By

Dr.Smita Asthana, Dean Academics & Reader in Chemistry& Dr N.V.Kavitha, Dean Administration & Head, Department of Commerce

St.Ann’s College for Women, Mehdipatnam, HyderabadAt

UNESCO Workshop On Bioethics, Biodiversity and Making A Repository of Ethical World Views of Nature

On 10th october,2012

MAN AS STEWARDA sense of responsibility to manage and care for the environment

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Moral responsibility is nothing

more than our capacity to be

human and being able to take

care of everything around us.

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“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's needs, but not every man's greed.” ― Mahatma Gandhi

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A survey was conducted with the help of a structured questionnaire

with three broad heads –

1. “I Know” to examine the awareness/understanding level of the

select respondents,

2. “I believe” to know the perceptions of students with regards to the

core components of environmental ethics and their stake towards

environmental issues.

3.3. “I Do” to judge the extent to which knowledge is translated into

actions

THE OBJECTIVES OF THE SURVEYTHE OBJECTIVES OF THE SURVEY

Graph – A

Source: Primary Data

more than 50% of the respondents are moderately aware of the current issues related to environment and keep themselves updated to some extent .

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Source: Primary Data, Figures in parenthesis are %age of respondents

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Source: Primary Data, Figures in parenthesis are %age of respondents

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The results from ‘I know’ revealed that there is need for

greater awareness about environmental concerns,

the understanding of its gravity,

consequences in future and

the action that has to be taken today.

Environmental education has an important role to play in the

promotion of environmental awareness . The knowledge base of

a society is one important aspect of its capacity to address and

cope with environmental issues.

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The ‘ I believe’ segment revealed

the respondents’ understanding of the need to

coexist,

the pitfalls of overdependence on technology and

the role every individual, society has to play and

decisions that have to be taken today for future.

Coming generations will also be affected by these

decisions and the extent to which they have addressed

concerns such as the depletion of resources, the loss of

biodiversity, and long-lived radioactive wastes from

generation of nuclear energy.

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‘I do’ segment impresses the need to translate

knowledge into plans and actions. Not much seems to be

done.

The real problem may lie not in the kinds of

environmental education being imparted, but rather in the

difficulty involved in translating environmental value

commitments into action of any kind, be it in terms of

lifestyle adjustments or social activism. Young people are

often the target of commercials and peer pressure not just

because of any disposable income they are likely to possess

and the influence they have on money spenders, but

because manufacturers have a vested interest in

establishing high-consumption patterns that will last a

lifetime albeit at a cost to the environment.

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Environment education should help the student to understand the

personal responsibility for the environment and the concept of

stewardship.

Our task as environmental educators in the twenty first century is to

assist the overall process –

by striving to implement programmes of education that inform our

students the complexities of the environment in which they are

growing up, empower them to address environment and

development issues in their lives and provide them with

opportunities to be inspired by the joys, wonder and mysteries of the

natural world and human achievement.

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“The earth, the air, the land and the water are not am inheritance from our fore fathers but on loan from our children. So we have to handover to them at least as it was handed over to us.” -Mahatma Ghandhi

It is quite obvious that an individual has to play the vital role

for the protection of environment and the sustainable

development concept will remain in existence if only the

individual has taken initiative

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