Another one of my articles in today’s Outreach. Page 5 (on link above). About environmental leader and pioneer, Anil Kumar Agarwal.
Honoring Anil
By Rachel Molly Gurney, Stakeholder Forum
As we move closer to the Earth Summit in 2012, we must remember the leaders of the the environmental movement. Rachel Gurney celebrates today’s leader, Anil Kumar Agarwal…
Anil Kumar Agarwal was a leader and pioneer in India’s environmental landscape. His work was pivotal in the involvement of civil society in India’s environmental conservation and natural resource management.
Agarwal’s interest in environmental issues and passion for improving the human condition compelled him to give up a promising career in engineering to become an environmental journalist in the 1970s. Journalism allowed Agarwal to delve further into the scientific and technological needs of India’s impoverished peoples. This work compelled Agarwal to found one of India’s first environmental NGOs, the Centre of Science and Environment (CSE), to study environmental development and encourage public environmental consciousness.
In 1982, CSE published a groundbreaking citizens’ report on the State of India’s Environment. This report provided an extensive overview of India’s state of environmental degradation and the impact it had on its citizens. These reports continue to gain worldwide attention for their in- depth analysis of India’s most pressing environmental issues.
Agarwal’s interest in the relationship between people and their environment fueled his desire to better the lives of impoverished Indians through sustainable development. He believed the people of India should have a voice in the environmental arena. For this reason, Agarwal spent a lifetime advocating policies that involved the public in India’s natural resource management. His organization, CSE, continues to lead in public interest research and advocacy.
Anil Kumar Agarwal’s work has earned him a place on the United Nations Environmental Programme’s (UNEP) Global 500 Honour Roll. According to Former Executive Director of UNEP, Mr. Klaus Toepfer, recipients of this honor prove themselves to be “heroes on the frontline of global environmental action…realizing that global issues are in fact rooted in daily life, and that actions in private life ripple out and affect the larger environment.”
As we look forward to Earth Summit 2012, let us remember Anil Kumar Agarwal and the considerable impact poor natural resource management has on us all, especially the impoverished among us. We must consider those most significantly impacted by environmental injustice when searching for solutions to our planet’s most trying environmental challenges.
