The honking intensifies. Auto rickshaws, motorcycles, cars, and buses all all emerge onto the already overcrowded roads. The morning commute progresses in this way – past shanty villages and shops, beggars, and the dust and soot emitted from renovation projects – amidst the poverty that is, but not for long, India. The predicament remains this: economy or environment?
“Job opportunities have increased, so people have to go to work,” said Nirmal Malhotra, resident of a bustling commercial neighborhood in New Delhi. “Lots of people are beginning to work at malls. Now they can afford cars – but overpopulation has always been a problem.”
As a developing nation, India’s priority remains to further industrialize itself. With the rise of shopping malls, power plants, and manufacturing industries, India’s economy is on the verge of prosperity. But what are the effects of these new developments on the environment? For an overpopulated nation that, according to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), experiences a 1.6 percent annual growth rate – not good.
“The way to control environmental issues is to decrease the growth rate to zero, as the economist Lester Brown suggests,” said Joanne Choly, environmental ecologist at Fairfield.
“It is important to examine what the real cost of industry is. It’s not just investing in and using the raw materials. There are many environmental impacts to consider in the long-run as well,” said Choly.
The state of India According to the CIA, India is currently contributing 2 percent to the global GDP. As their industry is on the rise, a five-fold increase in GDP contribution is expected by 2025. With this development, the emergence of a middle-class is evident as poverty rates are beginning to decrease in an overpopulated nation.
Consumer rates have also been on the rise, as more people are beginning to invest in cars, cell phones, and household appliances. With the development of more job opportunities and industry, transportation is also increasing.
Vehicular pollution in India is significantly undergoing a rapid increase, directly influencing the increase in carbon dioxide emissions and energy consumptions, according to the World Energy Outlook (WEO) 2007 of the International Energy Agency (IEA).
Dr. Gita Rajan, a Fairfield professor of English and native of India, agrees that currently, it is an issue of overpopulation and inefficient manipulation of resources rather than industrialization.
“The population explosion, the spawning of city-slums because of mass-migration to metropolis for labor reasons, the unplanned and very harmful deforestation of lands near urban centers to build houses or technology parks or roads, and, of course, the massive emission of carbon dioxide because most of the vehicles run on diesel are all the root,” said Rajan.
The “Go Green” movement in the US has confirmed the antagonistic effects of industrialization on global warming. Greenhouse gas emissions lie at the crux of the issue and, according to the IEA, India is one among the top five largest greenhouse emitters in the world.
The IEA stated that India’s current energy consumption of 1.1 billion is expected to increase four-fold within 25 years, further expanding its emissions of greenhouse gases. It is expected that, in the year 2030, the demand for primary energy in India will double, leading it to become the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases. In addition, India faces other conditions detrimental to the environment including poor sanitation and scarcity of potable water.
“All of these issues increase the intensity of global warming. More people mean more jobs. More jobs mean more industry. More industry means more pollution and more pollution means poor sanitation – especially here [in India],” said Malhotra.
India’s priority With 25 percent of the population under the poverty line – that is, living on less than the equivalent of $1 per day – economic development and plans to increase the standard of living seem to be at the forefront of the Indian agenda.
“The economy is doing well,” said Malhotra. “New roads are being built; shopping malls are being created. Life is better in India.”
Currently, India is experiencing an almost 10 percent economic growth rate, contributing to a vast and successful increase in standard of living in India. “Even though there is a nemesis behind economic development, it raises the standard of living,” said Dr. Dina Franceschi, co-director of the Environmental Studies program at Fairfield. “I’m a social scientist, and social science places the human species on the forefront of responsibility.”
However, according to Dr. Lisa Newton, professor of Global Environmental Policies at Fairfield, if consumption in India becomes comparable to that in the United States, the nation would be in great difficulty.
“Still,” she said, “if the environment is damaged, India won’t have an economy. The United States can spread out; India can’t. It has got take care of its environment first.”
Responsibility consumes the United States Though global warming can easily be attributed to environmental issues in India other than pollution, the statistics relative to the United States are interesting to consider. With a population less than half of that in India, the United States is the largest emitter of greenhouse gases.
“One of the worst environmental disasters was the United States company – Union Carbide’s chemical plant explosion in Bhopal (northern India) that caused hundreds of thousands of deaths, maiming of people, and permanent damage,” said Rajan. “And yet, the United States keeps insisting that India is polluting and is environmentally irresponsible.”
Still, as wealth in the United States can be attributed to a number of nations outside the scope of the western hemisphere, responsibility remains an issue of concern.
“We need to compensate them for the wealth we extracted from them in the past,” said Franceschi.
However, the efforts of the United States to reach out to the developing world for economic and environmental development have not always been successful.
“A few years ago, in an attempt to help India control floods, the west built a series of dams,” said Newton. “The funnels caused the water to go downstream and not to the soil. It turns out that you should just let the flood take its course as it will fertilize the soil.”
“What’s difficult about counteracting global warming as far as the United States is concerned is that there is a sense of entitlement here. We feel as if we own everything and must have everything. Nothing’s to say that a stronger nation can’t help a weaker nation,” said Choly.
Currently, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has been taking steps to counteract the effects of global warming. The Kyoto Protocol, first established in a conference in Kyoto, Japan in 1997, requires that developed nations reduce their emission rates between the years 2008 and 2012.
Since developed nations are able to do this more efficiently than developing nations, they are provided with the primary responsibility for this change.
Environment or Economy?
Despite its negative influence on the environment due to its economic prosperity, India has attempted to take some steps toward a solution.
A recent survey found that carpooling is beginning to become more prevalent in India’s elite due to rising awareness of global warming and carbon dioxide emissions. The survey was conducted by Indiomoto.com, an auto classifieds site in India.
“There is an urgent need to create awareness amongst urban commuters about the benefits of carpooling primarily to reduce the harmful effects of CO2 emissions from vehicles which is aiding rapid global warming,” said Udit Bhandari, founder and CEO of Indimoto.com, in a press release.
Furthermore, as Newton suggests, it is necessary that traditional agricultural strategies be recovered.
“Industrial agriculture is maladapted to Indian soil,” said Newton. “The more India relies on agricultural industrialization, the closer it will get to committing suicide. This will essentially kill off the workers.”
“It’s about finding an economically efficient solution that would be feasible in the long-run,” said Franceschi. “Can you have cleverly crafted economic development that concerns itself with environmental quality? Yes.”
In terms of economic development for an otherwise impoverished nation, many believe there are alternative ways of solving the issues.
“When I was in India in the early 80s, there were still many parks in the cities; the suburbs were still lush, roads were navigable, and people lived without waste,” said Rajan.
“Now, the attitude is one of wasteful consumption and that is hard to watch. I also recognize that India is one of the most fascinating examples of a working democracy – so, it is impossible to mandate laws to stop pollution or control the masses, as maybe China does,” she said.
Still, global warming is an issue that is beginning to surface in the United States as one of great importance. Solutions will be wanted throughout the globe.
“Global warming is a global issue, as it name suggests. For this, we must find a global solution,” said Choly.
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