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CULTURAL AND IDEOLOGICAL CONSTRUCTION OF NATURE/ENVIRONMENT

“Man shapes himself through decisions that shape his environment

—Rene Dubos”

A debate went on in the US in 2012 on whether to impose a 100 per cent or 50 per cent tariff on polysilicon solar cells imported from China. If the study report by Coalition for Affordable Solar Energy (CASE) is to be believed, a 100 per cent tariff on imported solar panels would result in 50,000 job losses in the US in the next 3 years and a 50 per cent tariff means 43,000 job losses, with cost to consumers going up by 2.3 billion by the resultant price rise. Solar power industry, the fastest growing industry in the US which has grown more than 10-fold in 4 years, employs 100,000 Americans (a 7 per cent rise in 2011) in manufacturing, installation, maintenance, sales and services. Another study found that only 24 per cent of American jobs are in the manufacturing sector and the rest is outside manufacturing in services, such as the company Edison, a solar services company. Solar World, a manufacturer, filed a complaint with the US Department of Commerce of unfair trade practices by China in the context of Chinese firms such as Suntech dominating the solar power industry.

Environmentalists say the focus of solar energy policy should be the planet, making solar power cheaper and faster. Cheaper solar power will make the US economy greener. Prices have actually fallen by 50 per cent in the last 4 years. The real debate should not be US versus China, but should be solar versus fossil fuels. Solar and fossil fuel are the two natural resources used by mankind to improve the quality of life through energy, primarily in the form of electricity. While the earlier human civilizations used direct solar energy for their drying and heating needs, modern civilization sees the same natural resource as an industry to create jobs and make profit. While fossil fuel drilling, processing and distribution industry ushered the Industrial Revolution by tapping the natural resources under the earth, an ecological revolution is arguing about its ill effects on the planet. The nature–man relationship from the days of raw solar energy use to the modern solar panel-based solar energy tapping is mediated by technology and enterprise. The way natural resources are viewed and used by mankind defines a civilization as well.

2.1 NATURE AND CIVILIZATION

 

“Civilization is our defence against nature

—Sigmund Freud”

Nature refers to the wild, basic and uncontrolled aspects of life and living in its interaction with other living and non-living aspects of the environment. When we say natural, it pertains to the nature, i.e., the uncontrolled, sublime, unregulated and autonomous aspects of the environment. When we say civilized, it means polished and controlled actions as per the expectations in a culture. A pleasant, pleasing and pleasure-giving nature is everyone’s desire, and hence, preserving nature as a pleasant place is a mark of civilization. Philosophers and religious leaders have shaped the way society views nature, and the philosophical thoughts and preaching have shaped the behavior of people in all centuries. A ristotle, Confucius, Buddha, Plato, Seneca, Sri Sankara, Valmiki, Francis Bacon, Spinoza, Emmanuel Kant, S chopenhauer, Durkheim, Karl Marx, Max Weber, Talcot Parsons, Herbert Spencer, Friedrich Nietzsche, Santayana and other dominant thinkers of each stage of civilization have observed the relationship of human beings with nature (Aristotle established the first great zoological garden linked to his Lyceum with support from Alexander). Nature was shaping the culture at relevant periods and vice versa.

2.2 CULTURE LINKAGE WITH NATURE

 

“We won’t have a society if we destroy the environment

—Margaret Mead”

Culture is a set of beliefs, assumptions, norms, and moral values that a group of people hold, manifesting in their behavior and practices. Culture linkage with nature can be understood from the following two opposing views.

2.2.1 Inclusive view of nature

Human communities’ oneness with nature is one of the two views. People view themselves as part of the nature like the lands to which they belong. It is a view of oneness of human beings with nature, where nature nurtures human beings and they in turn remain subservient to the forces and rhythms of nature.

2.2.2 Exclusive view of nature

 

“We are as Gods, and we have to get good at it

—Stewart Brand, Environmentalist”

Nature and culture are two separate entities. Some see both as opposing entities, and hence, their interaction results in one damaging the other (protected areas and buffer zones are practices of this view). John Muir, an American naturalist, propagated a variety of environmentalism with the goal of preserving wilderness. The goal is to protect the untrammeled nature from human activity. People were seen as a threat to wilderness and naturalness, and hence, isolation was considered as the solution to protect the environment. Now, there are more than 100,000 protected areas on the planet, which were less than 10,000 in 1950. Thirteen per cent of the planet’s land mass has some form of legal protection, assuming that human beings are the biggest threat to the nature, and, pristine nature is protected from them in the form of wildlife sanctuaries, bioreserves, reserve forests, national parks and no-entry zones. Even the marine environment is now protected in the form of marine sanctuaries, where no fishing is allowed.

