DAMMAM, 14 November 2006 — Global warming and climate change have featured prominently in the news in recent days. Just as the climate challenge demands nerve from governments, so too does the interlinked issue of population growth. The gravest crisis facing humanity today is caused by the ravages of the population-environment nexus. The devastation of our ecological system, the uncontrolled growth of the population, the threat of extinction to wild plants and resident and migratory animals are all due to man’s lack of foresight, his non-caring attitude in spite of dire warnings and his incomprehensible neglect. It would appear that man himself is his own worst terrorist.
According to Russel W. Peterson, renowned environmentalist and former president of the highly respected National Audubon Society in the United States, “aside from the threat of nuclear war, population growth is the most pressing environmental issue of our times. Almost every environmental problem, and almost every social and political problem as well, either stems from, or is exacerbated by the growth of human population.” As a result “a culture of poverty is being transmitted down the generations, sacrificing human resources and impeding social progress.”
Some months ago, when I landed at Dammam airport as a visitor from Mumbai, the first thing that struck me was the luxury — yes, luxury indeed — of breathing fresh air. The next thing I noticed was the excellent highway with long avenues of trees on either side — there was more greenery here than in congested, polluted Mumbai. As an Indian I could not but be conscious of the irony that India was the first country in the world to adopt family planning as state policy.
The first International Planned Parenthood Association was founded in India. The International Institute for Popular Sciences was also located in Mumbai. Yet India’s four-decade-long multipronged family planning program has not made a dent in the country’s population growth. The major cause of the program not having caught on is public indifference.
Pranay Gupte’s book, “The Crowded Earth,” based on field research in several Third World countries, advances as a reason for this indifference that the world responds readily to what he calls “loud emergencies” like famines, earthquakes, etc. But the world is not so responsive to the silent emergencies “in which more than 45,000 children perish every day from preventable causes. This tragedy and the related tragedy of 400 million children who go to bed hungry each night, go relatively unnoticed.” The population-environment emergency isn’t a silent one, except to those who choose to close their ears. But its effects threaten to be far deadlier.
The more people there are on this planet, the more natural resources they consume. Deforestation and destruction of habitats rich in biological diversity have been responsible for the growing diminution of the biological potential of the soil. Increasing air and water pollution threaten global ecological, economic, and food security systems. We talk of nature’s fury. What about the ruthless destruction by man, in his greed for land and lucre, of the safeguards nature provides? What man in his obtuseness has not realized is the fact that the price paid for development cannot be, should never be, at the cost of environmental destruction.
Unfortunately, the rich nations of the world who are mainly responsible — because of their high consumption and massive industrial activity — for polluting the atmosphere and degrading the environment are also the least willing to take steps to give precedence to conservation over development. On the other hand, great corporate houses in several industrialized countries are increasingly adopting conservation policies. A recent example is of the giant corporation, General Electric, putting into practice what it calls “ecoimagination” for improved environmental performance, greater fuel efficiency, lower emissions, and reduced noise. A further step in the right direction is the recently announced Sultan ibn Salman Award (Prince Sultan ibn Salman is secretary-general of the Supreme Commission for Tourism) for preserving and understanding Saudi Arabia’s urban heritage.
There are already several institutions in place working for environment conservation, which need public support, financial and moral, to be effective. There is the World Convocation of Environment and Development, which stresses the ecological interdependence of all nations in shaping their “common future”. There is the Plant Protection Fund (PPF) to ensure that adequate attention is given to the problems of land degradation, deforestation, and desertification.
The World Wide Fund for Nature was set up to protect species that are dying because of human overpopulation. The fund is also trying to promote sustainable practices and the sustainable use of natural resources. Above all, it is trying — and largely succeeding — in providing “safe havens” for resident and migratory animals in areas protected from human exploitation and encroachment.
What holds out further hope for the future are the consistent efforts of scientists the world over to identify technologies that could provide viable alternatives of food, fodder, and fuel for the vast majority of the poor, for unless their needs are met on a priority basis, conservation efforts would remain on paper as vain exercises intended only for the benefit of the well-to-do.
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, issued a warning in his capacity as international president, World Wide Fund for Nature, that the increasing pressure of multiplying numbers on global resources “threatened a crisis of unimaginable magnitude.”
He reiterated, at the inauguration on Feb. 3, 1989 of the Pirojsha Godrej National Conservation Center in New Delhi, the urgency of finding viable alternatives of food, fodder, and fuel and that man should stop felling, fishing, poaching as and when and where he liked, and that no half-hearted attempts would do. He ended his speech with the memorable words, “Look after the planet; it’s the only one we have.”
(The writer is a former editor of the Indian film publications Filmfare and Screen, and a former chairman of the Film Finance Corporation of India and the National Film Development Corporation of India. He is currently on a visit to the Eastern Province.)