Land Degradation during the Industrial Revolution Era
Land Degradation during the Industrial Revolution Era: The Emergence of the Concerns in the Western World
Land degradation is the unwanted by-product of distorted developmental practices. The pro-development people dismiss it as the necessary evil, but we should ponder: Is it really the necessary evil, or have we been using wrong or inappropriate technologies for production, neglecting the ethics of the environment?
This debate started in the West when the conditions of living became increasingly poor for the people as they faced the problems of land and environmental degradation.
Historically, that time, too, there had been lobbies working “for” and “against” environment and land degradation if we take a clue from the industrialization era.
The early environmentalists were the preachers who quoted Confucius, St. Francis of Assisi, etc., having concern for the environment, political thinkers like Francis Bacon who stated, “We cannot command nature except by obeying her”; and then there were a group of people who lived their lives like capitalist and talked of environmental conservation and that despite all the rhetoric shaped the ideas of conservation in future.
Later on, during the height of growing industrialization in Europe, the environmental lobby continued to get weaker though the voices of dissent were always there. The polity supported capitalism and the development of science and technology and consequently the exploitation of nature.
Jeremy Bentham is an interesting case. His utilitarianism philosophy says that “it is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong”. This statement seemingly supports absolute development without any environmental concerns but then as you go deeper you find that Bentham supported environmental conservation through his belief in the Epicureanism.
Other political thinkers showed quite a concern for the deteriorating environment and the poor living conditions of the people.
After the mid-18th century, colonial exploitation by European countries, especially by Britain, became a worldwide phenomenon. The colonial rule was spreading poverty in the colonies by draining their economic wealth. Perturbed by this, Thomas Malthus published his essays on “Principles of Population” by the end of the 18th century. It was virtually a rebuttal to political thinkers like William Godwin and Marquis de Condorcet.
Malthus’s essays criticized utopianism and anarchy and effectively said that as a man could not change nature and the supply of most resources, little could be done to counter poverty, and that ultimately led to land degradation. (Barrow 1990). Later, the Malthusians were denigrated as “neo-Malthusians”, but they stuck to the fact that one-third of the world’s population uses and consumes most resources about six times the energy as compared to the population in the developing countries.
The Western literary world, too, became environmentally conscious by the mid-19th Century. William Blake, Wordsworth, Emerson, etc., wrote poems in which they depicted the “industrial man” as the destroyer of nature and responsible for environmental degradation.
Wordsworth not only penned his concern towards environmental degradation, but he also wrote about the impact of the distorted development on the lives of people in his poem “The World is Too Much with Us”. In several other poems, he has spoken against waste generated by the factories and the plight of the people. He speaks vehemently about the ills of industrialization in his poem “Outrage to Nature”.
At that time, natural science was also emerging, led by Charles Darwin. The naturalists preferred conservation and saw land degradation and environmental pollution as impediments to life and the development of natural science.
In the USA, George Perkin Marsh (1864) and others promoted conservation. Marsh’s book “Man and Nature” was very popular among the supporters of conservation.
From this era to the 1930s, the thoughts of “environmental determinism” emerged that propagated the theory that the physical environment predisposes societies and states towards particular development trajectories. Such theories also affected economic thinking, and many of them have propagated that the resources of the Earth are unlimited and pursued a “Faustian Bargain” whereby short-term benefits are traded for long-term, unknown, unforeseen costs. After that, the environmental concerns took a back seat, and the world became busy in the World Wars. But the degradation concerns remained alive. People like George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) exclaimed that “Reasonable men adapt themselves to their environment, unreasonable men try to adapt their environment to themselves. Thus, all progress is the result of the efforts of unreasonable men”. Later, Bertrand Russell also criticized the environmental exploitation by man.
Then the 1950s were the era of development after the wars, and land degradation and environmental concerns were not given much importance.
But the era of the 1960s saw the concerns emerging strongly, and research papers, general writings, etc., dominated the thinking of the masses. Marxists and neo-Marxists put forth the theory that colonialism makes the colonies poorer, and that leads to land degradation, which was a fact.
The early ‘70s saw conflicting movements wherein the supporters of both schools of thought had put forth their viewpoints. Many organizations showing concerns about land degradation and environmental pollution emerged during the 1970s. UNESCO launched the “Man & Biosphere Programme” in 1976 and brought many nations closer. IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) also took the cause of land degradation.
Today it is difficult to imagine localized land degradation and environmental pollution of the industrial era. You cannot imagine that most of the manufacturing towns, cities and surrounding villages of England used to be under a thick smog of photochemical and other kinds of pollution that affected the health of the citizens adversely. People, including artists, especially painters, writers, philosophers, etc., began to realize that such technologies of mass production are going to be extremely detrimental to the Earth’s environment and finally will extinguish the very life based on it.
Many other literary persons, painters, etc., depicted their concern for the environment.
Thus, the support for Land & Environmental Degradation emerged from the ill effects of the Industrial Revolution days. One can think in retrospect that in those days, development was a major priority, and therefore, pollution and degradation consequences were overlooked. But that is not justifiable as the lives of the working class were pathetic, especially for those who were living in industrial towns with constant smog and haze of pollutants.
In the 1970s, the UN conducted two important summits on the environment. UN Conference on the Human Environment at Fournex, France, was held in 1972, and in 1973 it was held in Stockholm. UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme) was established. It is said that despite all this, till 1987, environmental issues waned, but then by 1987, at least 140 countries had established their respective environmental agencies or ministries.
Though in 1973-74, the OPEC oil price rise diverted the resources for meeting energy demand and diverted the funds from arresting land degradation and improving the environment, yet some of the best reports on environmental degradation came during this period. Notably among them were IUCN’s “The World Conservation Strategy”, “Global 2000 Report”, “Brandt’s Report” (Independent Commission on International Development Issues), etc. These publications led to a worldwide understanding of the fact that the world is one, and various countries will have to come together to take up land degradation and environmental deterioration.
The late 1980s saw the “Brundtland Report” (the World Commission on Environment & Development: Title of the Report: “Our Common Future”) that defined which way the environmental issues should go. This report, for the first time, gave a wonderful definition of “Sustainability”. Within no time, the concern for the “Green Issues” became a universal phenomenon.
The major thrust of all these environmental discussions culminated in the UN’s Earth Summit, i.e., the United Nations Conference on Environment & Development (UNCED) of 1992 in Rio de Janeiro.
One of its major documents was “Agenda 21”, which established the CSD (Commission on Sustainable Development). It has now been replaced by “High – Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development” in 2013 and is part of ESCOS and every fourth-year meets of the General Assembly Meetings.
Another significant document of the Earth Summit was the “Forest Principles”.
The major outcomes of the summit were UNCCD (United Nations Convention on Combating Desertification), UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) and CBD (Convention of Biological Diversity) as legally binding agreements opened for signature by the participating nations.
UNCCD has met 14 times since then, and their meetings are called COP (Conference of Parties) meetings. COPs are given serial numbers, for example, UNCCD organized its COP-14 in New Delhi in 2019. UNCCD has fixed country-wise targets through the “Bonn Challenge” for the rehabilitation and reclamation of degraded lands.
UNFCCC organized COP-25 in Madrid in 2019.
In 2012, Rio + 20 was held, and now Rio+ 30 is due in 2022.
Meanwhile, Corona lockdown all over the world has taught us a valuable lesson about environmental and land management. The resilience of the Earth & nature underlines the fact that “We are not necessary for this planet”. This gives our role in Earth matters a totally different meaning.