The industrial, entrepreneurial culture of mankind is regulated by several environmental laws of the sea, land, water, air, forests, waste, chemicals, rivers, mountains and coasts. These laws ban certain pollutants and the activities of mankind that have a potential to harm the nature. The industrial culture also has technologies that meet the ends but with less harm. Choosing and using such less-harmful technologies or innovative environment-friendly technologies is also a part of culture, a belief in the value of nature and a sense of responsibility to preserve the nature. However, there are controversial technologies, such as those of the nuclear power plants, which are the largest carbon-free utility-scale energy source despite the risk of accidents and nuclear waste problem. Similarly, genetically modified high-yielding crops produce more food, fiber or fodder from less area, allowing more space for wildlife. Urban settlements with modern housing, transportation technology and urban design are the most efficient human settlements where more people live in less area, leaving more space for pristine nature. Technologies such as culturing more cyanobacteria to produce more oxygen for the atmosphere, geoengineering, inducing artificial clouds and other planetary-scale technologies can be used to reduce the planet’s temperature directly as a solution for global warming and pollution.

2.3 IDEOLOGY AND NATURE

Ideology is a system of views and ideas reflecting the relations of people with their world, embodying itself in institutions. Patriarchy, capitalism, feminism, materialism and socialism are examples of ideologies.

There are both liberal and radical concepts of ideology. Ideology as an action-oriented system of beliefs motivates people to do or not to do certain things (Daniel Bell). According to Claude Destutt de Tracy, ideology is the science of ideas and their origins, shaping what people think.

Radical concept of ideology, as propounded by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, states that ideology (ideas shaped by the material world) exists to inure social conditions from attack by those who are disadvantaged by them. Thus, ideology is a distortion of reality. Ideas and thoughts become fossilized, and these thoughts then control the humans.

2.3.1 Ideologies in relation to nature

There are different orientations or systems of beliefs on the relationship between humans and nature, which are discussed below.

• Biocentrism: It is the idea of life/earth/nature-centeredness of activities and thinking. It is nature-centered living by humans. The distinguishing characteristic of this ideology is that the earth’s organisms have central importance individually and collectively (Fig. 2.1).
• Anthropocentrism: It is the human-centeredness of the natural systems and the belief that the earth exists for mankind. Human utility of all other components of nature is the central concept (Fig. 2.2).
• Enlightened anthropocentrism: This is welfare of fellow human beings than self-centeredness.
• Ecocentrism: This is a belief system that focuses on the biotic community as a whole, striving to maintain the c omposition of the ecosystem and the ecological processes. This ethic was first conceived by Aldo Leopold on recognizing that all species including humans are the products of long evolutionary p rocesses and are interrelated. Ecocentrism recognizes the earth’s interactive living and non-living systems, compared with biocentrism.
• Technocentrism: This perspective believes in the ability of technological innovations to affect, control and protect the environment. Technocentrics view that the environmental problems can be solved using science and technology, and not by any reduction of industry.
• Ecofascism: It is a radical view of ecology and harmonizes adaptation to the environment.
• Environmentalism: It proposes ecological sensitivity by all social and economic factors.
• Ecofeminism: It is the idea that oppression of women and nature are related. Nature is viewed as feminine, and women are thought to be closer to nature than men. Patriarchal society oppresses, devalues and dominates both nature and women, and women are most vulnerable to the degradation of the planet.
• Bioregionalism: It is a view based on defining a geographic area by natural boundaries, such as a watershed with distinct living communities. It has a geographic terrain and a terrain of consciousness—a place and the ideas prevalent at that place that have co-evolved about how to live in that space. Bioregionalism is a term coined in the early 1920s by Peter Berg as an environmental perspective that emphasizes action over protest and lifestyle over legislation. The ecologically adapted cultures of early human inhabitants with the particular climate, plants and animals, watersheds and soil form part of a bioregion. The activities of present-day inhabitants in harmony with the place where they live, fully integrated with the native plants, animals and the material cycling pathways, form the cultural idea of bioregionalism. Bioregional planning is attempted in some countries to restore the local natural systems while satisfying the human needs of food, water, energy, housing and materials. It is “doing more than just save what is left” with regard to nature, wilderness and biosphere, but reviving the native plants, animals and cultures in a local area.

