Listen to what two of the 10th class texts have to say (2012 class school text books)
Lines from the textbook of Economics
“…economic development implies the process of securing a higher level of national productivity in all sectors of economy. It is the process of stepping up the rate of capital formation needed for rapid economic development.” ” The term economic growth refers to the increase in the country’s real output of goods and services…..other measures could be employed like industrialization, urbanization, level of human development..”Lines from the textbook of Environmental Studies
The book’s opening lines ” Pollution is the contamination of our surroundings. Pollution directly or indirectly harms human beings and organisms. Pollution is often described as ‘unfavourable alteration’ of the surroundings.”
Our education has conditioned us to perceive human progress only if it manifests in technology, as urbanization, as more products, in space travel. Over the years we see this manifestation in other countries and confirm our beliefs. Environmental Studies is taught to us in a manner as not to malign industry. Why can this book not say it aloud at the start that pollution is the product of industry; that there is no waste in nature – the food chain ensures that one species waste is the food of another; that only industry and consumption has created waste?
The connection between ecology and economics is not self-evident. Surely not if we are a product of this education system. An anthropocentric view is the backbone of this education.
Ecology and industry
In the entire history of economic thought and industrialization, we have always assumed that natural resources are free for use. Yes we spend money on processing them, not on buying them from nature. We pay the milkman, not the cow. We pay for processing petrol, not for what the oil company got free from the earth. This has got us used to a method of fictitious costing which never considered the cost of natural resources and services. The ignored costs are proving to be deadly for us. The costs of denuding forests, plundering the earth for minerals, polluting the sources of drinking water, contaminating the very soil which produces food and stripping the environment of thousands of species because of their habitat destruction. The truth is that industry cannot survive without harming nature. We can only “create” wealth by use of natural resources.
Competition is all about reaching these free resources first.
Ecology and agriculture
But let’s not be remorseful about it, our generation isn’t the first to do this. Want to hear something really hard to digest?The first instance of man going against nature is Agriculture. The idea of clearing a forest with hundreds of species and planting one species is perhaps a about 10,000 year old. This act of monoculture not only destroys thousands of flora, but also strips the fauna of its natural habitat and food sources. And something else our education does not talk of – there is an aftermath to monoculture – rise of predators and depletion of soil. When man takes care of one species, the natural predators of that species also thrive on it. So much so that we must use pesticides – chemical toxins to kill those pests. These chemical weapons not only kill what they are supposed to, but also what they are not supposed to. Years of use of these chemicals have ensured that they are found on nearly every thing that we eat or drink.
Monoculture’s second blow on nature is that of depleting the soil of nutrients. Man has countered this with some more chemicals – fertilizers. A forest does not strip the soil of nutrients because the flora and fauna themselves create nutrients in the leaf litter and detritus. Symbiotic relations of its various inhabitants ensure this. Fertilizers help yield in the short run. But year on year of fertilizer use has created soil toxins in many places in India. The excess chemicals find their way to underground water sources. Fertilizers in drinking water are not safe for humans.
Talk about subsidies and fertilizers and pesticides have been every government’s favorites. This, unfortunately has been the source of numerous health concerns, another government favorite spending. The ironies of modern society!
Ecology and economics
Our model of economic growth, human progress and national development is based on market consumption. The more people buy, the more we get to produce, more industries more services, more GDP, more jobs. Large cities and metropolitan regions need far more resources than small villages
Education stops short of telling us that this also means more natural resources being used than are meant for us, more waste created and more pollution. Our concept of progress is based on an extremely fragile model of converting nature’s renewable and non-renewable resources into wealth. When growth turns to greed, nature will not sustain. The first signs are seen in climate change. And yet, some see the melting of the Arctic as opening of further sources of natural resources. The ironies of modern society!
Rio+20
What man has neglected till now has become unbelievably urgent for this generation to correct. The UN’s focus, developed countries advising emerging ones, conferences like the one in Ri0, all reveal the serious message that nature sends out to us. Redefine progress, think sustenance. Rethink industry, consume frugally. Restore nature, live in harmony with non-human beings. And as someone has said, we are guests on this planet. We must act like responsible guests.
It is interesting to note what E.F.Schumacher says in his book “Small is beautiful: Economics as if people mattered” He says
” It is not a question of choosing between ‘modern growth,’ and ‘traditional stagnation.’ It is a question of finding the right path of development, the Middle Way between materialist heedlessness and traditionalist immobility, in short, of finding ‘Right Livelihood.'”
I do not recall hearing any of this in school, I suppose nor would my children. Convenience has been the long rope of anthropocentric thought.
A good article….But we may take into consideration that countries who are using the Maximum amount of resources are blaming the developing countries like us for global warming and trying to teach us lesson of sustainable development. Now the companies are trying to take benefit of the fact that people now are more conscious about nature than their past generation….
Thanks Gaurav. That’s the unfortunate truth the wealth pyramid and power pyramid converge.
Gaurav thats very true that they are blaming us for the global warming but to see the +ve side of this they are already finished with their resources and we are still having it.That means they are suffering and have realised for what they have lost and cannot be restored by any advance technology .Why not try to save what we are left with.
An eye opener .. This reminds me of the quote which I read on facebook today .
” I wish we were all hippies and we did yoga , lived in cottages , smoked weed , accepted everyone for who they are and listened to wonderful music …. and I wish money didnt make us who we are .. I just wish we could redo society “
Nidhi, the happiest people don’t live in cities, they don’t work 12 hours, they don’t eat junk and don’t need hospitals and vacations. Their life is a vacation.
Present day economic processes are creating more and more needs- most are dispensable.
The present livelihoods are created out of the efforts to satisfy these notional needs and are sustaining the population growth. Question is how long this runaway greed can continue..
Sustainable Nature abhors greed of any species..
How do we reconcile using the intelligence (result of the evolutionary process) that mankind has?
But isn’t increasing convenience one of the important human endeavors.
Is Mahatma Gandhi’s economics similar to what you are proposing?
Yes! Quite. Gandhiji’s philosophy was not in the least anthropocentric. He was ecologically right, maybe politically wrong.
A very well written article & thought provoking too. We must mend our ways to hand over Planet Earth to the next generation in a good condition. Easier said than done.
Thanks. Easier said than done because of the mindset we have thanks to education.
We create only “fictitious” wealth through natural resources to man-made services
Is sustainable development the answer? My child’s school has an Environmental pledge which they recite eveyday!..things are changing…but if the pace is right..only time will decide…..
as always solution is missing… I think this is very old though process and now many are talking about this so nothing new…… Where are the solutions? Some of them say solution can be ecological. I think solution needs to be applied at much much higher level than that! which will then percolate to ecological level. Perhaps molding universe? I see a energy relationship between universe – solar system – and each individual on earth and under the laws of thermodynamics everything works so — fine if modern society has behaved or is behaving in a way that will change automatically when energy relationship in universe will change. So, I see spiritualism has already found the solution and slowly it is curing, so I think – – -if we are talking as if we are guests on this planet then planet and universe knows what needs to be done! and it is happening through spiritualism We just need to believe that we are responsible guests and follow the spiritualism, rest will be taken care