Environmental Problems, Their Causes, and Sustainability 1

Figure 26-14 Data on the global distribution of income showthat most of the world’s income has flowed up; the richest 20%of the world’s population receive more of the world’s incomethan all of the remaining 80%. Each horizontal band in this diagramrepresents one-fifth of the world’s population. This upwardflow of global income has accelerated since 1960 and especiallysince 1980. This trend can increase environmental degradationby increasing average per capita consumption by therichest 20% of the population and causing the poorest 20% ofthe world’s people to use renewable resources faster than theyare replenished in order to survive. (Data from UN DevelopmentProgramme and Ismail Serageldin, “World Poverty andHunger—A Challenge for Science,” Science 296 (2002): 54–58)A number of World Bank loans for large-scaledams, roads into tropical forests, and mining operationshave been environmentally destructive andcontroversial.Critics accuse the bank of making loans for largescaleprojects without evaluating the long-term environmentaland social impacts and without requiringadequate safeguards to help reduce or eliminate harmfulenvironmental and social impacts. Critics also callfor the bank to focus more on making moderate andsmall-scale loans that benefit the poor directly.Another problem is that to make enough money topay the interest on their loans, many developing countriessell their mineral, timber, and other resources todeveloped counties at low prices. This depletes theirnatural capital and can eventually leave them withoutenough resources to support future economic development.Also, interest payments can deplete nationalbudgets, leaving little for health, education, and otherimportant programs.In recent years, environmentalists and representativesof the poor have staged large-scale protestsagainst such policies. In response, the bank has beguntrying to carry out more detailed reviews of the environmentaland social impacts of its loans. But it remainsto be seen how such reviews will affect the bank’s lendingpolicies.How Can We Reduce Poverty? Help the PoorHelp ThemselvesWe can sharply cut poverty by forgivingthe international debts of the poorest countriesand greatly increasing international aid andsmall individual loans to help the poor helpthemselves.Analysts point out that reducing poverty requires thegovernments of most developing countries to makepolicy changes. One is to shift more of the nationalbudget to help the rural and urban poor work theirway out of poverty. Another is to give villages and theurban poor title to common lands and to crops andtrees they plant.Encouraging sustainable forms of economicdevelopment can help reduce global poverty but analystssay that by itself this is not enough. Analysts suggestthat one way to help reduce global poverty is toforgive at least 60% of the $2.4 trillion debt that developingcountries owe to developed countries and internationallending agencies and all of the $422 billiondebt of the poorest and most heavily indebted countrieson the condition that the money saved on the debtinterest be spent on meeting basic human needs. Currently,developing countries pay almost $300 billionper year in interest to developed countries to servicethis debt. According to environmental economist JohnPeet, this inability to “service their debt assures perpetualpoverty for the poor nations, and, effectively,perpetual servitude to the rich nations.”Critics say that many countries relieved of somedebt will take on more debt, and they want assurancesthat most of the savings from debt relief are passed onto the poor in the form of titles to land, education, jobs,and better health care.Developed countries can increase nonmilitarygovernment and private aid to developing countries,with mechanisms to assure that most of the aid goes directlyto the poor to help them become more self-reliantand to help provide social safety nets such as welfare,unemployment payments, and pension benefits thatare available in most developed countries. Developedcountries also need to mount a massive global effort tocombat malnutrition and the infectious diseases thatkill millions of people prematurely, helping perpetuatepoverty. Another approach is for lending agencies tomake small loans to poor people who want to increasetheir income (Solutions, p. 601). They should also makeinvestments in small-scale infrastructure that help thepoor such as solar cell power facilities in villages,small-scale irrigation projects, and farm-to-marketroads. Lending agencies can also make investments inhelping sustain and restore the resource bases of fisheries,forests, and small-scale agriculture that providemore than half of the world’s jobs.http://biology.brookscole.com/miller14599