2.3.2 Non-anthropocentric environmental ethics (Section 5.4.3 may be read with Sections 2.3.1 and 2.3.2)

The basis of right or wrong action concerning the environment starts and ends with human welfare as per anthropocentric environmental ethics. Some argue that ethics can have only an anthropocentric basis, and without human concerns, there is no ethics. However, there are many who argue that an ethical system can be based on concerns other than human welfare. Non-anthropocentric environment means removing the human beings from being the sole aspect of concern and focusing on the other components of the environment.

Examples of non-anthropocentric concerns are as follows:

• Animal rights activism: The main idea behind this concept is that animals have moral standing and human beings have no dominion over animals.
• Ecocentrism: This term means that ecological systems with their co-evolved interrelationships have moral standing. The complexity of the ecosystem makes it impossible for humans to understand it.
• Biocentrism: This concept accepts that individual living things such as a bacterium, an insect, an alga, a deer or a bird have a moral standing. All living things have an inherent value deserving moral respect. All living things have a good of their own, with the potential to grow and develop according to their biological nature or genetic code. Each individual living organism is conceived in nature as a teleological center of life having its own biological function and goals.

2.4 ECOLOGICAL REVOLUTIONS

 

“Revolutions are ambiguous things. Their success is generally proportionate to their power of adaptation and to be reabsorbed within them of what they rebelled against

—George Santayana”

Revolution is a complete change in conditions, way of doing things, perspectives and ideologies, usually brought about by overthrowing the previous system or views. Ecology is the scientific study of the complete interrelationship of living and nonliving aspects of nature such as competition, cooperation, symbiosis, mutualism, commensalism, etc. Ecological revolutions are the major transformations in human relations with non-human nature. To our knowledge, the major civilization transformation started with settled agriculture about 8,000–10,000 years ago when human beings achieved some element of dominion over nature. Major transformations in culture can be traced, projected and perceived in different ways, but an attempt is made here to trace the transitions that define major shifts in man–nature relationships.

2.4.1 Settled agriculture (agricultural revolution)

Settled agriculture can be considered as the first phase of ecological revolution when nature was attempted to be tamed at places where soil was fertile and water was available. Around 10,000 BC, the first agricultural villages were started by domesticating certain plants and civilization moved away from the earlier hunting and gathering way of life. In different parts of the world, this agricultural revolution started at different times. In Mesopotamia, it started by about 7,000 BC, in India by 6,000 BC, in Europe by 400 BC (culture of Vra) and in the Americas by 500 BC (Adena and Hopewell cultures). Farming formed stable and larger communities and new social organizations. For more production, irrigation systems were started. The relationship of human beings with nature changed from mankind being a part of nature as a gatherer to becoming a controller of land and water, plants and animals by taming the natural resources.

The initial phase of settled agriculture evolved into trade between far-off places by 2,000 BC in search of metals like tin for the bronze implements. Trade became a major motivation for exploring extensive sea routes and land routes. This trade era, where the cultural exchanges also took place, is not defined as another ecological revolution phase, as there was no major shift in man–nature relationship except collection and dispersal of a few species of plants and animals in a very restricted manner.

2.4.2 Colonial ecological revolution

A colonial, externally generated ecological revolution occurred during the 17^th century that led to collapse of the indigenous ecologies. Indigenous plants, animals, pathogens and people were dominated or replaced by the European ecological complexes. This colonial ecological revolution was legitimated by a set of symbols that placed the Europeans above wild nature, other animals and savages. An image of nature as a woman and as being subservient was promoted.

2.4.3 Capitalist ecological revolution

The next ecological revolution was the capitalist ecological revolution that occurred in the 19^th century and was internally generated. It led to the reintroduction of native species and land management.

2.4.4 Environmental pollution and climate change

The fourth phase of ecological revolution started with the publication of the book Silent Spring in 1962 with a growing concern for pollution. This book on exposure to the hazards of the pesticide dichloro-diphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), written by Rachel Carson, set the stage for an environmental movement. DDT, which was developed in 1939 as a broad-spectrum pesticide, could kill hundreds of species effectively. In World War II, it was used to control malaria, and its inventor was awarded the Nobel Prize. In 1945, Rachel Carson wrote an article on the ill effects of DDT to be published in the magazine Readers Digest, which was rejected by the magazine. After many unsuccessful attempts, to get the interest of magazines, she decided to publish her ideas and findings as a book. She became a scientist from 1958 and started to collect data on DDT. The book Silent Spring, published in 1962 after 4 years of research, describes how DDT entered the food chain and accumulated in the fatty tissue of birds and animals, including human beings. The chapter “A fable for tomorrow” in the book depicts how birds, fish, apple blossoms and human children are silenced by the use of DDT. The title means a spring season when no bird songs could be heard as all birds vanished as a result of overuse of pesticides.

