DIVERSITY OF HUMAN CULTURE AND ITS ENVIRONMENTAL IMPLICATION

In our country (INDIA) the cherished traditional culture reverence and regard for nature, value of joint family, etc., are now witnessing gradual cultural transformation. Intrusion of western cultures are the root cause for the present day way of living it has brought changes in our cultural life and this had several and negative impacts on environment. Few examples are as follows:

FAST AND FINE FOOD CULTURE

Fast food centres and restaurants are very common in cities. This modern food culture involves use of large quantity of water, paper and plastic materials which ultimately end up as municipal waste and also affect the culture.

WASH BASIN CULTURE

Cleaning in the wash basin is very common today. Large quantity of water is wasted for cleaning activities under running tap water rather than it is performed with water taken in mugs.

CULTURE OF GREETING CARDS

In our modern society greeting cards are used during occasions like birthdays, festivals, etc., production of such cards involves destruction of tree resources(forests), consumption of large amount of water, chemicals, electricity, etc.,

AIR-CONDITIONING CULTURE

It is a fast emerging culture in the city life. Nowadays houses and commercial establishments are having the provision of air conditioned facilities. Apart from the fact that air conditioners and refrigerators consume lot of electricity they give out the CFC (chlorofluorocarbon) which is one of the cause for the depletion of ozone layer.

USE AND THROW CULTURE

PAPER:

Several common products today have come with a limited life expectancy and most of them are rarely one -time use only. Paper alone occupies 40-50% of trash in typical land fills. At home, cafeteria and shops, large quantity of paper is wasted everyday.

Papers used for napkins, diapers, toilet papers , paper towels and tissue paper have become disposable after a single use only. Nowadays, a large quantity of long rolls of papers are wasted by means covering dinning tables in marriage halls.

Although the consuming of paper has little environmental impact directly, its uses have been linked indirectly with the environmental impact such as deforestration, pollution caused during manufacturing. Everyday we are losing more of our forest resources for the production of paper products. The only remedy available is to recycle the waste paper.

PLASTIC ARTICLES:

Writing materials, plates, tumblers, water bottles etc., are being replaced by use and throw away plastic materials sfor our convenience and cost sake. Though this plastic throw away culture is resorted to their method of disposal creates big pollution problem because plastics are not easily degradable.