India's Economic Crisis: Diagnosis and Treatment

Introduction

This volume is the outcome of the National Symposium on Environmental Ethics organized I by the SDF. It contains papers on the ethical values prevalent in different cultures and societies and the potentials of these values to ward off the emerging environmental crisis in the world.

Ancient Cultures and Modern Challenges

All ancient cultures and civilization are founded on creative human-nature relations I with a built-in mechanism to correct minor ecological disturbances. Rapid industrialization, urbanization and population growth have given rise to the imbalances which cannot be corrected through self-correcting processes.

The Need for Ethical Change

Unless people seek meaning in life and living beyond the narrow ends of consumerism and exploitation of nature and fellow human beings, new technology will bring only new and more miseries. This dialogue calls for a more austere style of life laying emphasis on cultural enrichment and less on the amount of goods consumed.

Such a lifestyle requires a new system of ethics wherein the concern for life in whatever form it exists in nature is the uppermost. Science and technology cannot be blamed for all the ills of society. Much depends on how we use them. How we use them depends on our value system, which in turn determines the ethical code.

Responsibility and Education

Instead of trying to look for scapegoats in science and technology, we should introspect and change our values. Thus alone can a pollution and poverty free society be ensured and the ill-effects of science and technology removed.

Environmental ethics cannot be imposed by law. It has to be articulated, systematized, codified and followed by each and every individual. This needs comprehensive environment sensitive education policy in each and every country of the world.