Amity University Celebrated World Environment Day with great enthusiasm by conducting a Webinar on “Climate Change and Ecosystem Restoration” organized by Amity Institute Environmental Toxicology, Safety, and Management. Dr. Dharma Hagare, Associate Dean, International (South Asia), School of Engineering, Western Sydney University and Senior Lecturer - Water, Waste and Sustainability Engineering, Australia; Prof. Subimal Ghosh, Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Bombay shared their views during the Webinar.
Sharing his views, Dr. Dharma Hagare said Climate change, population growth, resource consumption & scarcity, extinction of species, accumulation of nasty pollutants in soil, water, and air are some of the current issues related to the environment. Globally about 1.3 billion tons of food is wasted annually which costs around 2.6 trillion USD annually, which is likely to increase as the population grows. Explaining about wastewater, Dr. Hagare said domestic and industrial activities produce wastewater which contains organic contaminants, toxic materials and sometimes contains valuable nutrients and every country should stop wastage by the zero-waste system, and to solve every issue, it is important to educate the citizen scientifically.
Prof. Subimal Ghosh said “ up to 400 million tons of heavy metals, solvents, toxic sludge and other industrial wastes are released annually into the world’s waters. Marine plastics pollution has increased tenfold since 1980. Extraction and processing of materials, fuels, and food make up about half of total global greenhouse gas emissions and more than 90 percent of biodiversity loss and water stress. There is an urgent need to decouple economic growth and environmental destruction and is the duty of every single person to do innovation and take responsible action”. Dr Ghosh advised researchers to start their own on-the-ground initiatives, join an existing restoration or conservation effort or help build an alliance to give a bigger boost to nature’s come back. Change your behavior and spending to shrink your local and global environmental footprint and divert resources toward companies and activities that bring back nature instead of harming it , averred Dr Ghosh .
Dr. Ashok K Chauhan, Founder President, Amity Education Group said that the preserving environment is very important and due to the current situation of Pandemic, we should take important steps to save the environment. India is getting recognized globally because Indians are working hard towards the challenges coming with climate change wherein science and technology play an important role and it is need of the hour that research should be environment-based, echoed Dr Chauhan.