RISING UP WITHOUT BURNING DOWN
When we talk about the globalization of our economy and
then start boasting of our redundant growth in spite of the financial turmoil
entrapping the world, there is a cabal of skewed eyes to our opinions. These
are the people who call themselves environmental fighters. This gives us a
society divided into two factions:
The optimists of globalization who embrace free trade,
free markets, liberalization and privatization,
Anchor to the impressive growth rates of GDP, total
trade, foreign direct investment and institutional
Investments and foreign reserve reflect optimum. At the
other extreme are the pessimist who detest
Multinational and globalization and believe free trade
favors developed nations and will lead to
Western cultural and economic invasion, slowly tearing
apart the cultural fabric and national identity.
They refer to visible poverty, farmer suicides, abysmal
infrastructure and low spending on health care
And education to discount progress. Rural India remains
impoverished and urban India finds itself
Polluted, chaotic and deteriorating. In this context this
paper analyses the impact of globalization on
The environment of Indian economy.
In the Indian context globalization plays a gargantuan
role, because of the economic slowdown in the western world, most of the MNCs
are looking towards India. The huge jump in the automobile sector is a clear
indication of that. It is supporting our economy to keep up the GDP growth rate
afloat. The automobile sector is just the tip of the iceberg because of cheap labor,
lack of judicial accountability, proper environmental protection laws and easy
availability of land among others any company gets a fillip to invest in the
Indian market, be it through institutional investors on direct investors. So in
lieu of the facts any one can say that our growth story looks robust and even
though the western crises may continue but the domestic demands will prevent
out growth rate from nose diving.
But now look at the other picture, in a energy deficient
country like ours, for the industry to grow at this pace we will need brobdingnagian
proportions of energy. Where will that energy come from? Nuclear!!! With the
accountability laws available, I don’t think so. Oil!!! Seems unlikely we can
hardly manage oil the oil for our transport sector. The only option left for us
now is coal. That means we are going to invest heavily in the mining industry,
subsequently burning it in the power plant to get the energy. Seems fair
enough. STOP ! . there are 2
fundamental flaws with this line of thinking until recently no one cared much
about the mining licenses but after the 2-G scam now the allocation of coal
blocks through competitive bidding. The greater setback is in the environmental
field where now GO and NO-GO areas have been defined. Though the ministry of
mines is still pushing for clearances but the environment ministry under the
leadership of shri. Jai Ram Ramesh was reluctant for it. Even though it is
evidently clear that outrageous mining has disastrous impact on the environment
still we want to go for it, the big question is WHY?
Here is the crux of all this argument, somehow a faction
of people think that economic growth is much more important, even at the cost
of environment. These people are the ones at the top of the food chain. It is
said that in the fight between money and environment, money always wins. Some
of us immediately pop up the question money or air is necessary for our
survival? A wise economist will answer “I will pack clean air in packets and
then sell them to earn profits.” The triumph of money over environment was
recently re-established in the US when because of the slowdown the prices of
solar cells fell drastically and thus making them economically viable but still
the federal government couldn’t invest in them. Why?? Because the fossil fuel
junkie companies having being invested a lot in the politics couldn’t see It
happen. The other aspect is that every nation is supposed to cut their
emissions, with this strategy I don’t see it happen. The main point that
emerges at this point is the most important thing is to have a lot of money and
if you have money you can even have considerable influence over the words
strongest democracies. Some of you might disagree but the wars in Middle East??
Did it bring anything to your recollection?? Where are the weapons of mass destructions??
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| Greendex overall scores |
Who is to blame for this
sorry state of environment? Most of us in the developing world will point
fingers towards the developed world. This to a certain extent is correct they
have burned a lot of fossil fuels. So should we blame the entire massacre of
environment on them?? It may be interesting to see things from the other
perspective, we in the developing world have a huge population, 36% of the world’s
population lives in India and China so our per capita emissions will definitely
be low, on the other hand with developed world with a lesser population is bound
to have higher per capita emissions. Is this the correct logic? Well the debate
is still on. That’s the basic reason the US is always neglecting any legal
binding agreement. So does this mean Indian government should stop its
industrialization let its people be poor and thus let millions die of
starvation?? I don’t agree with that. I don’t know still why Indian government
is so willingly taking on the cuts. Who am I to judge? How fare is that the
rich countries can buy carbon credits of the poor countries and then they don’t
have to go for any cuts all they have to do is practically pay some amount for
it. Well I am not a judge but a noble prize was given just for this concept.
Doesn’t it look like a western controversy?? Here is another fact when rich
guys want to pay with the poor all they do is give useless incentives to the
other nations. Assume an American policy maker say “ok these are the developing
countries they are shouting foul about my emissions why don’t I make a comment
and make a the chairman from these countries so that he will definitely work
hard for getting commitments from his country”. I am not judging anyone all I
am saying is it is a possibility at least the data shows it.
CONCLUSION: Globalization
in India has not led to a uniform consensus on ways of achieving
Sustainable development methods. Globalization measures
are only end of the pipeline clean ups and there is no more to have a quantum
shift towards green, sustainable and environmentally friendly methods of
production and to phase out the environmentally destructive mod of development.
Globalization could have been the key element in the introduction of
sustainable practices everywhere but short term and vested interests of
powerful TNCs and industrial countries have made certain that there is no
digression to a sustainable path: which would affect their own profits. Since
sustainable technology and commodities are not available in all sectors and
need to be evolved both economic and environmental policies should unite to
encourage the growth of and research in alternative methods of production and
consumption that are environmentally safe. If the same amount of subsides,
incentives, coercion research as well as free trade that is directed at present
to unsustainable development, is instead directed to green industries and products,
then there is hope that the environmentally destructive path of the present globalization
regime will be averted and sustainable development will become a reality. The
tragic result of globalization in India is increase of human misery and
ecological degradation.
