susceptibility the weakness the lack of

coping capacities and the lack of urban adaptive capacities moving on looking into the economic

driver economic development in the past has brought wealth so we

could reflect upon how industrialization and all the economic development

our income increased but has been a driver of increased resource

use and environmental damage at the same time

we can see as explained by glaston and thermal from balding's work

balding in 1966 portrayed the dichotomy the contrast between the throughput

economy and the spaceship economy in which we are the economic goal of increased gross national product the way

generally we calculated using more input to produce more goods so more and more

input is required to produce more and more goods and services this particular process contains the

seed of its own destruction increased output brings with it not only goods and

services but also more waste products increase inputs demand more resources

as explained through the balding's concept the natural environment is the sink for the

waste and the source for the resources so the environment is also providing us

thing as well as it is absorbing what the waste which we are generating so the environmental pollution and the

depletion of resources are invariably always the ancillaries to economic

development so as long as this happens even the environmental pollution and depletion is going to go on happening

this interaction and the impacts between human actions and the biophysical world

have been recognized by governments from local to the international levels

attempts are continuously made to manage the interaction better so you can think

how eia fits in here further reports indicate that the

technological advances have been tremendous in past decades and continue

to be much more rapid now however these advancements

have resulted in both positive as well as negative impact for example as

included as we have we have been experiencing using the motor vehicles and the electricity that

represent two of the most important technological breakthroughs of the 20th century

but their negative environmental and resource impacts are likely to

persist well through the 21st century now we may also note that as per the

report the climate change has become an independent driver

of environmental change and poses a serious challenge to future economic

development so in itself it has become a driver for change climate change

poses risk to human societies through impacts on food

and what is security this fact is established what we are talking about is scientifically established but more work

is required to undertake in this as per we see in the report climate change will also increase the

existing risk and will create new risks for natural and human system

this is also a well established fact in the report it is highlighted that the

human activities have caused climate change and impacted on ecosystems

they have transformed the earth's natural system exceeding the capacity and disrupting

their self-regulatory mechanism self-regulating mechanism the resources

they can provide or waste they can sink in with irreversible consequences so this

cannot we cannot reverse it for global humanity as per the intergovernmental

panel on climate change study further we see that humanity has already been

seriously affected on ongoing systematic ecological changes such as climate

change and land use change so we see we are experiencing what kind of climate

change is happening we can also see lot of land use change these have reached the point

that the ecological foundations of human society and natural system that support

other species or what we see around other species around us and provide

invaluable ecosystem services are in great danger so we are there we are we

are in the danger zone now so our human our activities are causing increasing

amount of pollution to the extent that this is now recognized as the biggest single risk to

human health worldwide so our own activities are the single biggest risk

to our health before us is a big challenge

to survive with this range of human induced damage so there's a big challenge in front of us

including climate change deforestation desertification loss of biodiversity

scarcity of natural resources pollution and the consequent natural and the

associated environmental impacts now let us look at the current global

environmental status as per the report looking first at the air status so that's what our focus today it says that

the emissions generated by human activity have changed the composition of earth's atmosphere

with consequences for health of people and the planet so it's costing us the

health of us and the planets as a whole it estimates that the global burden of

disease contributed by air pollutions have doubled people change

the atmosphere mainly by generating emissions so you must be experiencing

emissions around you as we have already seen that trends in human caused emissions are driven by

changes in population urbanization economic activity technology

and climate as well as by behavioral choices what choices we make about our lifestyle and

then also it talks about conflict all these drivers are influenced by policies

so we also try to regulate it through policies as to what action we take or how we

respond to these situations as a nation through policy interventions

as per the report globally anthropogenic meaning

environmental pollution and pollutants originating in human activity what we do so what kind of changes pollutions

and pollutants we create the anthropogenic carbon dioxide emission increased by more than 40 percent over

the period of 1990 to 2014. these increase

are largely driven by massive increase in asia so all these increases are

happening because of the increase in asia the report also indicates small decline

in anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions in north american europe because of the technology those they are

curtailing it let us see some of the human activities

that generate emissions as per the report the electricity and fuel production sector is the largest

anthropogenic emitting sector within the sector electricity generation

contributes around 70 percent key pollutant despite increases in renewable

energy capacity fossil fuels still dominate the global power system

three-quarter of these sectors emissions are from coal-fired plants coal combustion is also the second most

important anthropogenic source of global mercury emissions electricity generation

production doubled between 1990 to 2015 as seen in the figure from the report

but emissions of air pollutants did not increase at the same time so

this is mostly because of the technological interventions the main reason for this

diverse city include in the result first is the improvement of energy

efficiency so we have efficiently learnt how to use energy tighter emission standards they are

change in these standards and also the progress of end of pipe control technologies then we also see ah

there has been development of natural gas renewable and nuclear power however

despite existing policies and the um announced aims and targets and intention

electricity demand is expected to increase by two-thirds by 2050 so we'll

will need more and more electricity in future it is projected that both end of pipe

pollution control technology and coal with low sulfur content may be used to

achieve lower air pollutant emissions other human activities that generate

emission is transportation as per the report in all regions of the

world the transportation of people and goods are significant source of emission

of air pollutants so we see transportation being one of the another major pollutant greenhouse gases ozone

depletion substances from automobile air conditioning units so most of us

have been using air conditioning units in their cars and persistent bio

accumulative toxic chemicals which is also said as pbts pbts include lead and other metals so we

are seeing increase in this road transport including petrol like gasoline

and diesel fuel passenger cars and heavy duty trucks account for a main portion

of emissions so road transport is also counting for that road traffic also

contributes to emissions also the cars and trucks operate and

emit pollutants near where people live and work they have a larger impact on air

pollution exposures and associated health impacts we see

as for the report the total road transport activity is higher in north

america and europe than in other regions and is therefore responsible for greater

carbon dioxide emissions however report also indicates steadily emissions for last decade because of

fuel efficiency and introduction of vehicle emissions and fuel standards so we have lot of standards coming in we

further see that as per the report in the developing countries road transport emissions continue to rise as vehicle

use is increasing faster so you have seen lot of vehicles on the road now then technological improvement despite

the introduction of emissions and fuel standards implementation of cleaner technology is

low and especially it is slow it is said to be slow because of the trade of used

vehicles from the richer countries maritime shipping is another another

generator we see here maritime shipping is used to transport 80 percent of global trade if we measure it through

volume and we see that it grew by more than 300 percent between

to 2015 when measured by the volume

maritime shipping typically burns the heaviest petroleum products ships are a significant source emissions

globally so they are they really affect globally and as well as in the coastal

regions and post cities emission control areas have been established under

international law for example covering the north and baltic sea and north american coastal

waters and national laws for national laws for example covering

chinese ports and inland waters the international maritime organization has announced new emission and fuel

standards that are expected to dramatically decrease shipping emissions

starting in 2020. as per the report the we see another

area aviation aviation is another human activity that is growing

contributed to global emissions however currently small

accounting for less than about two percent currently it's very small compared to

percentage two percent of global anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions

from the fuel combustion between 2000 to 2016 however we see

global air passenger travel has increased and the increases of the range of

235 percent uh if you see it measured in passenger kilometer and air flight increased 174

percent so the increase is huge uh aircraft emit pollutants directly onto

the upper atmosphere where their impact on ozone formation and climate forcing

is larger than if it emitted near the surface so the kind of impact it is

having at the upper level is higher so we see that all these activities how do they really

what's the status here moving on let us look at another human activity

causing emissions the industries so this would be very critical for us to understand

industry includes both manufacturing and mining sectors the industrial sector

emits air pollutants greenhouse gases emissions of ozone depleting substances

we call it ods and persistent bio accumulative toxic chemicals

as per the report nearly two thirds of the historic carbon dioxide and methane emissions are attributed

they are because of the businesses including production of fossil fuels and cement so from all these we are getting

