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WORLD DEVELOPMENT AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION: GLOBAL CONTRADICTIONS

Дата публикации: 04 мая 2014
Автор(ы): Alexander Danilov the Corresponding Member of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus →
Публикатор: Научная библиотека Порталус
Рубрика: ЭКОЛОГИЯ →
Источник: (c) "БЕЛАРУСЬ В МИРЕ" No.001 01-01-98 →
Номер публикации: №1399202379

Alexander Danilov the Corresponding Member of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, (c)


At the end of the 20th century, there is every reason to assert that the development of all forms of modern civilisation, including the Western one, has come to a dead end. In the existing organisational forms of public culture they are not able to solve new problems.

Academician N. Moisseev is right in pointing out that "humanity is standing before an inevitable restructuring of civilisation, restructuring of all the foundations that we have been accustomed to. It seems that human mentality as well as many characteristics of human psychical constitution do not correspond to the new life conditions and should be changed or, more precisely, overcome through appropriate upbringing and the system of new taboos, that is, through inculcation of new morality. There is no other way! It does not seem that there can be technological solution that will guarantee a long and stable development of the society."

At the UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro, held in July of 1992 at the level of heads of states and governments, as a decisive was proclaimed the demand to provide a "balance between the solution of social-economic problems and the preservation of the environment, satisfaction of main vital needs of the present generation together with preservation of such opportunities for future generations." However, there is a question-if all countries will attempt to live within the limits of their national natural resources.

No matter how the events of world politics develop within the next 20-30 years, real demands of the modern human being can hardly be "revoked" by force, including that that is embodied not only by military action, but also by economic, financial, information blockades, incitement of coups.

At this UN conference, Western countries' representatives pointed out that it would be impossible for developing countries to follow the way that developed countries went through in order to reach prosperity. This position can be interpreted as the West's going back on their promises of equal access to well-being, which were previously made to developing countries in order to take them out from under the influence of the USSR . Though the refusal is explained by objective circumstances-indeed, the use of the model of development of industrialised countries can effectively lead to a global catastrophe, it is quite clear that there are political reasons for such a turn.

Admitting that industrial development is the basis for the improvement of the social-economic standard of living of the society, the participants to the conference indicated that the industry all over the world was developing without due regard of the possibility that many types of non-renewable resources may be exhausted, and without realising that nature's regenerating capability has its limits. Indicated among the threats to the development of humanity were global warming, the depletion of the ozone layer, acid rains, accumulation of heavy toxic metals and pesticides in soil, radioactive pollution.

From my point of view, at this major conference on the environment a crucial issue was not addressed-if it is possible to provide environmental security in a socially unjust world putting emphasis only on "technical parameters of development", that is on the character of production and consumption in the industrially developed part of the world. Also were not addressed the problems of the population growth mostly in the developing part of the world, the widening gap between the rich and the poor (in fact, 75% of the world's population have to fight for their survival), and finally those of the economy that does not take into account environmental values and damages and, at the same time, based on the idea that unrestricted growth means progress.

Environmental Challenges

The imbalance between the population growth in developing countries and economic growth in industrially developed ones is increasing. Today, the world's population is 5.6 billion; it is forecast to reach 8.5-10 billion by 2025. Compared to 1950, the population of the planet has doubled, with the 1.7 billion increase registered in the last 20 years. Of this increase, 1.5 billion were the share of the developing countries. The population of the developing countries has reached three quarters of the world's population; however, they consume only one third of the world's total production, and the gap in consumption per capita continues to grow.

Since 1972 the world's total product has increased by $20 trillion. But only 15% of this growth has occurred in developing countries. More than 70% of the growth was in "rich" countries. Each child born in these countries consumes 20-30 times more resources of the planet than a child in the Third World country.

The economic growth, which results in an unprecedented level of prosperity and power of the wealthy minority, is leading to risks and imbalances which equally threaten both the rich and the poor. Such a model of development, with the corresponding character of production and consumption, is not stable for "rich" nations, and cannot be reproduced by "poor" ones. Because of these circumstances, a completely new model of deve-lopment should be formulated.

