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RESOURCES, ENVIRONMENT AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENTV.P.JAIN
 
Abstract
The ecological crisis, we face today, is a natural corollary to the accumulativeentrepreneurial motivation of man, arrogating to himself a place of dominance to exploitnature for his pleasure. Modern technology only comes handy in expediting andfacilitating such a process, amply supported by new cultural values. The modernizationsyndrome, characterized by exuberant life style and wasteful consumption for self-fulfillment and happiness, threatens the ecological balance. Nature is to be understood inits totality as an organic whole in which man is but one component, and cannot violateforever, its laws with impunity. The United Nations conference on environment anddevelopment at Rio in 1992, exhorted the world to abandon those practices that are self destructive in favor of sustainable development. Sustainable development is much morethan environmental protection. It is a wider concept of economic growth, which ensuresfairness and opportunities for dignified life for all, without further destroying recklesslythe word's finite resources.
INTRODUCTION
Man's interaction with his natural environment involves him in using the earth tosatisfy his needs and desires. This interaction leads to extraction, processing andconsumption of natural resources which man requires in order to live (subsistence) and to prosper (economic development). Although, man's aim in using the natural environmenthas been to improve his lot, in many cases he has ruined the earth's physical and biological systems. Even though, man is subject to certain natural controls, he acts as thedominant force in his endeavor to appropriate nature for his various pursuits. The urge todominate and to subjugate nature has also created, in the process, a highly polarizedworld of appalling contrasts.
RE
SOURCES AND DEVELOPMENT
Since, wants vary from time to time and from society to society, economicdevelopment may be perceived differently by different people. But no matter how onevisualizes economic development, its pace is determined by a society's ability tocommand physical resources (land, minerals, water, etc) and its human potential(population, skill, human wisdom, enterpreneuership, etc). However, countries are nottotally dependent on their endowment of resources for development. Many nationswithout their own resources have prospered while most with resources have not. The Netherlands and modern Japan, for example, have remarkable successes to their creditthrough conquests and trade, even though they are poorly endowed with resources. Onthe other hand Britain's formidable economic position in the 18th century was essentiallydue to its natural supply of iron and coal. Its access to large markets, its commercialstrength and enterpreneuership fortified the natural resource advantage and made it a bigindustrial power. In contrast, most of the countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America,even though gifted with natural resources in abundance, have failed to utilize them for thegood of their own people.
 
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THE POLARIZED WORLD
Today, we live in a world of ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’, It is common to speak of a North\South divide into the developed world (i.e., U.S., Europe,) and theunderdeveloped world (i.e., Asia, Africa, Latin America.). Widespread unemployment, poverty and exclusion exist, paradoxically enough, in a world that continues to growwealthier all the time. For the rich it is a world of consumer's paradise of immediategratification, of hot images and cool gadgets. On the other hand, one fifth of theworld's population i.e., over one billion people exist in conditions of absolute povertyand are unable to feed, clothe and house themselves properly. ( see diagram 1)Source : UNDP Report 1998Diagram 1These various constituents of the divided world into the haves and have-nots differ greatly in their access to the resources of the Earth. The developed countries with lessthan one quarter of the world population consume 80% of the world's resources. For example, the per capita consumption of food, energy and material resources in thedeveloped world in 16 times compared to its counterpart in the underdeveloped world.The affluent life style that most in rich countries and many in poor countries enjoy,
 
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consume an inordinate share of the world's natural resources. The rich form just 23% of the population, occupy 5o% of the land area, account for 60% of the energy consumedand earn 85% of the world's income. An average American consumes over two tons of steel every five years in the form of cars, and eats 112k.g of meat and consumes 7822 kgof oil equivalent in the form of energy every year. The corresponding figures for anaverage Indian is 5o kg of steel, 2kg of meat and 231 kg of oil. The per capitaconsumption of food, energy and material resources in the developed world is 16 timescompared to its counterpart in underdeveloped countries. What is alarming is that the gap between the rich and poor is only widening as part of the modernization process. Theshare of the poorest 20 per- cent of the world population in global income is estimated to be a miserable 1.1 per-cent, down from 1.4 per-cent in 1991 and 2.3 per-cent in1960.The ratio of the top 20 per-cent and that of the poorest 20 per-cent rose from 30 to 1in 1960 to 60 to 1 in 1991 and to all high of 78 to 1 in 1994.But, the contrast does not manifest merely in the form of North\South divide.These inequalities are even more pronounced within nations. The developed world alsohas its slums known as ‘ghettos’. In the midst of astounding affluence in America, for example, a substantial number of Americans (13.5 % of the U.S. population) remain poor.Similarly, hundreds and thousands of people in the underdeveloped world enjoy affluentlife styles and indulge in the luxury of sophisticated goods. While obesity clinicsmushroom in metropolitan cities in India, for example, to slice off the extra fat layer of the nouveau rich, one third of the people struggle hard, for the better part of the day, to procure enough food for bare survival.Consumption and production patterns impact the planet's ecosystems. Whenhumanity's ecological resource demands exceed what nature can continually supply, wemove into what is termed ‘
ecological overshoot
’, liquidating the planet's ecologicalresources. The overshoot is measured by ‘Ecological footprint’, a metaphor used byecologists to explore the sustainability of individuals and nations lifestyles andconsumption patterns. It depicts the amount of ‘land equivalent’ a human populationwould hypothetically need to provide the resources required to support itself and toabsorb its wastes, given prevailing technology. Ecological Footprint Analysis (EFA) alsoraises several important social equity concerns. If Earth’s productive resources in termsof land were to be shared out equally, everyone would have 1.8 hectares or 4.5 acres. Butthe division of the resources among the nations is highly skewed (as shown above),USA’s ecological footprint being 12 hectares (typical of developed countries), which is insharp contrast to the share of India’s ecological footprint, being around 1 hectare (typicalof underdeveloped countries). The exuberant lifestyle of the Rich, comprising onlytwenty percent of the World population, widespread poverty notwithstanding, globalFootprint accounts over the last forty years indicate a twenty-five year growth trend beyond the amount of renewable bio-capacity. In short, humanity's Ecological Footprintappears to have breached ecological limits and is thus unsustainable.The problem has been further compounded by market-led globalization andliberalization which was adopted as a development policy world-wide at the instance of the World Bank and the I.M.F. in the early nineties. More people live in poverty todaythan five years ago: The policy of globalization and liberalization, powered by free flowof capital and information technology revolution, has further widened inequalities withinand between nations. Many Economists believe that liberalization which was meant to be
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khadija

wen r the examz for BA(PASS) 1st year students?

reply03 / 28 / 2008
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