Indian Economy, 5th edition (91 page)

With societies coming to terms with the environmental implications of its economic and industrial practices, the role of technology is being increasingly scrutinised. The emergence of modern socio-technical systems marked a new phase in human creativity and scientific accomplishment, but has simultaneously resulted in the disruption of ecosystems from the local to the global level. A fundamental reorientation of both the principles of technology development and the institutional arrangements that govern the delivery of goods and services is required, in order to meet the needs of a rapidly expanding human population.

While some observers believe that technology can be harnessed and directed in ways that minimise degradation of ecosystems, it is often difficult to determine what constitutes an
‘environmentally sound’
technology. While the explicit consideration of environmental objectives and constraints in product and process development can lead to
‘green’
technology solutions, in reality,
the question of what is green depends on how environmental problems are defined.
As problem definitions change, solutions also change. The scholars and experts have disccussed, through time,
three alternative ideas
which highlight the different roles that technology can play with respect to the environment –

1.
Environmental Protection

2.
Resource Management

3.
Eco-Development

These alternative ideas suggest different criteria for defining green technologies. In each case, technological innovation will likely have the least impact on the environment if it is used to address problems in a holistic or systems fashion. The course of technical and industrial advancement over the last century has fundamentally transformed the relationship between human society and the natural world. As the scope and range of human activities have expanded exponentially, profound and possibly irreversible environmental changes have been set in motion.
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For the first time in history, mankind can potentially alter the basic biophysical cycles of the earth.

The social systems which we are living in, have clearly broken away from the patterns of ecological stability that existed for almost the 2 million years when humans lived in small nomadic bands.
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Undoubtedly, there is no turning back. While some believe that, our capacity for technical and economic progress is virtually boundless, the fact that human activities are now resulting in massive disruptions in nature is a reality. Release of elements such as mercury, nickel, arsenic, and vanadium are now several times those by natural processes. For lead, the amount released is nearly 300 times than the leed that is released by the natural processes.
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Concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are increasing at a rate 30 to 100 times faster than observed in the climatic record; methane concentrations are increasing 400 times faster than historically seen.
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Faced with the emerging environmental implications of its economic and industrial practices, societies across the world are scrutinising the role of technology in a more concerned way. We are, at times, asking some highly logical questions to ourselves , such as

•
Is technology simply a vehicle for satisfying a growing list of human wants?

•
Is technical innovation being deployed regardless of its ecological impacts?

•
Is it efnough to develop new environmentally sensitive technologies under current economic incentives, or does there need to be a shift in the fundamental assumptions underpinning economic behavior (for example, do we really want products or simply the services that products provide)?

•
Can technology be used as a means for reducing rates of consumption while still providing for people’s needs?

•
Can we fulfill our obligations to future generations by simply substituting technological capital for rapidly disappearing natural capital?

To the extent the major
tribal societies
of the world are concerned they have been always critical to the new tools and techniques of promoting growth and development. But their views were generally considered as the opinions of uneducated and ‘savage minds’.
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Right from Australian Aborigines to the Bhils and Santhals of India, almost all of them, objected even to the construction of metallised roads running through their habitat ‘modern factories and the townships’. Today we see the same people getting support from the non-tribal population against the proposals of the
Poscos
and
Vedantas
in India. Just the colours of the people’s movement have changed but the basic question remain the same – Will the local habitat and the ecosystem sustain the fallouts of these developments? The government is innovating a new idea to fight such agitations by proposing a share for the ‘local community’ in the profit of the industrial units to be set up there! Will it make the industrial practices ‘ecologically sustainable’? We don’t have the answers, again!

The above-given questions are not easy to answer. However, it is clear, that the value structures and ethical frameworks of modernity will determine whether technological innovation is used for the protection or destruction of natural ecosystems. Technology has at once been the source of many environmental problems, but also a means for safeguarding environmental quality.
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The emergence of concepts such as
‘green engineering’
or
‘green design’
, reflects the underlying confidence of many observers that technology can be harnessed and directed in ways that minimise disruption of the environment.
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While the explicit consideration of environmental objectives and constraints in product and process development can lead to ‘green’ technology solutions, in reality, the question of what is green depends on how environmental problems are defined. As problem definitions change, solutions also change. Basically, one’s philosophical view of the relationship between human activity and the environment strongly conditions one’s understanding of the role of technology and the ‘environmental problems’ that technology can potentially address. For better understanding of the issue and the possible wayouts we may discuss the
three alternative ideas
that highlight the different roles that technology can play with respect to the environment.
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Environmental Protection

In this idea, the environment is recognised as an
economic externality
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that must be safeguarded through laws and regulations. Tradeoffs are seen between industrial competitiveness and protecting the environment – such as employment vs. protecting endangered species – and cost-benefit analysis is offered as a means of balancing the two. This view is fundamentally anthropocentric (which means humans as more important than anything else), with the principal concern being the effect of pollution on human health and welfare.

In this case, the ‘problem’ is that human society produces too much waste. This is why this idea leads to policies that focus on reducing the quantity or toxicity of waste, e.g., waste prevention, recycling, or waste treatment. Consequently, technology should be used to reduce the quantity and toxicity of wastes requiring disposal, for example, making products more recyclable, light-weighting, eliminating hazardous materials, etc. Progress is measured in terms of increasing efficiency of energy and materials use; that is, reducing the quantity of energy and materials required per unit of production. This view does not concern itself explicitly with whether the physical flows of energy and materials through the economy are ‘ecologically sustainable’.

