Poverty and Ecology

by Shane Clifton

I would like to address a debate that has been underway between Josh Ballard and Kate Tennikoff in the comments section of this blog (see here)

Josh's concern is that the cost of fixing global environmental problems will distract us from focusing on the issue of poverty - that the money we spend on global warming would be better spent on world poverty.   This is a common view, and the argument against addressing climate change has further weight if people take the view that the mechanisms of capitalism and industrialization that are understood to contribute to third world development also contribute to pollution and other environmental problems - i.e. that we need to choose between economic development for the sake of the poor and environmental concerns. 

I would argue, however, that this is a false dichotomy.  Indeed, it is now generally accepted that the issues of human poverty and environmental destruction go hand in hand and further, that global society can and should work toward the goal of environmentally sustainable human development.

In this light, it is noteworthy that the United Nations Millennium Development Goals combine a focus on addressing the crisis of world poverty together with the goal of “ensuring environmental sustainability.”[1]

The logic supporting the position of the UNDP is, firstly, that even though most global environmental problems stem from production and consumption patterns in wealthy nations, many environmental problems can be linked to poverty. This includes, for example, the environmental degradation that results from the demographic pressure that generally exist in poorer countries, as well as the fact that low level technologies grounding the infrastructure, production and consumption in poverty stricken regions tend to be highly polluting. i.e. addressing the situation of poverty will help to address environment concerns.

Secondly, it is also the case that poor people suffer most from environmental destruction, as a result of the deleterious effects on human health arising from things such as air and water pollution, as well as the impact of environmental shocks such as floods and droughts, all of which can be traced to human interventions.[2]  What this means is that it is especially in the interests of the poor that the world address ecological concerns - especially global warming.

All of this to say - our responsibility for the poor and for the environment (both of which i have argued are central to the mission of the church - see earlier posts on ecology and poverty) go hand in hand.  It is not a matter of choosing to focus on one or the other - but for the sake of the poor (and the whole world), we need to take the situation of ecological crises seriously.

---

[1] Sakiko Fukuda-Parr, “Millennium Development Goals: A compact among nations to end human poverty,” Jeffrey Sachs, Guest contributing editor Human Development Report, 2003: (New York: United Nations Development Program, 2003), http://hdr.undp.org/reports/global/2003/, 123-131.

[2] Jeffrey Sachs, HDR 2003, 124.

Comments

[Kate Tennikoff]

As Shane pointed out, the consensus that there is a link between poverty and the ecological crisis seems to be overwhelming of late. And yet the dilemma I now have is in working out how I can best play my part (as a college student) in helping these issues.

To assist those currently in poverty, many great suggestions have been made by a number of people throughout these posts. Thanks everyone! As a result of one of those suggestions I now try and get on to the hunger site and click the 'Feed the Poor' button as much as possible.

But if anyone is interested in how we can practically help the environment (& consequently help with poverty as well), here are some suggestions. (Many of which you may already be familiar with).

Recycling is an obvious one, walking instead of driving short distances, putting food waste into a compost rather than in regular rubbish (when food waste is dumped in land fills it ends up producing the worst green house gas, i.e. methane... but when composted it doesn't), changing to energy saving globes, carrying re-fillable drink bottles, taking re-usable bags shopping rather than plastic etc.

These and many more suggestions can be found at
http://www.eco-pros.com/waysyoucanhelp.htm

[Joshua Ballard]

I don't buy the direct correlations being made here between ecology and poverty.

It is a non-sequitur...it does not follow that ecology (at least in the form of the Greenhouse controversy) causes poverty... extreme poverty has been around a hell of a lot longer than the industrial revolution.

Don't misunderstand me to be an anti-planet meanie either. I'm not inclined to bet the environment on a short term eschatology.

The fact that climates are changing, yeah that's true enough...but apparently they've been changing since before we "mucked it up" with the industrial revolution.

The numbers from the other report did it for me. Annual Human production of 3 billion tonnes of Greenhouse gases (that's all of us) versus the Planet's Annual production of 270 billion tonnes of Greenhouse gases.
Considering that total Global greenhouse gases figure in at about 750 billion tonnes in total, we're not talking about a whole lot of Human intervention on that one.

We definitely need to deal with other pollutants, and getting rid of CFC's was a good thing...but to blame it all on good ol' CO2 seems a little harsh.

[Luke Godden]

Most people would probably accept, as Joshua points out, that poverty has been around longer than industry. However, I think there is a correlation between poverty and our mismanagement of the planet. To give one example, a lot of land in Latin America is being used to produce ‘profitable’ crops such as coffee, sugar and tobacco for the Western world, rather than food for the malnourished indigenous folk.

I have become increasingly disillusioned with the way capitalism interprets our stewardship of the planet. As an engineer, I see plenty of innovative technology that would supply our needs without all the destructive and wasteful side effects. But investing in these solutions may mean lowering our standard of living, so they rarely get past the university thesis or prototype stage.

I look forward to finding a government willing to subsidise renewable energy technology, allocate more funding to protect what is left of God’s creation and bravely commit to lowering the amount of pollutants we emit. Until then, I will be doing what I can to eliminate both environmental damage and poverty. Surely neither toxic algal blooms nor people starving to death are part of God’s will for our world.

[Kate Tennikoff]

Is human intervention a major player in global warming? There are some who argue that it is not a significant player. Yet there are also many credible sources, which argue to the contrary.

So at the end of the day, I guess the best that we can do is to take stock of the data and develop our own opinion. For me I am clearly of the persuasion that human activity has resulted in increased climate change. Yet there are articles to be found to the contrary, for instance at www.globalwarming.org and numerous other locations.

Nevertheless, so far… in my research I have personally been more convinced by those scientists who link human activity and global warming, rather than those who consider the current situation to be part of the earth’s natural cycles.

Here are just a few snippets from some of the articles I have come across:

“Scientists and environmental experts have become increasingly alarmed in recent years by accumulating gasses such as carbon dioxide in the atmosphere as a result of the burning of fossil fuels. A panel of climate scientists convened by the National Academy of Sciences reported last month that the Earth is heating up and "human activities are responsible for much of the recent warming." The scientists said average global surface temperatures rose by about 1 degree in the 20th century. While that may not sound like much, many blame it for melting glaciers, weather changes — perhaps even more hurricanes — and threats of spreading diseases.”

http://www.newsvine.com/_news/2006/07/10/283370-paper-climate-change-threatens-wineries

GENEVA, October 29, 2006 “Scientific evidence that human activity is heating the Earth has become "far more robust" in the last five years, the head of the United Nations climate change panel said. Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), said an increase of research on global warming had added weight to the group's upcoming report, which is considered a mainstay for environmental policy-making. "Some of the uncertainties that we had in the scientific evidence will be reduced. Our evidence will be far more robust," Pachauri told Reuters in a telephone interview. In its last assessment in 2001, the IPCC said there was "new and stronger evidence" that gases linked to human activities, mainly from burning fossil fuels in power plants, factories and cars, were the main cause of global warming. The planet's temperature has climbed to levels not seen in thousands of years, warming that has begun to affect plants and animals, researchers report in Tuesday's issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.”

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/CrisesArticle.aspx?storyId=L29873341&WTmodLoc=World-R5-Alertnet-3

"Climatologists reporting for the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) say we are seeing global warming caused by human activities and there are growing fears of feedbacks that will accelerate this warming."
http://www.newscientist.com/channel/earth/climate-change/

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