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NCERT Class 12 Political Science Textbook Chapter 8 With Answer PDF Free Download
Chapter 8: Environment and Natural Resources
In this book, we have discussed ‘world politics’ in a fairly limited sense: wars and treaties, the rise and the decline of state power, the relationship between the governments that represent their countries in the international arena, and the role of inter-governmental organizations.
In chapter 7, we expanded the scope of world politics to include issues like poverty and epidemics.
That may not have been a very difficult step to take, for we all think that governments are responsible for controlling these.
In that sense, they fall within the scope of world politics. Now consider some other issues. Do you think they fall within the scope of contemporary world politics?
You might ask are we not talking here about ‘natural phenomena’ that should be studied
in geography rather than in political science.
But think about it again. If the various governments take steps to check environmental degradation of the kind mentioned above, these issues will have political consequences in that sense.
Most of them are such that no single government can address them fully. Therefore they have to
become part of ‘world politics’.
Issues of environment and natural resources are political in another deeper sense.
Who causes environmental degradation? Who pays the price? And who is responsible for taking corrective action?
Who gets to use how much of the natural resources of the Earth? All these raise the issue of who wields how much power. They are, therefore, deeply political questions.
Although environmental concerns have a long history, awareness of the environmental
consequences of economic growth acquired an increasingly political character from the 1960s onwards.
The Club of Rome, a global think tank, published a book in 1972 entitled Limits to Growth, dramatizing the potential depletion of the Earth’s resources against the backdrop of a rapidly growing world population.
International agencies, including the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP),
began holding international conferences and promoting detailed studies to get a more
coordinated and effective response to environmental problems.
Since then, the environment has emerged as a significant issue in global politics.
The growing focus on environmental issues within the arena of global politics was firmly consolidated at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio de
Janeiro, Brazil, in June 1992. This was also called the Earth Summit.
The summit was countries of the First World, generally referred to as the ‘global North’ were pursuing a different environmental agenda than the poor and developing countries of the Third World, called the ‘global South’.
Whereas the Northern states were concerned with ozone depletion and global warming, the Southern states were anxious to address the relationship between economic development and environmental management.
| Author | NCERT |
| Language | English |
| No. of Pages | 18 |
| PDF Size | 4.1 MB |
| Category | Political Science |
| Source/Credits | ncert.nic.in |
NCERT Solutions Class 12 Political Science Chapter 8 Environment and Natural Resources
1. What is meant by common property resources? Explain with examples.
Answer. Common property refers to the rights and duties of a group together over natural resources with the following norms:
1. The group members enjoy rights and duties both over nature, levels of use and the maintenance of a given resource.
2. In India, many village communities have defined members’ rights and responsibilities through mutual understanding.
3. The institutional arrangement for the actual management of sacred groves on state-owned forest level appropriating fit the description of common property.
2. Explain the meaning of global commons. Give any four examples of global commons.
Answer. The areas of regions located outside the jurisdiction of any one state and require common governance by the international community are Global Commons i.e. Earth’s atmosphere. Antarctic Ocean Floor and outer space. They are exploited and polluted due to:
1. Vague scientific evidence, there lack of consensus on common environmental issues.
2. North-South inequalities and their exploitative activities and competition lack proper management over outer space.
3. Technological and Industrial development has also affected the earth’s atmosphere and ocean floor.
3. Describe any four steps taken by India to improve the environment.
Answer. The Indian government is participating in global efforts through a number of programs:
1. India’s National Auto-fuel policy mandates cleaner fuels for vehicles.
2. The Energy Conservation Act, 2001 outlines initiatives to improve energy efficiency.
3. Electricity Act, 2003 encourages the use of renewable energy.
4. Recent trends in importing natural gas and encouraging the adoption of clean coal technologies show that India is making real efforts.
5. India is also keen to launch a national mission on Biodiesel using about 11 million hectares of land to produce biodiesel by 2011-12.
4. Define the indigenous population. Highlight any two problems of such people.
Answer. The UN defines the indigenous population as comprising the 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 from other parts of the world and overcame them.
The following problems are faced by such people:
1. They lost their lands which belonged to them only for a long time.
2. The loss of land refers to a loss of an economic resource base.
3. Issues related to the rights of the indigenous communities have also been neglected in domestic and international politics for a long.
Environment and Natural Resources NCERT Textbook With Solutions PDF Free Download