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“The root cause of pollution is poverty; unless we eradicate poverty we are not going to control pollution,” my professor proclaimed emphatically. You can see the garbage and dirt piled around these shanties and chawls. "These places stink like anything," he continued to support his statement. I was wondering, though did not speak anything. But I knew the truth was no where near this statement. Sometimes, it is better not to argue as there is nothing to be gained. You might win the argument, but you will not make that person believe.
The truth is completely opposite. Have you ever tried to analyze these garbage piles? In any random check you will find, used cosmetics bottles, empty packets of chips, cans of Coke and Pepsi etc. etc.. These poor people hardly use these things. So how come they get piled up there? The people who are struggling to make their living, barely manage to sustain their life, cannot afford to buy those things.
These piles are contribution of us, contribution of people who unsuccessfully try to satiate the voracious hunger of consumerism. We use them; we use these places for disposal of our sins, disposal for the byproduct of carnally consumption. We want to keep our neighborhood clean, beautiful so we need a place, a place to dump our garbage.
If you consider carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) etc. as major threats to environment, the main culprits are we rich people and not the struggling poor people. The amount of pollutants released by a jet plan or Boeing plan to facilitate journey of handful is several times higher than all the pollutants generated by a family in their whole life. People living such simple life cannot. They do not use cars, refrigerators or air conditioners.
If a new car manufacturing plant is established, it might boost up the economy and it might make your GDP, GNP and growth rate impressive, but it also does deprive some people of land, some people of an opportunity to breath in healthy clean air. The economist will talk about considering the social cost, offsetting the social cost. But can we really offset? No, while the cost is direct, the offset comes in form of benefits trickling through a long channel and dries up midway before reaching the people for whom it is meant.
The mushrooming bottling plants for Coke and Pepsi are not requirements of the poor. They don’t need it. They are satisfied with the water only. But those who drink Coke and Pepsi ensure that they are deprived of their water. The water guzzling bottling plants make the water level go down and force the people living in nearby areas to suffer.
Poor never pollutes, it’s the rich fellow who pollutes and makes the poor suffer. He pollutes and proclaims brazenly that poverty pollutes.
Santosh Singh is from India and a host of Wannabe Writers at Care2.com. Click here to view his profile.
(Ed: The "Poverty and Environment Unit" has been created by UNEP in 2004 to promote goals of environment sustainability and poverty reduction. Click here for more information.