Indian Economy, 5th edition (92 page)
Read Indian Economy, 5th edition Online
Authors: Ramesh Singh
IMPLICATIONS OF THE IDEAS
These three ideas illustrate the different assumptions that underlie the
environmental policy debate
of our times, across the world. They reflect different views towards humanity in the natural world, and of its obligations to future generations as well as other species.
Present U.S. policy is most closely approximated by the environmental protection paradigm, while many environmental groups espouse the eco-development perspective. Resource management is viewed by many policymakers as the most practical approach toward reconciling economic activity and environmental quality.
These ideas also suggest different criteria for defining green technologies. In the environmental protection view, a specific technology or product design may be considered green if it results in less waste generation than a previous technology. The same design may be rejected from the eco-development perspective because it uses non-renewable materials that are not recycled and do not biodegrade.
Thus, green technology development within each succeeding ‘views’ involves satisfying a correspondingly broader set of criteria for compatibility with the natural environment.
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HOLISTIC THINKING –
NEED OF THE TIME
Whatever be the ‘idea’ adopted by society, technological innovation will likely have the greatest environmental benefit if it is used to address problems in a holistic manner. From an environmental perspective, it is simplistic to view technologies or products in isolation from the production and consumption systems in which they function. Bigger environmental gains lie in changing the overall systems in which technologies or products are manufactured, used, and disposed, rather than in modifying technological components or changing the composition of products itself.
Technological solutions are usually context dependent, for example, ‘reformulated’ gasoline could be considered to be ‘greener’ than current gasoline formulations, since it reduces emission levels of various pollutants. However, a ‘zero’ emissions vehicle such as an electric or a hydrogen car represent an even greener solution. Promoting mass transit could be regarded as environmentally preferable alternative to electric vehicles, and the environmental impacts associated with mass transit could perhaps be reduced by placing a greater reliance on telecommunications. It means, there are different levels of solutions possible, with each succeeding solution having a higher degree of organizational complexity, and a more formidable set of institutional and economic obstacles. Here, the most environmentally desirable solution involves changing transportation systems rather than specific technological components (for example going for a more efficient internal combustion engine).
A true holistic view implies a unified consideration of production and consumption activities. The supply side and demand side requirements need to be treated in an integrated way. This implies a new way of looking at products, as well as new patterns of industrial organisation. The opportunities for linking technology development and product design with holistic thinking have not been fully explored, but examples are beginning to appear in different sectors of the economy. For instance, pesticide use has declined dramatically where farmers have adopted
integrated pest management
(IPM) schemes involving crop rotation, and the use of natural predators.
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Such cases have been cited in India also by the recent studies of the farmers’ practices. Due to the success of these new methods, chemical companies are no longer simply supplying pesticides to farmers, but are also providing expertise on how to use those chemicals in conjunction with better field design and crop management. Thus, we see services/ knowledge substituting the chemicals.
In the energy supply sector, similarly, many utilities are providing
energy audit
services, and are promoting customer use of energy-efficient equipment, instead of constructing new generating plants. After all, energy is not used for its own sake, but rather for the services it provides, such as heating, lighting, and transportation.
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The idea of integrated pest management in the chemical sector, and demand-side management in the utility industry, can be applied in a more general way to other industries, too. When a technology or product is viewed as an agency for providing a service or fulfilling a specific need, the profit incentive changes; income is generated by ‘optimising the utilisation of goods rather than the production of goods’.
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The notion of thinking about a product in terms of the function it performs, is a logical extension of total quality management philosophy. The aim of total quality management is to satisfy
customer needs
. Customers usually don’t care how their needs are met, as long as they are indeed met. Therefore, it should not matter whether a customer’s requirements are satisfied by a specific product, or by a service performed in lieu of that product. Holistic thinking therefore offers the possibility of reducing resource consumption rates while still meeting the needs of consumers.
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LOOKING AHEAD
Given the complexity of the environmental problems we are facing, it is unlikely that we will be able to discern the long term implications of the decisions we make now. This is particularly true of our technological decisions. For example, there was never a clearly articulated societal goal to become reliant on fossil fuels; this reliance came about because petroleum was able to satisfy specific technical and economic constraints that emerged at particular points in time. In light of the environmental and national security concerns associated with fossil fuel dependence, this choice of a primary energy source now seems to have been less than optimal. This example seems to follow a more general pattern of technology evolution. Recent work provides intriguing evidence that once a particular technology path is chosen, the choice may become ‘locked in’, regardless of the advantages of the alternatives.
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All technological trajectories are shaped by a variety of economic, social, and political forces. They usually cannot be changed without encountering opposition from well entrenched interests (which try to maintain status quo). Sorting out these conflicting interests requires the articulation of broad social goals set by the political leaders, and historically has been achieved only in times of crisis. Thus, harnessing and channeling technology in productive and ecologically sound ways will no doubt prove to be a formidable undertaking given the inertia of our political and economic systems. Much will depend upon the decision-makers, the world political elites as how they make present generation to visualise their present in reflex to the future. Let us hope and wait for a better tomorrow!