If we take examples from India, many times, media reports non-compliance by the industries to the causes of waste disposal, recycling, etc. In this case, domestic and multinationals have been behaving in similar fashion, and the plants set up by the industrial units are not functional. Naturally, a more aware society and a state of ‘good governance’ can make a great help here..

Resource Management

In this idea, the environment is recognised as an
economic externality
that must be internalised in measures of economic performance and policy decision making. The view sees earth as a
closed economic system
, and therefore the main challenge is to ‘economise ecology’. If those who use resources and generate pollution are made to pay the true price of those environmental services, this will lead to sustainable industrial development. Advancing technology is seen as an integral part of achieving more efficient use of energy and materials. Technologically, advanced countries should aggressively transfer new and more efficient technology to developing countries, and assist them in stabilising their populations.

In this idea, the ‘problem’ is that human society is managing its resources poorly, generating pollution that threatens to undermine the ecological productivity upon which the economy depends. The solution is to ‘get the prices right’ through taxes on resource use and pollution, or perhaps tradable permits to pollute within sustainable limits. Such economic incentives are seen as providing more flexibility than regulations, so that industry can respond in the most cost-effective way. Imposing ‘environmental taxes’, ‘carbon credit’ and the idea of the GEF (Green Energy Fund) fall under this category to name the major ones. The whole global idea of climate change today revolves around the issue of ‘funding’ the technology and practices required to check the ensuing danger of climate change (with the
Doha-2012
being no exception).

This view assumes that environmental services can be monetised, and that functioning markets for these services can be created. It does not address uncertainties in the valuation of these services or in the correct determination of the relevant ecological thresholds or global carrying capacities. It is primarily anthropocentric, since it is concerned with the stock of “resources” available for human use, but extends its concern to quality of life of future generations as well as the present generation. Sustainable development is defined as maintaining a nondecreasing stock of human plus natural capital, implying some substitutability between the two.
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In this view, technology development would involve choices that conserve resources as well as reduce wastes. Emphasis would be on the materials inputs in products, e.g., avoiding the use of materials that are toxic or become dispersed in the environment. In principle, the prices of material inputs would reflect their demand on environmental services, thus providing the correct signals to technologists and designers. The resulting price changes would cause reorganisation of the production system toward
cleaner technologies
and discarded materials would have a higher value, thus encouraging recovery and recycling.

We see a major policy shift recently announced by the USA guided by this view. President Barak Obama gave a call for searching an alternative energy source to the ‘petro fuels’. Though world sees this policy shift guided by many different things also. A three time Pulitzer Prize winner advised the US politicos to go and search for a ‘clean energy’ and ‘clean power’
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to bring back the past glory of the USA , signalling such development as the greatest opportunity of our time.

Analysts see this shift in the US thinking a watermark in the process of restructuring the world view of the nations of the world, as it will provide the US economy a space to think outside the ‘Gulf region’. We see similar steps being taken by other nations also. Recently, the European Union announced a major policy of setting up hydrogen fuel stations so that ‘fuel cell’ can be used in a commercial way. And by the mid-March 2013, the South Korean automobile major Hyundai announced the launch of its ‘hydrogen-driven’ (fuel cell based) car to go for commercial sale across Europe in 2014. By early February 2013, the Indian, Prime Minister gave a similar call to the automobile industry to replace 30 per cent of all automobiles by ‘electric engines’. Soon by mid-March 2013, the India automobile company, Mahindra & Mahindra lauched its electric car in Delhi with heavy discounts given by the Delhi government in Road Tax and the VAT.

Eco-Development

The eco-development view stresses the co-evolution of human society and ecosystems on an equal basis. The earth is seen as a
closed ecological system
and therefore the principle challenge is to
‘ecologize the economy’
. This view is less anthropocentric than the resource management view, emphasising that nature has an intrinsic value that is independent of the value placed upon it by the human economy. Thus, this view has a moral or
ethical dimension
that implies a transformation of societal attitudes toward nature. This dimension was not assumed in the previous ideas. The ‘problem’ in this case is that the scale of human economic growth is inconsistent with the long-term co-existence of humankind with nature. Sustainability is defined as non-decreasing stocks of human and natural capital maintained independently which means no substitutability between technology and natural resources.
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In the face of uncertainty about ecological thresholds and the world’s carrying capacity, the ‘precautionary principle’ implies that new technologies or development projects must demonstrate that they are consistent with sustainability as defined above, before they are adopted. Progress is measured not in terms of efficiency, but in terms of the health of regional ecosystems as well as human health.
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Policy objectives under this view would include moving toward a
closed materials cycle
. The economy would rely principally on
renewable sources
of energy and materials, extracted at rates that would not affect ecological health. The non-renewable resources would be recovered and recycled indefinitely. Instead of tradable pollution permits, tradable permits might be issued for the extraction of a fixed quantity of non-renewable materials. The production/consumption system would be restructured to optimise the utilisation of goods to satisfy essential human needs, rather than the ownership of goods to satisfy
‘frivolous wants’
. Green products and technologies would avoid the use of materials that are toxic to humans or ecological systems, substitute renewable for nonrenewable materials, and ensure that nonrenewable materials could be readily recovered for recycling.