I had some tough engaging Friday and Saturday. I was hoping that I could rest enough on Sunday before today’s publication. I pray so. By 7pm on Friday (22/11/24). I accompanied my boss at Family Kingdom to receive an award on behalf of the SALWACO management and staff. On Saturday morning, (23/11/24), I was at the SLBC TV for the weekend review program and just after, I was headed to Milton Margai for the inter-uni debate finals organized by the Sierra Leone Debating Council (SLDC) and I was to serve as a guest speaker. The same day, Victoria Saffa, my friend and sister and her husband, Don were doing the final touches of their awesome marriage. You could imagine! Putka was all over the place, but that’s the way it is. Let me share my presentation at MMTU for today. I may write on the introductions next time?
Environmental Degradation – The Role of Society in Managing Change
A Presentation by Sheku Putka Kamara
Introduction and Background
Even before we explore the narrative, it is clear that to create some necessary change and impact, environmental degradation has to be treated with utmost seriousness and not with levity.
Environmental degradation is the deterioration of the environment through depletion of resources such as quality of air, water and soil; the destruction of ecosystems; habitat destruction; the extinction of wildlife; and pollution.
It is also defined as any change or disturbance to the environment perceived to be deleterious or undesirable. The environmental degradation process amplifies the impact of environmental issues which leave lasting impacts on the environment.
The concept of Environmental degradation is one of the ten threats officially cautioned by the High-level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change of the United Nations. The United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction defines environmental degradation as “the reduction of the capacity of the environment to meet social and ecological objectives, and needs”.
Environmental degradation comes in many types. When natural habitats are destroyed or natural resources are depleted, the environment is degraded; direct environmental degradation, such as deforestation, which is readily visible; this can be caused by more indirect process, such as the build-up of plastic pollution over time or the buildup of greenhouse gases that causes tipping points in the climate system. Efforts to counteract this problem include environmental protection and environmental resources management. Mismanagement that leads to degradation can also lead to environmental conflict where communities organize in opposition to the forces that mismanaged the environment.
Biodiversity loss
Deforestation in Europe, 2018. Almost all of Europe’s original forests have been destroyed.
Scientists assert that human activity has pushed the earth into a sixth mass extinction event. The loss of biodiversity has been attributed in particular to human overpopulation, continued human population growth and overconsumption of natural resources by the world’s wealthy. A 2020 report by the World Wildlife Fund found that human activity – specifically overconsumption, population growth and intensive farming – has destroyed 68% of vertebrate wildlife since 1970. The Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, published by the United Nation’s IPBES in 2019, posits that roughly one million species of plants and animals face extinction from anthropogenic causes, such as expanding human land use for industrial agriculture and livestock rearing, along with overfishing.
Impacts of environmental degradation on women’s livelihoods
On the way biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation impact livelihoods, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations finds also that in contexts of degraded lands and ecosystems in rural areas, both girls and women bear heavier workloads.
Women’s livelihoods, health, food and nutrition security, access to water and energy, and coping abilities are all disproportionately affected by environmental degradation. Environmental pressures and shocks, particularly in rural areas, force women to deal with the aftermath, greatly increasing their load of unpaid care work. Also, as limited natural resources grow even scarcer due to climate change, women and girls must also walk further to collect food, water or firewood, which heightens their risk of being subjected to gender-based violence.
This implies, for example, longer journeys to get primary necessities and greater exposure to the risks of human trafficking, rape, and sexual violence.
Water degradation
One major component of environmental degradation is the depletion of the resource of fresh water on Earth. Approximately only 2.5% of all of the water on Earth is fresh water, with the rest being salt water. 69% of fresh water is frozen in ice caps located on Antarctica and Greenland, so only 30% of the 2.5% of fresh water is available for consumption. Fresh water is an exceptionally important resource, since life on Earth is ultimately dependent on it. Water transports nutrients, minerals and chemicals within the biosphere to all forms of life, sustains both plants and animals, and moulds the surface of the Earth with transportation and deposition of materials.