Biodiversity. The number of the described species of biological organisms on our planet is 1.4 million, and their total number is at least 5 million. Because of the degradation of their habitat 10-15 thousand species, mostly the simplest organisms, disappear every year. This means that in the next 50 years the planet will lose a quarter to half of its biological variety.

The biosphere is a unique bank of genetic resources, on which is based all the selection work to create new types of plants and breeding new species of animals, to find new micro-organisms and other genetic material for biochemical processes and biotechnologies of the future, to conduct research on new medications and so on. The prospects of expanding the use of biotechonologies in plant growing, breeding, health care and environmental protection are enormous. But the development of the biotechnological processes, which require a very serious scientific basis, is going on mostly in the developed countries. Companies and corporations that work in this sector earn very high profits. Today, the cost of products that are made with the use of biotechnologies is estimated at $4 billion, and the growth of $40-50 billion a year is expected by the year 2000.

At the same time, it should be noted that the genetic material, to a significant extent, comes from developing countries, while the profits from the use of biotechnology are received only by the companies in the "rich" countries.

On the way of satisfying the developing countries' claims stand not only tax-payers in the developed countries, but also property rights on technologies patented by corporations, companies and individuals. The governments are said to be unable to abolish the right of private or corporate property. Therefore, private property in many ways becomes an obstacle on the way to a sustainable development of the entire civilisation. As a whole, many people agree with this, but no radical re-commendations are made, and the existence of private property as an institution is not questioned.

Climate. The increase in the concentration of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere leads to global warming of the planet's climate. This may cause many problems for agriculture, which is affected by changes in the weather and water systems, and pose a threat to many ecosystems that have adopted to certain climate conditions, or trigger a tragedy for coastal regions vulnerable to the rise of the sea level.

The main anthropogenic sources of carbon dioxide gas emissions into the atmosphere are the energy and transportation sectors which work on fossil fuels. Most of the carbon dioxide emissions come from developed countries: from the U.S. -25%, former USSR -19%, the European Union-14%, China-10%, the rest of the world-39%. If one calculates emissions per capita, the figures will be even more impressive. These clearly show that the sources of the global climate change lie in the excessive consumption of resources in the developed countries.

The world community is moving towards the introduction of prices on all types of resources, with full account of the damage that is done to the environment and future generations. Also, expected is the establishment of quotas on harmful emissions per capita (as has already been done with emissions of chlorofluorocarbons). This means that many developed countries will have to "buy" quotas on the emissions of carbon dioxide gas. Even taking into account serious energy-saving policies which have been adopted in the U.S. and Western European countries in the last two decades, these nations are expected to be at a disadvantage.

Forest preservation. Forests, especially tropical ones, are extremely important for the preservation of biological diversity on the planet. Forests absorb carbon dioxide gas from the atmosphere in the process of photosynthesis. Covering only 7% of the land, tropical forests, for example, are the natural habitat for 50-80% of species of living organisms on the planet. Within the area of 1,000 hectares one can count 2,000 species of plants, 400 species of birds, 150 species of butterflies and an enormous number of different insects and micro-organisms.

In the 20th century, about a half of all tropical forests were destroyed. At present, world loses 16-17 million hectares of tropical forests every year, which is twice the level of losses in 1980, and equal to the territory of Japan. This large-scale deforestation is conditioned by internal needs- land clearing for agricultural use, the use of timber as construction material and fuel, and increased export of wood and agricultural products. For a number of countries, export of timber and agricultural products is necessary in order to pay foreign debt and to solve internal social-economic problems.

There have been many cases of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank giving loans to increase production of coffee, cocoa, olive oil, india rubber, and other crops. The increase in crops led to the depletion of soil and encouraged producers to resort to further deforestation. At the same time, low prices on the products from deve-loping countries on the world market and the policy of protectionism by developed countries in their internal markets do not allow most of the developing countries to repay or, at least, stabilise their foreign debt.

