Human lives are inextricably tied to the environment. Our relationship with nature is something that we easily overlook due to our busy lives. Concrete jungles have alienated nature from our sensibilities, but nothing can hide the fact that nature encompasses us. This becomes especially clear in times of great natural disasters when we can only watch as nature takes over. Humans, just like all the other species in nature, are ephemeral. The one thing that sets us apart from the others is the fact that we are actively contributing towards our extinction. We are vulnerable to even the smallest changes in nature that are brought about by our reckless actions. It may go unnoticed because, unlike natural disasters, the effects of environmental degradation may not affect all humans at once. However, no one can escape it forever. It may start in an unknown corner of the world and slowly become a progressing problem that grates on our nerves, like global warming. Vulnerable populations would first get affected and slowly but surely everyone else would be made equal before the terrible and disproportionate consequences of our actions against nature.
The Relationship Between Environmental Degradation And Fundamental Rights
The vulnerability of human populations is the reason why it is important to look at environmental safety as both a fundamental right and fundamental duty. Many countries of the world, as well as international organizations currently recognize this right. We live in a modern world where most people have the access to basic human rights and both solicited and unsolicited knowledge. Hence, most of us are acutely aware of our rights and how similar rights are being violated in the world. We should thus have no problem in understanding that it is the right of all humans, present and especially future, to have a healthy environment to live in.
An unhealthy environment breeds chaos and the animalistic instinct of the survival of the fittest. It would clash with the modern human philosophy that places great importance on equality and result in a severe breach of normal society. Human rights violations will be rampant. And in fact, it already is. The United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction defines environmental degradation as "the reduction of the capacity of the environment to meet social and ecological objectives, and needs". Unethical human practices cause environmental degradation and that in turn affects basic human rights.
The Plachimada Water Struggle
An example close to home can be found in the case of the Plachimada Water Struggle that attracted both national and international attention in the early 2000s. The Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Private Limited was allowed to open a factory in the Palakkad district of Kerala in January 2000. At first glance, it was a promising venture which increased employment opportunities and entrepreneurial spirit. As the months passed, the villagers noticed that the groundwater levels had become alarmingly low and people had started to become sick from the water. At one point the plant was using several hundred thousand litres of water per day, from land used by the locals to farm. In an even more shameful move, the company distributed its toxic sludge to farmers as fertilizer. Subsequent studies proved that the water in the area had a dangerously high level of carcinogens. Protests ensued and in a historic World Water Conference held in Plachimada, environmentalists like Vandana Shiva made the declaration that water was not private property or commodity, but a common resource and fundamental right.
The most notable fact about this movement is that the agitation against the unethical practice of HCCBPL started from among the most vulnerable demographic in India- the Adivasis. A huge number of the protesters were women. The fact that they led the agitation proves that economically and culturally disadvantaged people, as well as women, are the first people in a society to be affected by environmental issues. It also shows that the determination of simple people can protect the environment. The success of the Plachimada Struggle is also due to the actions of countless activists and environmentalists who made sure that the residents of the area knew that nobody can monopolize or exploit something as basic as water, access to which is a basic human right. The agitators were able to spread awareness of the relationship between human rights and environmental degradation and this is what distinguishes the Plachimada Struggle.
The Struggle Of The Underprivileged To Attain Environmental Safety
Human rights are what makes all people equal in a capitalist world where wealth and power are concentrated in the upper strata of society. One may be rich or poor, man or woman but the right to life, granted by Article 21 of the Indian constitution applies to all equally. It is unfortunate that such a right, as well as the right to a safe environment mentioned in Article 21, is currently more theoretical than practical. Poverty skews the norms of justice. Environmental problems affect the poor exponentially more than the rich, the latter often perpetrating environmental degradation. In the face of disasters like water contamination, it is the right to life of people that get affected.
People with the means can simply remove themselves from the situation with more or less damage to their comforts. However, those whose lives are intrinsically associated with the environment around them cannot escape as easily. Such people are often the most disadvantaged groups in society. In the case of the Plachimada Struggle, the Adivasi population represented this stratum of society. As it is, they are already cut off from the comforts of society due to their economic poverty and cultural estrangement. Their occupations are closely tied to the environment around them. This makes them more vulnerable than the rest to the loss of access to drinking water. They also do not have adequate access to mainstream politics and almost anything that changes the delicate environment around them affects their human rights.
Environmental Degradation Can Be Compared To War
Environmental degradation is indeed war against nature. The situation is similar to war. The world watches in horror when human rights are violated in war and atrocities are committed on the life of human beings who are equal to everybody else in the world. Examples include extremist invasions in Afghanistan or the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The lives and spaces of people are invaded by agitators and normality gives way to chaos. Similarly, when we exploit nature by deforestation, pollution and corporate greed, we are invading the environment and throwing the natural order into chaos. What we forget is the fact that we are not only the agitators, we are also a part of the nature we are rebelling against and in essence, we are exploiting ourselves as a whole. Greed and disproportionate wealth drive this process. The industrious nature of humans seems to be at odds with everything in us that ties us to the environment. One facet of humanity actively undermines the rights of the other. To put this more clearly, consider the disparity between traditional fishing and industrial fishing.
Traditional Fishing Vs Industrial Fishing
In older days, fishermen were more conscious of the sea and the breeding cycle of marine life. They often allowed periods for marine life to regenerate. However, today's commercial fishing employs giant nets that remove a huge amount of fish from the sea, both desirable and undesirable for the market. They also employ deplorable techniques like bottom trawling, which is the process of dragging giant nets over the sea bed to catch fish. This practice wrecks the sea bed and is a shameful child of corporate greed. The United Nations estimate that a great percentage of global ocean damage is due to bottom trawling. Longline fishing is yet another method, where long lines with hooks are dragged through the ocean. They catch not only fish but also birds, turtles and whales. These 'bycatch' are useless and are thrown overboard. The hooked lines are sometimes left in the ocean to cause even more harm. Several studies estimate that such practices will cause the eradication of fish in the ocean. This will not only affect people who depend on the sea for food and livelihood but the ocean food cycle too. Some may argue that there is no other way to feed the booming population. However, it tells a lot about an industry's commitment towards the environment when they can develop innovative ways to empty the oceans of fish but cannot find enough time or resources to develop a method for sustainable fishing on a larger scale.
Where do human rights come to play in this example? Practices like bottom trawling empty ocean habitats of fish. This destroys the livelihood of smaller fishermen. One person maximises his profits while countless others suffer. This plunges the latter into a cycle of poverty where human rights are more preached about than enjoyed. On a broader scale, environmentally damaging fishing practices are likely to empty oceans of fish. When this affects the food cycle, it would set off a series of ecological events that result in disasters that first affect the vulnerable population that languishes in poverty. While the actual perpetrators of environmental damage have the means to create safeguards for themselves, the poor are already disadvantaged in this struggle. In the case of an environmental disaster then, human rights become a utopian concept.
Environmental Sensitivity And Human Rights Are Inextricable
Hence, for human rights to be something that makes all humans equal, we must also be mindful of our fundamental duties and especially our duties toward the environment. We all must discharge our duties towards the environment with as much diligence as we would have in our careers- the more advantaged of us proportionately bearing the bigger burden of responsibility. Wealth, fundamental rights, and fundamental duties are intricately tied into the narrative of environmental degradation and its effects on humanity. We cannot talk about rights without impressing upon people the importance of duties because the perpetrators of environmental degradation and rights violations are just as much human as the victims are and the effects of their actions would eventually reach them too. For a better world and healthier environment, people need to be conscious of their duties, then humanity as a whole would be able to better enjoy their rights.