The book resulted in banning DDT in the US in 1972 and paved the way for conducting environmental debates, forming new environmental legislations and bringing in new environmental ethics and paradigms of development (sustainable development).

2.5 HISTORY OF NATURE–MAN RELATIONSHIP

 

“Ecologists believe that a bird in the bush is worth two in the hand

—Stanley C. Pearson”

Is there a history for nature–man relationship?

The successive stages of nature–man relationship are explained as follows:

1. Pristine nature: Man existed or lived in the nature’s lap as a part of it. Man got all his needs from nature in abundance. Nature was wild, vast and pure when it housed man who was not dominating it, but only gathered from it to meet his needs just like a bird gathers fruits from a garden (Fig. 2.3).
2. Mysterious nature: Nature as a mystery was believed to be nurturing or blighting depending on man’s deeds, and the elements of nature were propitiated by man for its benevolence and grace. The nature brought plague, calamities, famine, hurricanes and drought, and thus, nature was feared. To avoid displeasure of natural forces, prayer was offered.
3. Transparent nature: The mysterious properties of nature gradually dwindled as the scientific discoveries came in and nature was envisioned as matter. Nature could be understood through careful observation and study. With more enlightenment of man, nature could be understood fully. What was considered a sacred grove is nothing but a group of plants or trees; lightning is collision of two clouds in the sky. Nature has certain mechanical laws on which it operates. This was the dominant perspective of this phase.
4. Romantic nature: The alienation of man from nature gave birth to romanticism—the experience that man is attached to the beautiful and colorful nature. The simple village life was rated as superior compared to the city life, as the modern city life was perceived as being away from nature. The beauty of nature in its variety of birds, trees, flowers, landscapes, wildlife, fishes, etc., was appreciated and experienced.
5. Resourceful nature: Industrialization presented nature as an asset of raw materials and a material of value. The nature is full of resources and each resource can be subjected to value addition as commodities. Thus, the power of wind, heat of sun, wood, gems, copper ore, water channel, and a scenic landscape are all wealth-creating natural resources. While the enlightened man tried to understand nature, the industrial man tried to exploit nature with technological revolution and industrial revolution, and thus, the dominance of man on the overall aspects of nature became overwhelming.
6. Sustainable nature: Nature is perceived as a common heritage of the man of today, which is to be passed on to the next generation in the same way it is inherited. The conservationists and environmentalists saw danger in the unchecked exploitation of nature. While natural resources are to be used, the current use should not deprive the future generations of the same resource both in quality and quantity.

Even though the environmentalists see exploitation of natural resources by man as invasive, the pristine nature as untouched wilderness in harmony with itself coexists today. Similarly, the mysterious nature which would unleash its wrath as ecological catastrophe and the transparent nature becoming so due to the enlightenment on the vastness and forces of the nature as fractal universe also coexist today. The man who gathered from nature only as per its reproduction capacity centuries back was sustaining nature as pristine, which is becoming a dominant approach today. Even though the nature– man relationship can be placed in a chronology of events (history) in the six stages, there is both a history and contemporaneousness to the relationship. The melting of the ice cap and the resultant rising sea levels predicted by the environmentalists of today might also have happened in the period of the Biblical Flood, with only Noah’s Ark surviving it. The heat waves, frequent forest fires and the global warming predicted today also must have happened in the Biblical cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, which were burnt from the fire sent from above.

Nature is an object of contemplation, depending on the dominant ideology of a society, and hence, nature is a matter of perception by man. Three persons in the same physical environment perceive nature differently—as resourceful nature or mysterious nature or romantic nature.

2.6 SUSTAINABILITY CONCEPTS

 

“The goal of life is living in agreement with nature

—Zeno”

Sustainability in the context of environmental management is understood in different ways by different sections of the society. The most commonly understood definition was given by Brundtland (1987) in the report called “our common future,” which is given below:

“Sustainable development is the development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

Sustainability in this definition has two concepts.