At the same time, there is no progress in liberalisation of international trade so that developing countries could receive bigger revenues from exports, helping to create financial incentives for the preservation of forests.

Since deforestation and degradation of the forests are registered in all countries of the world, the developing countries have insisted that the decisions made at the UN Conference in Rio de Janeiro should apply to the forests of all zones-tropical, temperate, and boreal ones. Each year 3.4 billion cubic meters of timber are removed from the forests, and a half of the timber production is registered in Canada, the U.S. and former USSR .

The pace of deforestation is quickly increasing. Forestry lands have contracted by half in the last 20 years.

Toxic chemical substances. Environmentally safe management of the toxic chemical substances should take the most important place in the survival strategy based on sustainable development. Extensive use of chemical substances, industrial emissions, the dumping of chemical waste and accidents have led to high levels of chemical pollution of the environment in the largest industrial regions of the world. The accumulation of chemical substances, including toxic ones (for example, pesticides and other agricultural chemicals), in food products is a serious problem.

The danger of long-term consequences of the accumulation in the environment of chemical substances resulted from industrial activity of the humanity or from the existing in nature concentrations of toxic substances (for example, heavy metals and their compounds) has been realised only in the last 10-15 years. It is impossible to stop using chemical compounds, and that is why most of the attention should be paid to the imposing of regulations on their production and use.

Growing Hunger Crisis

The main environmental problems described above to a significant extent influence the future state of the environment on a global scale. These problems, while having a negative effect, together with problems of another kind, predetermine a penurious situation in many countries that every day feel hidden discrimination in trade and finan-ces. Very low prices on most raw materials on the international market make the developing countries keep borrowing in order to pay interest on previous loans. They are not able to escape from this vicious circle. Without serious external help, they are unlikely to catch up with the movement towards a sustainable development.

The results from the decisions made in Rio de Janeiro on changes in consumption and some others, conditioned by the need to use extremely rationally and economically natural resources at all levels, are expected to be different. For some countries, it means a lower energy and material consumption in manufacturing industries, maximum reduction of waste, a decrease in turnover of toxic substances, and the growing use of renewable resour-ces. For other countries, it means an even greater decrease in consumption per capita.

The problem of meeting food demand remains open, as soon as the world's demand for food will increase by 50% by the year 2000, and by 2050 this will be 3 times as high as today.

In the foreseeable future, less developed countries, because of their technical backwardness, will not be able to fight agricultural pests in a consistent and comprehensive manner, or to launch the selection work, or develop biotechnology industry. In order to solve the food problem and to develop public health system, it is extremely important for the developing countries to have access to biotechnology. However, investments into modern biotechnology are made mostly in the industrially developed countries.

Moreover, poor countries are not able to use biotechnology in public health services, to create effective means of early diagnosis of diseases, to develop more effective new vaccines which protect from common infectious diseases, to make use of mineral resources in an environmentally sustainable way, to expand the use of biofertilisers, to utilise biomass and various organic waste, to remove substances polluting the environment (for example, resulted from accidental oil leaks), to effectively process sewage, to create planting material that resists stress in order to restore lands and forests and so on. All these issues are also extremely important for Belarus.

The Criteria for Sustainable Development

The solution of global environmental problems requires an enormous investment. According to an estimate by the Secretariat of the Rio de Janeiro Conference, developing countries' average annual expenditure on measures listed in the "Agenda for the 21st Century" between 1993 and 2000 should be more than $600 billion, including about $125 billion to be given by the world community in the form of subsidies or loans on preferential terms.

However, it is not clear who in the end will receive this money and how effectively this will be used. The experience in implementing programmes to promote transformation in former communist countries gives grounds for concern. Most of the programmes that were implemented in 1992-97 turned out to be of low effectiveness.

The UN Conference on the Environment in Rio de Ja-neiro has been an important step towards realising the disastrous results of humankind's, or, to be more precise, its most "civilised" representatives, monopolistic domination over the nature. Nevertheless, one should admit that this conference failed to propose realistic solutions or develop a feasible strategy to ensure the transition of nations and communities, shaping them in a way so that they would be able to harmonise their relations with nature.

