We will not stop global warming!

“Beijing is now at the forefront of a wave of entrepreneurship in telecoms, media, software and the web. Socially too, Beijing is on fire, with new clubs, bars and restaurants opening everyday.

The city, now boasts some 20,000 dining establishments whose fare ranges from all corners of China to ante cuisine from world renowned chefs like New York City’s Daniel Boulend, who has been in the capital to supervise the soft opening of his first restaurant outside the US.” Said Prof. S.T Hettige, University of Colombo

Given above is a quotation from the most recent issue of the Time magazine (July 28, 2008). You can replace Beijing with any other emerging city in the developing world and the story will remain broadly the same.

In other words, rapid economic growth everywhere leads to more or less identical consumption patterns involving luxury housing, sleek motor cars, shopping malls, high rise buildings and international restaurants.

A recent news report found 46% increase in the sale of fuel guzzling SUVS in China, though motor car sales in more environmentally conscious Germany have recorded a decline last year.

The developed Western countries were able to adopt wasteful consumption patterns several decades back. Following the adoption of liberal economic reforms, many developing countries move in the same direction.

Those who amass wealth in these countries engage in consumption patterns that have nothing to do with global environmental concerns.

Houses are built, not taking into account the actual needs of their families but more in line with social and life-style requirements. There is scant attention being paid to unnecessary waste of non-renewable resources such as timber and energy.

Large, fuel guzzling vehicles are purchased with no consideration given to the environmental costs of burning large amounts of fossil fuel, let alone the growing energy crisis.

Wasteful consumption of other commodities and services by the affluent classes and the glorification of their life styles by the media encourage not-so-affluent people to aspire for such consumption patterns. Simple living that has the least ecological impact is equated with poverty that has to be eradicated at any cost.

Developing countries that record high rates of economic growth invariably give rise to a sizable affluent class that adopts consumption patterns prevalent in developed western countries. With increasing incomes of other segments of the population, such consumption patterns gradually spread across the country.

As long as ecologically unsustainable, wasteful consumption patterns remained confined to a smaller number of countries, they did not lead to a major resource crunch, though their adverse ecological impact continued to intensify.

On the other hand, when the two most populous nations, along with many other countries joined the race following the spread of liberal economic dogma across the world, the consequence has been an unprecedented global crisis.

The demand for oil increased rapidly leading to the present oil crisis. Increasing use of oil and other natural resources has made a distinct contribution to the growing environmental crisis.

What is significant is that it is still only a small proportion of the population in the developing world that has adopted western, energy- intensive life styles. Yet, with increasing economic growth, this proportion continues to increase.

If the developing country governments allow private consumption to increase at the expense of public investments in such areas as transport and housing, the aggregate impact on a global scale can be catastrophic. Yet, in with increasing domestic and foreign debts, many developing country governments have very limited resources for public investments.

The countries that are already developed do not seem to be ready to change their wasteful consumption patterns in spite of their obvious adverse environmental impacts. For instance, they are still not ready to move away from the ecologically unsustainable car culture.

This is evident from their search for an alternative to fossil fuel such as bio-fuel.

Moreover, the global compact on carbon trading points to the desire on the part of already developed countries to retain their right to pollute at the expense of others.

On the other hand, car culture is spreading very fast in the developing countries, almost at the expenses of public transport. Large loans are given to build highways that can be economically sustainable only if more and more vehicles are added.

Western industrial civilization has transformed the lives of a large section of the world population. The gains that industrialized countries have made are well known.

On the other hand, it is only recently that more and more people have begun to realize the unsustainable and unhealthy nature of their own life styles. It became too obvious when such life styles began to spread across the globe over the last three decades. The morbidity patterns in many developing countries are already very similar to those found in the developed worlds. The only difference is that the farmers do not have the resources to address them.

There are also other uneasy signs. Emerging scientific evidence makes people worry about things that they have hitherto taken for granted.

These include the most ubiquitous plastic and even mobile telephones. If there is conclusive evidence that prolonged exposure can be harmful to health, how long will it take scientists to develop substitutes or safeguards? Will it be already too late for many who might have been affected by then?

The neo-liberal development paradigm has been successful not only in changing the way the political leaders and business elites think and act across the world, but also in creating unsustainable desire in the minds of the people for worldly things that the known planetary resources can hardly satisfy.

Looking at the way human beings, both rich and poor, are scrambling around the world looking for opportunities to earn money and consume more, it is highly unlikely that we will stop global warming before it is too late. In fact, in many countries, visitors far outnumber their bona fide citizens; they are either guest workers or tourists! How sustainable can some of the emerging concrete jungles be in the not so distant future?