Clean Production: Environmental and Economic Perspectives

The world has witnessed several revolutions since the dawn of industrial revolution some two centuries ago. During the current century itself, three revolutions in the area of communication, information processing and quality have taken place and each time the standard of living of man improved beyond predictions. But during the same period, the world population has also phenomenally increased dwarfing the gains achieved from the development. Increased level of industrial activity to meet the of humanity has caused irreversible damage to the pristine environment that the demand Earth once had. Economic disparity between the haves and havenots has widened, aggravating the situation further more. Ozone layer depletion, warming up of Earth's atmosphere and the pollution created by uncontrolled industrial activity to gain economic strength are now assuming the proportion of a catastrophe that may eventually threaten the survival of life on Earth. Developed countries blame the Third World countries for the uncontrolled emissions through burning of fossil fuels and for wasting precious resources of energy by using inefficient and uneconomical technologies, while the developed countries are equally responsible for avoidable oV,er-consumption and for the wastage of resources and energy and for not sharing the improved and efficient technologies with the developing countries. Thus the wastage by both these set of countries continues unabated. After all, resources of the world are finite and are meant to be shared by all its inhabitants.