NCERT Notes for Class 12 Political Science Chapter 8 Environment and Natural Resources

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Class 12 Political Science Chapter 8 Environment and Natural Resources

NCERT Notes for Class 12 Political Science Chapter 8 Environment and Natural Resources, (Political Science) exam are Students are taught thru NCERT books in some of the state board and CBSE Schools. As the chapter involves an end, there is an exercise provided to assist students to prepare for evaluation. Students need to clear up those exercises very well because the questions inside the very last asked from those.

Sometimes, students get stuck inside the exercises and are not able to clear up all of the questions.  To assist students, solve all of the questions, and maintain their studies without a doubt, we have provided step-by-step NCERT Notes for the students for all classes.  These answers will similarly help students in scoring better marks with the assist of properly illustrated Notes as a way to similarly assist the students and answer the questions right

NCERT Notes for Class 12 Political Science Chapter 8 Environment and Natural Resources

Class 12 Political Science Chapter 8 Environment and Natural Resources

 

Major Environmental issues

  • Agricultural land is losing its fertility.
  • Scarcity of safe drinking water.
  • Deforestation.
  • Loss of Biodiversity.
  • Decline of ozone.
  • Coastal Pollution.
  • Global Warming.
  • Climate change.
  • Over Exploitation.

Relevance of Environmental issues in Political Science

  • No single govt can address the environmental issues fully.
  • Political Interference is needed to find and control the elements behind the environmental degradation.

Major Environmental Programmes

  • In 1972, a group of global experts called the ‘ Club of Rome’ Published a book entitled ‘Limits to Growth’.
  • It narrated the depletion of earth’s resources in the light of the rapidly growing world Population.
  • United Nations’ Environment Programme (UNEP) organized a number of international conferences or environmental issues.

Earth Summit and Rio Treaty

  • UN’s Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil in 1992. It was also called Earth Summit.
  • It was attended by 170 countries, thousands of non-governmental organizations and several multinational Corporations.
  • The Rio Summit revealed that the rich and developed countries of the ‘ First World’ known as ‘ Global North’ followed a different environmental agenda than the poor and developing countries of the Third World, called the ‘ Global South’.
  • Global North Was concerned with Ozone depletion and Global Warming.
  • Global South was focusing on the relationship between economic development and evironmental management.
  • The Rio Summit made agreements regarding climate change, biodiversity and forest Protection. It recommended a list of development activities called ‘Agenda 21’.
  • There was consensus on combining economic growth with ecological responsibility. This approach to development is generally known as ‘ Sustainable Development’.

The protection of Global Commons

  • It means certain areas or regions located outside the jurisdiction of any state.
  • It includes the earth’s atmosphere, antartica, the ocean floor and outer space.
  • The important treaties regarding the protection of global commons are :
    1. The Antarctic Treaty of 1959.
    2. The Montreal Protocol of 1987.
    3. The Antarctic Environmental Protocol of 1991.

Common But Differentiated Responsibilities

  • Global North : Everyone is equally responsible for ecological conservation.
  • Global South: Much of the ecological degradation is caused by the industrial development in North. So North is more responsible for environmental Protection.
  • Global Southern states are in the process of industrialisation, and they demand relaxation on environmental laws.
  • Rio Summit accepted the demand of Southern countries and called it ‘Common but Differatiated Responsibilities’.
  • The 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) also demanded that the states should protect the climate system according to their common but differentiated responsibilities.

Kyoto Protocol – 1997

  • It is an international agreement setting targets for industrialized countries to cut their greenhose gas emissions.
  • The emission of greenhouse gases such as Carbon dioxide, Methane, Nitrous oxide and Hydro-fluoro carbons is partly responsible for global warming.
  • It came in to effect in Feb 2005.
  • America didn’t sign the treaty.
  • India, China and other developing countries were exempted from the protocol.

Common Property Resources

  • The Common property of a group is called common property resources.
  • Members of the group have both rights and responsibilities in the use and maintenance of these resources.
  • Common property has declined in size due to privatisation, intensification of agriculture, population growth and ecological degradation.

India’s stand on Environmental Issues

    1. Major responsibility of curbing emission rests with the developed countries.
    2. Greenhouse emissions of India is less than World average.
    3. India is already an active participant in global movements for clean environment.
    4. Developed countries should provide financial assistance to the developing countries to participate in environmental movements.

Environmental movements

  • Evironmental movements are very vibrant and Powerful.
  • Most of them work at local level.
  • Diversity is an important trait of environmental movements.
  • It includes forest movements, Anti Dams and Pro river movements, movements against industries etc are the examples of environmental movements.

Resource Geopolitics

  • Resource geoplitics is all about who gets What, When, Where and How.
  • Resources are the Central focus in the rivalry between different countries.
  • For eg: The access to timber in Colonial period and oil in World War times were very important in deciding the relations between the states.

The Indigenous people and their Rights

  • Descendants of people who inhabited the present territory of a country at the time when persons of a different culture or ethnic origin arrived there.
  • The Indigenous people live in more conformity with their particular traditions than the state institutions.
  • Loss of land and economic resource base is a serious threat to indigenous people.
  • There are about 30 Crore indigenous people in the world.
  • They occupy the areas of Central and South America, African countries, India and South East Asia.

The Indigenous people in India

  • In India, indigenous people are the tribals.
  • 8% of tribal population constitutes the indigenous people in India.
  • Most of them depend on cultivation for their subsistence.
  • Some of them are Hunters and Gatherers.
  • They had free access to land till the colonial period.
  • Indian constitution included a number of provisions for the protection of tribal people.
  • The World Council of Indigenous people was formed in 1975 to deal with the issues of Tribal community whole over the world.

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