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The changing ‘perception’ on environmentalism, however, aims at human well-being, and is focused on the belief that this is possible only if Nature is accorded its rightful place as a friendly partner in the process of development and growth. It is built upon a deep faith that survival of humankind is dependent on the survival of a healthy and ecologically balanced Earth environment.
The old concept of the man-environment relationship and that of the concept of environmentalism (a synonym for environmental determinism) has changed with change in man’s capacities and capabilities. To O’Riordam (1989, 79), ‘… human society has always recognised its capacity to destroy the environs as greater than its ability to restore the damage within a manageable period of adjustment’.
The central objective of the current view on environment is ‘to place humankind in the ecological setting, simply as one of the sentient species’. It has been largely supplanted by perspectives which see human agency as having a greater effect, albeit often malignant rather than benign’.
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One of these more recent approaches is a celebration and exploration of the close and enriching effective bond between people and the environments that they create, inhabit, manipulate, consume, visit or even imagine.
The current debate on environmentalism revolves around two fundamental issues:
(1) Resource exploitation is inevitable for human survival and in this process it is inevitable that man shall take more than he returns; and
(2) It revolves around the hope for a better future based on the faith that ultimately the moral fibre in human nature shall prevail, leading to greater concern for the survival of the species as against narrow personal gain.
As O’Riordan writes – ‘Environmentalism is a collage of values and views of the world, a general patterning of predispositions, being first and foremost a social movement, though with political overtones…. It is based on the philosophy that embraces Earth- centredness, a sense of ultimate communalism, non-violence and concept of time that is almost timeless’.
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The current thinking on environmentalism also attempts a greater sensitivity and awareness about the ‘environment’ that can be linked to promoting and reorienting practical action ‘towards’ the environment. ‘It is, indeed, one of the most trenchant criticisms of a rather different approach, which has clearly been preoccupied with the formulation of environmental policy and which consists of those versions of “systems analysis” which have been directed towards the control of the ‘ecosystem’, is that its interests are essentially ‘technocratic’ rather than ‘ecnocentric’, concerned with means rather than ends’; or to use the language of ‘critical theory’, technical rather than practical in the original sense of the word.
Certainly, early investigations of interface between human and physical systems were mainly technical, involved with strategies of environmental management, but later investigations of ‘control systems’ have at least recognised the importance of ethical issues as well.
According to Bennet and Chorley (1978), the environmental imperatives require change in social values towards a more conservation- oriented system. The changing perception and/or the current thinking on environmentalism is very close to the concept of ‘sustainable development’ which was made popular through the 1987 Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development. According to the World Commission Report, ‘sustainable development stands for development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs’.
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O’Riordan (1989) attempts to distinguish between ‘sustainability’ and ‘sustainable utilisation’, and says that the former incorporates ethical norms in the Gaia tradition, including emphasis on taking due consideration of rights of the future generations of all living species, but later, denotes a rate of resource uptake that equals the rate of renewal and replenishment.