1.
Jacques Ellul,
‘The Technological Society’,
trans. by John Wilkinson, Vintage, New York, 1964.
2.
Jessica Mathews, 1992
, ‘Global Overload: The Haves and Have-nots can’t Agree to Disagree’,
SMH, 20 Apr., 1992.
3.
Commission for the Future, ‘
A sustainable future for Australia’, in Our Common Future,
World Commission on Environment and Development, Australian edition, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1990, p. 27.
4.
Bill Hare & Francis Grey, ‘Time to end cold war between Economics and Environment’,
Financial Review,
USA, NY, 19 Aug., 1991, p. 35.
5.
Australian Chamber of Manufacturers (ACM),
‘Manufacturing: Making Our Future, Policy Statement on the Environment’,
Canberra, 1990. Australian International Development Assistance Bureau (AIDAB),
‘Ecologically Sustainable Development in International Development Cooperation: An Interim Policy Statement’,
Canberra, 1990, pp. 13-14.
6.
Pearce, Markandya & Barbier, ‘Pearce Report-1989’, UK, London, 1989, p. 31.
7.
Barry Commoner,
‘The Closing Circle’,
Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., USA, New York,1971.
*
The data of Barry Commoner are not contemporary but they are being given here to just create a feel as how did it look when this was forwarded for the first time in the world (as it belongs to the first of such famous writings of the world) – readers will get the current and latest data in the forthcoming Chapter dealing with ‘Sustainability and Climate Change’.
8.
Thomas L. Friedman,
‘The Lexus and the Olive Tree’,
Anchor Books, Random House Inc., New York, 2000; ‘Hot, Flat, & Crowded’, Penguin Books, Great Britain, London, 2009.
9.
Kelvin Willoughby,
‘Technology Choice: A Critique of the Appropriate Technology Movement’,
Westview Press, Boulder, UK, London, 1990, p. 15.
10.
Richard L. Meier,
‘Prerequisites for Sustainable Communities’,
In Listserv Item No. 82, March 3, 1994.
11.
N. Jequirez,
‘Appropriate Technology: Some Criteria’,
Towards Global Action for Appropriate Technology, edited by A.S. Bhalla, Pergamon Press, New York, 1979.
12.
We may cite some of the news-making works of the time:
i)
Donella H. Meadows, Dennis L. Meadows, Randers, Jorgen & Behrens, William W. III, ‘The Limits to Growth, A Report for the Club of Rome’s Project on the Predicament of Mankind’, Pan, London and Sydney, 1972.
ii)
Paul Hofseth, ‘Ecology and Appropriate Technology’, in
Mobilizing Appropriate Technology,
edited by Matthew S. Gamser, IT Publications, London, 1988.
iii)
Richard L. Meier, ‘Prerequisites for Sustainable Communities’, In listserv, Item 82, Jan. 3, 1994.
iv)
Herman E. Daly & John B. Cobb Jr,
For the Common Good: Redirecting the Economy toward Community, the Environment, and a Sustainable Future,
Beacon Press, Boston, 1989.
iv)
Jerry Mander,
‘In the Absence of the Sacred: The Failure of Technology and the Survival of the Indian Nations’,
Sierra Club Books, San Francisco, 1991.)
v)
Roberto Vacca,
‘Modest Technologies for a Complicated World’,
Pergamon Press, New York, 1980.
13.
The world economy is consuming resources and generating wastes at unprecedented rates. In the past 100 years, the world’s industrial production increased more than 50-fold. See W.W. Rostow, ‘The World Economy: History and Prospects’, University of Texas Press, Teaxas, 1978, pp. 48-49.
14.
Clive Ponting, ‘Historical Perspectives on Sustainable Development’, Environment, Vol. 32, No. 9, November 1990.
15.
James Galloway, et al. Atmospheric Environment 16 (7): 1678, 1982. Also see Robert U. Ayres,
‘Toxic Heavy Metals: Materials Cycle Optimization’,
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 89, No. 3, Feb. 1, 1992, pp. 815-820.
16.
U.S. Congress, Office of Technology Assessment,
Changing By Degrees: Steps to Reduce Greenhouse Gases,
OTA-O-482, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, February 1991.
17.
Claude de Levi-Strauss, ‘The Savage Mind’, Black Swan, Paris, 1985. The ‘savage mind’ has been used by him to prove the ‘uncivility’ of not only the tribal people but a large segment of the developing societies of today’s times. The French philosopher is also credited to develop the idea of ‘structuralism’.
18.