To the criteria for sustainable development, mentioned at the conference in Rio de Janeiro, I would add those which have been discussed by the world's most prominent sociologists in the last decade. They point to the following major conditions for such a development:

encouragement of diversity in lifestyles;

further development of democracy to strengthen social justice;

guarantee of the right of each nation to independently choose model of its development;

introduction of direct self-rule;

abolition of all types of discrimination;

emphasis on collectivism and high moral;

self-development of the individual as a main incentive for his or her activity.

We cannot agree with the idea of the "world government", which would have the "authority" to arbitrarily interfere in the affairs of other countries. Each nation has the right to choose its own path of development which would be in accord with its historical traditions. To make the problem of the future of humankind a subject for discussion on equal terms by all people of the planet is quite a democratic procedure. One should welcome the drive for sustainable development, but the implementation of this idea should not be reached through coercion in any form.

The concept of sustainable development was not applied for the creation of an effective instrument for redistribution of capital. This idea, in the opinion of scientists from the Centre for Strategic and International Research of the Massachusetts Technological Institute, was left at the roadside of theoretical research. The exchange of the developing countries' foreign debt for economic obligations has produced few results. Commercial banks began to include requirements to follow "strict" economic parameters in their loan conditions. In the end, such assistance plan was rejected. Now, in Washington, Tokyo and Brussels discussions are going on not about increasing assistance, but about investments.

If the world is not able to find a solution to these problems at the international level, wouldn't it be appropriate to find solutions at the national or at the regional levels? The efforts made to achieve a common goal should not "conflict" each other, they should be integrated. The aim is to develop a model of social and cultural interaction which would meet all the criteria agreed at the conference in Rio de Janeiro.

So far, the only thing that international community has realised is that the present course leads to a dead end. But this community, that is, those who represent it, think only in terms of the old approaches. Unfortunately, apart from the idea of the "world government" and concentration of information and power in the hands of some supranational structures, it does not seem that there is anything more to offer.

Today, it might be worth of considering more seriously the theory of sociological anthropology, some time ago rejected as fruitless. New scientific knowledge of the humanity, and the development, on the basis of this knowledge, of an integral lifestyle that is in harmony with the nature, the understanding by the society of the essence of human's predetermination in the further development of civilisation-these are the pivotal things in the of development of sciences in the 21st century.

Conclusion

In order to survive and preserve life on the Earth, humans must discover and understand a great deal more. Perhaps the most important thing is that now it is necessary to abate consumers' egoism, to appropriately take account of the laws of nature in human activity, to reach understanding of the nature of self- organisation of the material world, of which human society is integral part.

The future is still not clear. The world's leading public figures admit that "in the next century, significant environmental changes and unexpected events may occur." Today, we probably have too much a faith in technical solutions, and no one wants to take responsibility for the dead end that humanity ended up in. Nevertheless, we all should think about how to realise our updated ideals. For me, at least one thing is clear-humanity will have to revive and modify the commune.

 

Literarure

1. N. Moisseev, S myslyami o budushchem Rossii , Fond sodeistviya razvitiyu sotsialnykh i politicheskikh nauk, Moscow, 1997.

2. "Tchelovechestvo pered vyborom", based on informational review by Academician V. Koptiug, Eco , No. 10, 1992.

3. Report of the UN Conference on Environment and Development, Rio de Janeiro, 3-14 June, 1992 , Vol. III, New York, 1993.

4. Programma deistviy, povestka dnya na XXI vek i drugie documenty konferentsii v Rio de Janeiro. Publication of the centre "Za nashe obshchee budushchee", Geneva, Switzerland, 1993.

5.U. Helman, Sustainable Development: Strategies for Reconciling Environment and Economy in the Developing World, The Washington Quarterly, vol. 18, No. 4, 1995.

Опубликовано на Порталусе 04 мая 2014 года

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