Plundering the Planet
By Irfan Husain

AS the evidence of global warming increases, I am reminded of the time when we got our first fridge. I must have been around seven when this marvel of modern science arrived as the result of my father’s lecture tour in the United States in 1951.

Neighbours came over to inspect the hulking white box, and often asked us to cool things for them. Now, of course, they are taken for granted, and even most village children are familiar with them.

Other electrical consumer products, too, are commonplace. Electricity is now almost as essential as water. And as we increase our dependence on electric power, we are being reminded of the limits to growth.

With the mounting demand for oil and gas, prices have been steadily rising. Industrial activity to produce endless new models of consumer goods is causing global warming that threatens us all. Intensive agricultural methods are also taking their toll on the ecosystem.

Large dams, canals, chemical fertilisers and pesticides are all affecting the soil. Entire species are being wiped out by our industrial and agricultural activities. Above all, population continues to rise inexorably, placing enormous strains on a fragile ecology. Currently, around 6.5 billion humans inhabit our planet, with 1.5 billion of them in South Asia alone.

Those who are comfortably off will ask ‘so what?’ But no matter how fortunate these people are, they cannot distant themselves from the reality of environmental degradation.

When the temperature rises, it rises for everybody. And air-conditioning adds to global warming, pumping out heat while consuming large amounts of energy.If the problems inherent in our current model of growth are already so pressing, think of how things will be when more and more people acquire their first cars and their first fridges.

Already, we in Pakistan are witnessing enormous traffic jams, daily power cuts and severe gas shortages. But as the middle class expands and the rich get richer, there will be more and more vehicles on the roads, and more electrical devices in homes. Pollution in all forms is chronic, and without any state intervention, is bound to get worse.

What we see happening in our cities and our countryside is only a foretaste of things to come. Presently, South Asians are using the equivalent of 465 kilos of oil per capita every year, and consume an average of only 360 kilowatt hours of electricity each. Citizens of the European Union, by contrast, burn up 3,800 kilos of oil each year, while using 6,400 kilowatt hours of electricity.

This disparity is reflected in the average incomes in the two regions: the gross national income per capita in South Asia is under $700, while it is $31,000 for Europe. If and when our region approaches European standards of living, where will the energy and other resources to sustain this growth come from?

And yet, this is the goal international financial institutions as well as national governments have set for themselves. But more to the point, this is what most people want as well.

Conditioned by a lifetime of being bombarded by advertisements, as well as images of the lifestyle of the rich and the famous, those aspiring to
join the middle-class ache to own the latest model cars, TVs and computers.

These desires are fed by manufacturers who spend vast amounts on design, development and publicity to develop and sell new products in a highly competitive marketplace.

Many of these items make life easier for their proud owners. But in this endless cycle of acquisition and planned obsolescence, finite mineral and hydrocarbon resources are being rapidly depleted.

If environmental problems as the result of human activity are now reaching critical proportions, what will happen when the hundreds of millions living below the poverty line join the middle class?

Clearly the planet cannot sustain 6.5 billion people maintaining a Western lifestyle. According to one estimate, we will run out of oil in 2040 at current levels of utilisation if no major new oilfield is discovered before then. Even earlier, global warming threatens to transform the planet into a far more hostile place.

Rapidly increasing economic activity in Asia is already causing enormous environmental damage, but governments are doing little to control it.

Despite available knowledge and technology, corporate greed and state indifference are ensuring that progress is bought at a high human cost. Industrial effluents are routinely being dumped into rivers, lakes and seas. Untreated human waste is finding its way into water supplies. And all kinds of toxic fumes are being pumped into the atmosphere.

When our industrialists and bureaucrats are reminded of their responsibilities, they cynically retort that the current concern for the environment is somehow a Western conspiracy.

According to this paranoid view, Europe and America showed no such regard for nature when they industrialised. Now that developing countries are taking the same route, they are being discouraged so that the West does not face any competition. This is like a young smoker telling an adult that it’s his turn to damage his lungs.

If it’s hard to convince polluters and decision-makers to mend their ways, it’s even harder to convince people that it’s not in their best interest to join the rat race. When banks in Pakistan made cheap credit available, tens of thousands responded by buying cars.

Over a thousand new cars add to Karachi’s traffic everyday. When I read economics at university 40 years ago, we were taught that the road to development led through industrialisation and consumerism.

As demand and purchasing power grew, production would increase, generating more jobs which would in turn lead to more demand, and so on. This virtuous circle would lead us out of the poverty trap we were caught in.

It is true that this model has lifted tens of millions out of poverty in the last decade. When compared with the inherent inefficiencies of socialism as practised earlier by China and the defunct USSR, capitalism is clearly more effective in creating wealth.

But none of my professors talked about the limits to growth. Nobody then raised environmental concerns, or suggested that the planet’s bounty was finite. Back then, only science fiction writers wrote about such issues. But now, these realities are now shaping the global agenda.

If we don’t act on the warnings we are now getting from Mother Nature, it may well be too late to repair the damage we have inflicted on our planet.●

© 2007 Irfan Husain