For example, advances in agricultural science have greatly improved food production around the world, but at the same time the use of pesticides, an integral part of modern agricultural methods, have led to a number of environmental and human health problems. On the other hand, new pollution control technologies have greatly reduced environmental emissions, while new manufacturing technologies have improved materials and energy efficiency. From 1972 to 1985, for instance, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the United States grew by about 40 percent, but energy consumption remained basically flat. Nearly two-thirds of this decline in energy consumption was due to the introduction of energy efficient technologies; the remaining third was due to structural shifts in the composition of the economy (i.e., a shift away from heavy manufacturing towards services). See U.S. Congress, Office of Technology Assessment,
Energy Use and the U.S. Economy,
OTA-BP-E-57, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, June 1990.
19.
See U.S. Congress, Office of Technology Assessment,
‘Green Products By Design: Choices for a Cleaner Environment’,
OTA-E-541 (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, October 1992).
20.
The discussion here is based on the taxonomy developed by Colby. A set of five paradigms, ranging from ‘frontier economics’ to ‘deep ecology’ is used describe the relationship between economic development and the environment. One extreme, frontier economics, focuses on economic growth and emphasises free markets and unbridled exploitation of resources. The other extreme, deep ecology, focuses on harmony with nature and emphasises drastic reductions in human population and the scale of human economies. Here we describe the technology implications of the three middle paradigms. See Michael E. Colby,
‘Environmental Management in Development,’
World Bank Discussion Papers 80, Washington D.C., 1990.
21.
Economists use the term ‘externality’ to refer to spillover effects that are not accounted for by the marketplace. For example, air or water pollutants that are by products of an industrial process are environmental externalities. Firms do not have the incentive to reduce or eliminate such pollutants unless economic penalites such as emissions taxes are applied, or unless the firms are required to do so by regulation. See William D. Nordhaus,
“The Ecology of Markets,”
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, Vol. 89, pp. 843-850, February 1992.
22.
Human capital in this sense refers to ‘knowledge’ or technological capital. This notion of substitutability has been called the criterion of ‘weak sustainability’. See Herman E. Daly and John B. Cobb,
For the Common Good: Redirecting the Economy Toward Community, the Environment, and a Sustainable Future,
Beacon Press, USA, Boston, 1989.
23.
Thomas L Friedman, Hot, Flat, and Crowded, Penguin Books, Great Britain, London, 2009.
24.
This has been called the criterion of
‘strong sustainability’,
Daly & Cobb, op. cit.
25.
Even though advanced industrial societies are becoming increasingly efficient in their use of materials, a phenomenon known as
“demate- rialisation,”
in the eyes of some, greater industrial efficiency by itself is not a sufficient response to environmental problems. Indeed the absolute quantities of materials consumed and wastes produced are increasing; they are just not increasing as fast as GNP.
26.
Moreover, within each idea, technologists will likely be confronted with a variety of difficult tradeoffs. For instance, there are typically many environmental tradeoffs associated with the use of a specific material. As an illustration, the new class of high temperature superconductors, which potentially offer vast improvement in power transmission efficiency and have other promising applications, are quite toxic; the best of the superconductors is based on thallium, a highly toxic heavy metal. The fact that products that use toxic materials can perform socially useful functions, or even have comparative environmental benefits, underscores the need for a flexible approach to environmental questions. For additional discussion of this issue see ‘Green Products By Design’, op. cit., footnote 6.
27.
See U.S. Congress, Office of Technology Assessment,
Beneath the Bottom Line: Agricultural Approaches To Reduce Agrichemical Contamination of Groundwater,
OTA-F-418 (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, November 1990).
28.
But to encourage decision making on a system-wide basis, utilities need to be allowed to benefit financially from investments in efficient end-use equipment. Recent changes in regulatory frameworks have played a key role in moving utilities in this direction. See U.S. Congress, Office of Technology Assessment,
Energy Technology Choices: Shaping Our Future,
OTA-E-493, (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, July 1991).
29.
Walter Stahel, The Product-Life Institute, Geneva, Switzerland; Personal Communication. For more on this idea see Orio Giarini and Walter Stahel,
”The Limits to Certainty: Facing Risks in the New Service Economy,”
(Boston, MA: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1989).
30.
In an ultimate sense, a true systems philosophy involves consideration of many different perspectives, and not simply an economic or technological perspective. Humanity is now confronted with a series of global problems such as rapid growth and migration of populations, crushing poverty, intractable religious and ethnic conflicts, and widescale ecological damage – that in one way or another are linked together. “None of these problems can be fully addressed without considering all the others.” See
“The Most Vital Challenge,”
Statement by the Baha’i International Community at the Plenary Session of The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, Rio de Janiero, June 4, 1992.
31.
W. Brian Arthur,
“Positive Feedbacks in the Economy,”
Scientific American, February 1990.