India Pledges a Focus on Environment

The choices that Indian and Chinese politicians make in the next couple of years will be hugely important in determining how effective humanity’s response to climate change and the generalized ecological crisis will be. This new plan from India’s government is not particularly encouraging. For all of the florid rhetoric about “[treating] nature as a source of nurture and not as a dark force to be conquered and harnessed to human endeavor,” there are no binding targets to hit, only aspirational goals.

The 8 “ideals” discussed here are all laudable, including such causes as pursuing solar energy, conserving water, protecting the Himalayas and promoting sustainable agriculture, but whether they will actually be foregrounded as key elements of Indian policy is doubtful.

India is first and foremost a developing industrial power, whose government is happy to back huge land grabs from farmers to give to industrialists. It has no effective protective net for struggling small farmers, while the population is coming to embrace both a form of car culture and a western-style, meat-heavy diet. None of this is in keeping with the “8 ideals.”

The Indian government pledged Monday to devote more attention to renewable energy, water conservation and preserving natural resources in the country’s first climate change plan, but it did not set concrete goals or pledge to cap harmful emissions.

During a speech here on Monday, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh acknowledged that climate change was a dangerous problem, but the plan he introduced reinforced India’s long-held stance that developed nations created the bulk of the mess and should be responsible for cleaning it up.

“There is a real possibility of catastrophic disruption of the fragile life-sustaining ecological system that holds this world together,” Mr. Singh said. India traditionally “treats nature as a source of nurture and not as a dark force to be conquered and harnessed to human endeavor,” he said. “There is a high value placed in our culture to the concept of living in harmony with nature….

Posted by Szamko
Just tries to tell the truth.

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