7
The environmental doomsayers regard economic growth, the pursuit of
prosperity, technology and capitalism as the enemy of the environment. The only
way to save the planet, they say, is to lower income expectations, cut back on
consumption, return to a more primal way of life and get rid of capitalism.
Many of the participants in the deep green movement were refugees from the
collapse of world-socialism. They found another expression for their far-Left
leanings in environmental politics.
There is no doubt that much of their doom and gloom was inspired as much
by their desire to dance on the grave of capitalism as by their desire to save
the planet.
The eco-pessimists have got it all wrong.
More recent environmental research has been able to demonstrate quite
conclusively that there is a direct correlation between a given country’s level of wealth on the one hand, and the investment it makes
in the environment on the other. That is to say, development and the
environment are not inimical as the eco-pessimists would have us believe, but
they are complimentary and mutually supportive. This has been shown in two
ways:
Firstly, both economists and
environmentalists have been able to show that there is a direct link between a
people’s income level and the condition of their environment. The greater the wealth, the better the level of environmental care.
On the other hand poor societies put environmental concerns very low on their
list priorities, if at all. It is only when people reach a certain level of affluence, that they can afford to start worrying about the
environment.
The second strand of evidence is derived
from comparing the state of the environment in the developed world with the
state of the environment in the developing world. The four greatest
environmental issues are air pollution, water pollution, de-afforestation
and population growth. The developed world is well on top of controlling these
problems. The air of its cities is improving. It does not lose millions of
children every year to polluted water, nor just as many to dung smoke and wood
smoke as the developing world does. The forests of most of the developed world
have expanded enormously over the last 50 years, but de-afforestation continues
to be of concern in the developing world. Population has stabilized in the
developed world, but remains a concern in the developing world.
The conclusion from all this is inescapable:
the only way to rid the world of its greatest environmental problems is to get
rid of poverty by promoting development and economic growth.
“Pollution is as old as human activity,”
writes one environmental scientist, “but only recently have we been rich enough
to worry about it.” Another says, “As much as environmental orthodoxy detests
economic advancement, this is the force nature would long for in the contemporary
Third World…Penniless peasants seeking fuel wood may be the greatest threat to
forests.” And another says, “Higher income in general is correlated with high
environmental sustainability…we are accustomed to thinking of growth and the
environment as opposites, but this is a misconception.” “The only way to save
the planet is to get rid of poverty,” says Andrew Kenny, “but the eco-fascists
are missing the point. Rich people photograph lions. Poor people kill them.
They are too busy surviving to care for the environment.”