all these emissions global emissions from industry increased

for all pollutants between 1990 and 2014 except for sulphur dioxide as for the

report the creation of many new industrial products so we we see there are many more new industrial products

also coming nano materials and chemicals also poses a considerable challenge in terms of regulation and control

their emissions are often neither regulated nor quantified leading to unknown effects on the environment and

health we see that the other human activities for emissions include residential and

commercial activities so lot of emissions are also happening from the residents and commercial activities the

energy demand of built environment primarily because of the construction heating cooling and lighting of

residential and commercial buildings account for a large fraction of greenhouse gases emissions in the

countries with developed economies in some cities in ah developing economies

as well moving on we see yet another is the waste management which is the source of emission

open damping and burning of solid waste remain one of the predominant in low income

countries as per the report and continuous to be practiced in many cities in lower middle and upper middle

income countries so it's a huge problem which we see here

agriculture forestry and other land uses so we see this as well

also contributes 25 percent to the global greenhouse emissions as per the report

in developed countries agriculture forms about 10 percent of national greenhouse gas

inventories while in developing countries the contribution is much higher so you can imagine about the

economies which are much more dependent on agriculture so you can think about the emission levels

natural source also contributes to the emissions wind-blown

dust from natural landscape and unprotected cropland in arid and semi-arid region is the largest source

of atmospheric particulate matter pm and the dominant faction of course pm in

many regions such as north africa and the middle east so you have seen all these things so

moving forward from here we look at the status of the environment from a global

public health perspective and when we look at it the two most important

indicators we look at are air pollutants particulate matter pm and

its components and ground level ozone

as for the reports globally the highest annual average concentration of pm 2.5

so you also measure this 2.5 are seen in areas affected by wind blown sand and

dust example you have north africa and west asia

we also see fires in the central africa and latin america

anthropogenic pollution in south and east asia as seen in the figure you can see here

from 1998 to 2012 satellite observations suggest that pm

2.5 decreased significantly over eastern north america and increased over west

asia south asia and east asia ground-based measurements suggested that the trends over north america south asia

and east asia are associated with changes in anthropogenic populations this is all happening because of the

human activities ah but the changes over west asia are due to changes in wind blown sand and

dust so some are natural conditions which we see here as per the reports you further see the urban areas have higher

overall level of air pollution we can see the data most of us live in these cities

the studies show that only four major cities attained the who guidelines for annual average concentration or the 45

mega cities for which data were available you can see here all the cities then

we look at the ground level ozone is highest in northern mid latitudes and tropics and peaks and warm season north

america the mediterranean south asia and east asia are hot spot of ozone pollution as seen in the figure

um however high population weight ozone ah concentration are also estimated in

central africa west asia and southeast asia so you can look where where we are here

the largest sources of particulate matter pm in the atmosphere globally on annual basis is wind blown sand and dust

the dust belt extends from west coasts of north africa nor over the

mediterranean basin and middle east central and south asia to mongolia and

china and if you look at the reasons people influence dust sources through land

clearing so more and more we are clearing the land and land management practices and other uh influence on desertification however

there has been significant increase observed in north america central asia and australia we also see increasing

trend in dust over large part of middle east during the period of 2001 to 2012

and this is particularly suggested because of the climate change further we see that as per the report

the transported dust contributes to wide range of impact so because of all these dust we are seeing that there is

influence on climate and precipitation so what kind of rainfall we receive

it fertilizes distance forest and oceans contributes to human respiratory ailments all the sickness

health issues and spreads human animal and plant pathogens for downward of

south region within the source region dust storm may damage infrastructure

interrupt transportation and communication system so all these losses happen

so you can see here how the air dust belt is so we further see that as per

the report fires are another large contributor to trans boundary pollution fires areas primarily connected with

land clearing or lighting so more and more land we are going on clearing that is leading to more fire here further we

look a look into the persistent bio accumulative toxic substance in environment we see that the gaseous

element mercury which is a global pollutant has the highest concentration east south and

