Twenty years ago another colleague had rubbished another idea as a poor joke — that sea level rise accelerated by global warming would threaten the low-lying islands in the Pacific Ocean. Ten years on, however, he conceded that it was indeed a possibility, when the media got flooded with global warming reports. Let's hope that the butterfly sceptic doesn't take that long to revise his view.

Thanks to scientific research undertaken across the world, we now know more about the connections that bind all life together. But besides the need to observe and learn from, say, insect behaviour in terms of climate change and the health of the ecosystem, there is a huge gap between a groundswell of public awareness and action taken on the ground — whether by individuals, governments or civil society groups.

The recently released TERI Environmental Survey 2013 aimed to find out the level of public perception, awareness, behaviour and opinions with regard to the environment. The study conducted in six cities across India revealed, among other things, that while public awareness of these issues are pretty high, their perception of ground realities was often wide off the mark, creating a sense of complacency.

The same goes for industrial project clearances, which are regarded more as one more hurdle to cross and so to get over with rather than a crucial factor that could have a major impact on environment and on livelihoods, influencing the quality of life.

In spite of the enormous amount of information being made available on the state of environment, it is disregarded while undertaking development projects. This is due to several reasons.

Failure on the part of agencies to take these inputs seriously is because of their reluctance to take a holistic view that would include not just cost-benefit analyses in terms of economic viability but also sustainability that implies acknowledging the impact on the entire ecosystem that in turn would adversely impact future projects as well.

Don't Miss the Signs

Initiation and assessment of development projects are done mostly by those who see the exercise as purely economic in nature — profit and loss in money terms, number of jobs generated and volume of production — whereas they impact sociological, ecological, biological and psychological aspects of not just humans but also other species that together make up an ecosystem. The interconnectedness in the web of life is there for all to see.

Therefore, any development activity directed at boosting GDP (and in the process, profit for the organisation or individual) needs to also undertake green accounting to arrive at a more realistic, responsible, perhaps even altruistic model that would enhance rather than diminish the quality of life. Only by acknowledging the connection and the need to maintain the quality of water, air, livelihoods and biodiversity can blueprints for progress claim to be welfare-oriented rather than exploitative.

If, despite increasing awareness of environmental issues, sustainability continues to be regarded more as a talking point than an urgent shift in the way we conduct business, it means we are missing the signals the environment is sending out to us. Is it because the signals are one too many and we know so much now that they've become a blind spot?

(The writer is Associate Editor, The Times of India, and Editor, The Speaking Tree)