You are a government officer who works in some department that grants clearances to various projects. Recently, you come across a project in your hometown which is a massive project. The project involves creation of a very big shopping complex in the area. It is going to generate thousands of jobs in your home district. The project is actually going to change the face of your district. You have always had a weakness regarding your home district and had honestly wanted some development like this to take place there.
But while granting the clearances you witness that the project has a lot of environmental hazards and is going to create a lot of trouble to the environment. A number of trees have to cut down for the project since the area chosen for the project is an entire forest belt. Apart from these there are also many other environmental hazards that the project would generate.
What would you do in such a situation? Would you ignore the environmental factor and give the necessary clearances? Or would you stop the project looking at the environmental factors?
Analysis:
The situation involves a conflicting circumstance between the good of the people or human beings and that of the environment. Looking at the short term goals, it is very easy to take a decision by allowing the project. It would create jobs; the major problem of unemployment in the district would be addressed so well. Since so many people would be benefited, therefore at once one can give clearance to the project and bring in development.
Now, coming to the larger issue- can development be done at the cost of our environment? The answer is no. Human beings are also a part of the environment. Harming the environment would ultimately harm the people. By only looking at the short term benefits, we welcome larger problems like pollution, disturbing the ecological balance, harming animals and birds since an entire forest area would be removed and most importantly, the climate change factor. These problems would be seen sooner or later and would have larger impact on human lives than the problem of unemployment.
Mother Nature must be respected at any cost. She is the one for whom we survive. Therefore, by harming the nature, no real development is possible. If problems like earthquake, soil erosion, food shortage, etc. affect us in the coming days, mere creation of jobs would not be of any help.
Therefore, whatever weakness one might have for his home district, if he is a real well wisher, he would take care of the larger problems especially those related to the environment. And the person understands the impacts of environment much more than any common man since he is in the position of granting environmental clearances. He can rather suggest shifting the project to some other place, where the environmental impact would not be so prominent. In this way, a win-win situation would be created for both the people and the environment.