south east asia so you can see where we are and in the artisanal gold mining regions of

equatorial africa and south america in the image we can see global distribution of annual mean gas

elements mercury concentration in near surface air circles shown values observed on ground based

monitoring so you can see here further regarding ozone as per the report there are indicators that the stratospheric

ozone layer is starting to recover so we can see here there's been reduction now let us look at the impact

of environment in the human so activities that generate emissions trapped in human health and well-being

food security and ecosystems so exposure to indoor and outdoor air pollution was

responsible for 6 million to 7 million as per the premature deaths in 2016 as

per the who report so we see that as per the reports that

even brief period of from minutes to hours of exposure

to high concentration of pollutants can have significant health impacts and um and episodes of unusual higher

high air pollutant attract public concerns so there can be problems there however the serious damage

to public health happens with long-term exposure the more we are exposed to it living in areas of high annual average

exposure so however it's not everything is the levels are not yet well established

the number of deaths that happen due to air pollution varies widely among countries which reflect different

populations so death how many people really die ah depends on the population levels differences in population size

demography underlying rates of disease and socioeconomic characteristics so we see that between 10 2010 to 2016 deaths

were because of the ambient uh pm exposure which was increased by 11

globally due to increased air pollutions as well as growth and aging of the population so we see in 2016 95 percent

of the world's population lived in areas with level of pm 2.5 exceeding the who air quality

guidelines in addition we also see premature mortality air pollution contributes to a wide range of chronic

and acute disease especially cardiovascular and respiratory disease

the economic impact of life years lost because of what we are losing increased

health care and lost worker productivity due to air pollutions are also considerable so we

not only health debt but there are a lot of other losses which are happening as for the report the impact of pm 2.5 air

pollution on labor forces in china in 2007 was estimated to create economic losses

of 346 billion yuan which was like 1.1

percent of gdp then we also see there's a lot of uh

recent oecd analysis estimates combined cost of ambient and household air pollution in africa

to be of 450 us billion dollar in 2013

and asia has the highest absolute number of debts in 2016 attributed because of

this and exposures have begun to decline in china but increasing in parts of south asia

so you can see think of where we are right now in the image you can see the deaths per

one lakh pop people in 2016 because of ambient air pollution you may note the red and

the orange color to understand the level of impact here so you see where we are located here so report indicate that

over the coming decade to century adverse health effects from climate change are forecast to greatly exceed

any potential health benefits so the effect of climate change on human health can be classified as direct that our

heat waves storm less direct that are changes in disease vector ecology reduction in water supply

or severe air pollutions and diffuse where we can see the category of diffuse effects could have largest burden or

disease through means such as conflict migration famine and then we also see mental health effects arise from all

three categories so the health impact of changing climate will be inevitably distributed globally

and we see climate change is also affecting the food security impacting availability of the quantity access

affordability utilization uh how much it meets the nutritional need and food safety and then also the

stability how how the harvest failure and price spike happens so it has impact

on the ecosystem as well like the air pollution climate change uv radiations

and so on these adverse impact in turn affect the severe pro services provided to humans by those

ecosystems and then also the social well-beings ah beyond

the impact on the human and ecosystem health and food security these kind of changes in the atmosphere have negative

impact on social well-beings or the welfare also because you need to invest more

and then the air pollution degrades materials also so that also happens here

and all these things so we have seen all kind of the status also impact on the

human and the ecosystem so summarizing today's session we see that we identified and discussed the drivers of

environmental change we discussed and reviewed the human activities that generate emissions we reviewed the

global environmental status particular focus on air we reviewed the impact of climate change and human health and

well-being food security and ecosystem so these were our references the key

references was the global environmental law plug-6 introduction to environmental

impact assessment by john glassen and ricky terrible here you can see the references our

coverage has been limited as the scope of the subject additional resources to read and watch are provided to you and

the list given here and please feel free to ask questions let us know about any concerns you have

to share your opinion experiences and suggestions looking forward to interacting and

co-learning with you in our discourse under subject eia thank you