• The concept of need: Overriding priority to be given by all institutions and countries to the needs of the world’s deprived and socially excluded people.
• The concept of limitation: To meet the present and future needs of everyone from the natural resource pool, the state of technology and social organization would act as limitations.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) have given the definition of the term as follows:

“Sustainable development means improving the quality of human life whilst living within the carrying capacity of the ecosystems,” respecting limits to the development process, even though these limits are adjustable by technology (Holdgate 1993). Sustainable development is concerned with the development of a society where the costs of development are not transferred to the future generations, or an attempt is made to at least compensate for such costs (Pearce 1993).

2.6.1 Types of sustainability

Systems, processes, species, a farm, a nation, a city, a village, a region, water resources, energy, inputs, outputs and organizations are sustainable, if they get a constant supply of the required inputs.

Sustainability of a system means that it must not exhaust its inputs or resources over a reasonable period and it must not generate unacceptable outputs. The system can be agriculture production system in a farm, production of goods and services in a business firm, an irrigation system, a hydroelectric project, a thermal power plant, a manufacturing unit or an ecosystem. The inputs are the raw materials and energy usually and the outputs are usable products along with wastes and pollutants. Sustainable agriculture is a system that can evolve indefinitely towards greater human utility, greater efficiency of resource use and a balance with the environment which is favorable to humans and most other species (Harwood 1990). Thus, agricultural sustainability is the ability to maintain productivity as a field, farm or a nation. A sustainable business is one which gets its resources (inputs) perpetually in the same quality and quantity, meaning the resource use is at a rate equal to its replenishment, and the outputs of the business do not harm the environment. Sustainable tourism is enjoyment of the nature and its resources for recreational and leisure purposes in such a way that the ecosystem where the tourism activity is performed is not disturbed and its elements are not damaged. Further explanation is given to the concept, types and principles of sustainability in the subsequent chapters.

2.6.2 Sustainable resource use

It can be argued that sustainability can be achieved by not at all using a resource, and thus leaving it completely to the future generations. This is not the meaning of sustainability. Every resource must be used, but at a rate equal to its replenishment or to generate another resource (which has the potential to replace) that would eventually limit the use of the first resource. For example, fossil fuel is used directly and indirectly in the construction of a dam to generate hydroelectricity or to establish a windmill to generate electricity.

2.6.3 Principles of sustainability

The general principles of sustainability in most of the contexts are the following:

• Conservation of biodiversity and ensuring ecological integrity
• Ensuring intra-generational (within one generation) and inter-generational (successive generations) equity
• Being cautious with irreversibility and uncertainty
• Ensuring full valuation of all types of environmental assets
• Internalizing the externalities
• Integration of environmental and economic goals in policies and activities
• Ensuring social equity and community participation
• Providing sustainable income to the people dependent on the natural resources of a region
• Preserving natural capital
• Sustainability is a system characteristic; if a larger system is not sustainable, its subsystem cannot last long
• Living beings have only limited sustainability that will perish after some age
• Systems change and adapt, and thus, many system features and subsystem characteristics are not sustainable in the long run

When decisions and actions impacting an ecosystem are taken, one must bear in mind the above principles that would pave the way for sustainable actions and activities.

2.6.4 Ecological sustainability versus economic sustainability

When business persons speak of sustainability, they mean economic sustainability; their firm should continue to generate profits, grow in size, retain the customer base, etc. When an environmentalist speaks of sustainability, he means ecological sustainability; the forests should be intact, the streams should not dry, there should be less pollution, less waste, no degradation of the ecosystems or landscape, less fossil fuel use, less ecological footprint, energy use efficiency, etc.

If a society wants to create more jobs and ensure a high standard of living and higher quality of life, there has to be a balance between ecological and economic sustainability.

2.6.5 Major challenges to s ustainability

The challenges to sustainability are different for different countries. They depend on the stage of development, the population size, present ecological footprint and the natural resource base of the country. Dung and wood burning may be the predominant sources of CO₂ (a greenhouse gas) in a poor country, whereas automobile exhaust and industries may be the main sources of CO₂ emission in a developed country. Deforestation may be depleting the natural resource base of a poor country, whereas it is linked to high consumerism in a developed country. The major challenges to sustainability are:

• Pollution
• Poverty
• Inappropriate model of development
• Depletion of the natural resources by overgrazing, deforestation, soil erosion, overuse of water, overconsumption, etc. (Fig. 2.4).

