Jain Spirit 2003 06 No 15

Author(s): Jain Spirit UK
Publisher: UK Young Jains

Page 54

ENVIRONMENT
HOLISTIC VISION
Anup Shah urges us to explore and acknowledge the inter-connected nature of our planet in order to tackle poverty and environmental problems effectively Linking the Environment and Poverty
Bangladesh, for example, have suffered from various Many readers are probably familiar with the tale of the four environmental problems such as increasingly devastating blind men asked to identify the object in front of them. Each floods that resulted from large-scale deforestation. Forests blind man investigated just one part, so no one identified the around the world face increased pressures from timber whole as an elephant. Similarly, both environmental companies and agricultural businesses. Some environmendegradation and poverty alleviation are urgent global issues talists, especially from rich nations, also raise concerns with much in common, but they are often treated separately. about the increasing numbers of population placing Consider the following: human activities are resulting in mass excessive burdens on the world's resources as the current species extinction at rates higher than ever before, currently
major source of environmental problems. approaching thousand times the normal rate. Human-induced
This makes for a worrying situation for third world climate change threatens with an even bleaker future.
development and poverty alleviation. An environment-only The inequality of human societies is extreme. The United approach risks 'blaming the victims'. While humans are Nations' 1998 Human Development Report reveals that, largely responsible for many problems on our planet today, "globally, 20% of the world's people in the highest-income not all humans have the same impact on the environment. It countries account for 86% of the total private consumption is important to consider that the consumption of just the expenditures - the poorest 20% for a minuscule of 1.3%." To world's wealthiest one-fifth of humanity is so much more highlight this inequality further, consider that approximately than the rest of the world (as highlighted at the beginning). one billion people suffer from hunger and some 2 to 3.5 billion Putting emphasis on population growth in this way is people have a deficiency of vitamins and minerals. Yet, some perhaps over-simplistic. However, this does not mean we 1.2 billion suffer from obesity. One billion people live on less can be complacent about future population burdens. than a dollar a day (the official measure of poverty). However, Sustainability is critical for the world's majority to develop half the world - nearly three billion people - live on less than without following the environmentally damaging processes two dollars a day. Yet, just a few hundred millionaires now own of the currently industrialised nations. as much wealth as the world's poorest 2.5 billion people.
Issues about environment, economics and politics are inter- The Impact of Richer Nations on the Environment related through the way humans interact with their The relationship between the rich and poor and the impacts surroundings and with each other. Biological diversity allows on the environment go deep. Economics is meant to be a variety of species to work together to help maintain the about efficient allocation of resources to meet everyone's environment without costly human intervention. We benefit needs. However, international power politics and because the environment sustains us with the variety of ideologies have continued to influence policies in such a resources produced. However, there is often a mainstream way that decision-making remains concentrated in the belief that, in order for poor countries to develop, environ- hands of a few narrow interests. The result is that the mental concerns have to be sacrificed; or that these concerns world's resources are allocated to meet only a few people's are a luxury to be addressed once poverty is alleviated. wants, not everyone's needs. Indian activist and scientist, Therefore, the approaches to such issues require re-thinking. Vandana Shiva, shows in her work that many people have The overloaded phrase "sustainable development must been forced into poverty due to political and economic recognise the interconnectedness between human beings and factors such as concentrated land rights and pressure from the environment if true environmental and social justice is to be industry to exploit the environment in ways that destroy obtained. As the Delhi-based environment organisation, the diversity and affect local populations. Shiva also highlights Centre for Science and Environment points out: if the poor that the poor tend to have a wealth of knowledge about their world were to develop and consume in the same manner as the environment and are often sustainers and efficient users of wealthy nations to achieve the same living standards, "we it as they recognise their link to it for their survival. would need two additional planet Earths to produce resources Excessive third world debt burden has meant that it has and absorb wastes ... and good planets are hard to find!"
been harder to prioritise sustainable development. Unfair
debt imposed on the third world for decades by the global The Impact of Poverty on the Environment
institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Poverty and third world debt has been shown to result in the World Bank through their harsh Structural Adjustment resource stripping just to survive or pay off debts. Nepal and programmes (SAPs) have opened up economies rapidly in
52 Jain Spirit • June - August 2003 Jain Education International 2010_03