2.7 POVERTY IN PARADISES

 

“In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous

—Aristotle”

There are many countries which are endowed with valuable natural resources, but their people are not enjoying a higher quality of life and their per capita income is very low. There are many African, Asian and Latin American countries which are very scenic, have large deposits of minerals, petroleum and precious metals, beautiful landscapes, beaches, mountains, forests, wildlife and very fertile land. But majority of these countries and regions within the countries are underdeveloped. There are many reasons for this state of affairs, such as political, social, economic, demographic and cultural factors.

Guanacaste province of Costa Rica in South America is the most beautiful place of Costa Rica and also its poorest area. This region is the cradle of an ancient indigenous civilization. Large hotel chains and real estate firms built tourist infrastructure in its beaches, and tourists started flowing in. The flourishing hotel and tourism industry firms are owned by outsiders, and the wealth created from the value of its scenic places is siphoned away to other parts of the country or abroad. Even the high-paying jobs in the tourism industry are held by outsiders. There is visible development in terms of tourist arrival, number of hotels, room occupancy ratio and bank transactions. But everyone comes to visit, dance with the local dancers, enjoy the local cuisine and relish the local culture and scenic beauty and goes back. There is no social development focus, as the development is moved or triggered by companies that have profit motive alone. Development without a concomitant social development eventually is likely to lead to social unrest, civil strife and other disturbances for the business itself. There are many similar cases in African countries and Asian countries.

Yasuni National Park, a 10,000 km² biodiversity hotspot in Ecuador, is another paradise of immense scenic beauty. Oil companies found rich fossil fuel under the trees and rivers of this bioreserve. The country’s political leaders want to know if the area should be drilled for oil and then the country earns revenue, or preserved as pristine wilderness. Does the entire humanity have a stake in this shared heritage or Ecuador alone has the responsibility to preserve Yasuni area? This area in Amazon is untouched (pristine nature type) with an estimated 100,000 insects per hectare, the highest concentration on earth; 655 wood species grow in 1 hectare, including 95 threatened plant species. There are 600 species of birds, many reptiles, amphibians, etc. Oil exploration, if allowed, would require laying pipelines, camps and roads by cutting the forest. Roads would bring colonization leading to secondary deforestation, fragmentation of habitats, hunting and further degradation. The oil companies benefit and the whole humanity loses if this pristine nature is mined for oil. Can a poor nation like Ecuador afford to resist the temptation of drilling oil and becoming rich in the economic development sense of the term?

Nobel laureate Paul Crutzen terms the present period wherein man dominates the biological, chemical and geological processes of nature as “Anthropocene,” even though we are officially living in Halocene epoch. Halocene period started after the last ice age that ended 12,000 years ago. The Anthropocene is crowded with 7 billion human beings, and this crowding is a grave danger to the environment not only due to the CO₂ released to the atmosphere by the people during respiration, but also due to mining, drilling, building, deforestation and the production process to meet the needs of this burgeoning population.

Significant learning for management

Business firms in an industry operate at the interphase of multiple systems: primarily social system and economic system. The social system and economic system are not static, and they are in a flux. The social structure and social processes are in constant interaction with nature, and this man–nature relationship influences their attitudes, decisions and behavior including purchase behavior. The dominant ideology or belief systems of a culture influence the way natural resources are tapped by business firms and how the impact of the enterprise on the nature is addressed. For business firms to survive and grow, an understanding of the ecology, ideologies which shape the man–nature relationships, cultural linkage with nature, availability of natural resources, impact of the firm’s activities on the ecosystem, etc., is important. The understanding of the reciprocal linkage between environment and business led to paradigm shifts from exploitation of nature to sustainable use of natural resources.

Questions for discussion

1. Discuss and bring out the characteristics of the present ecological revolution stage. What are the driving forces of the present-day ecological revolution?
2. Make an assessment of the elements of culture and the impact of culture of a society on the business firms.
3. Name three industries which have less connection with nature and justify your answer from the point of view of their inputs, outputs and marketing of their products or services.

Exercises for better understanding

1. Through web search, write a case of one country which is rich in forest biodiversity but very poor in protecting it for the next generation, as the needs of the present generation are overwhelming.
2. Do you subscribe to the inclusive view or to the exclusive view of nature? Substantiate your answer by describing the observations, events, places or project that influenced or guided your view.
3. Through web search, identify 10 technological inventions which can restore and rehabilitate the environment to its pristine nature.