Challenges of global environment
D. S. Cheema

Rethinking Progress
by Harinder S. Lamba.
Daanish Books. Pages 348. Rs 595.

It is often seen that major challenges having far-reaching impact on our lives are put under the carpet, as we may not feel their heat during our lifetime. It is human folly to think of only the self and of the present alone, ignoring the all-pervasive problems that are bound to affect adversely the lives of billons around the world. The simultaneous presence of natural resources with richness and poverty in different regions of the globe for the past more than five decades of the so-called progress is one such problem, which demonstrates the inadequacy of the strategies of development pursued so far. A writing on the wall that stares at all who are a part of the co-evolution of the planet and life is that their growth, development and progress has neglected its adverse impacts on global environment far too long to be ignored any further. This timely book by Harinder S. Lamba throws light on the challenges of global environment and development and shares author’s vision of a different path that is beneficial to society.

The first part of the book provides a backdrop to the gravity of the present crises of the global society. The author’s argument that ‘development’, as adopted by the modern world has, in fact, increased the absolute poverty, resulting in debt crises for most of the nations. It has worsened the terms of international trade for developing nations when seen in the backdrop of population explosion and human development, social and gender inequalities and high levels of insecurity being faced by most of the world, laying bare the global development crises few can dare to ignore.

The author quotes extensively from the UN official figures to prove that by all measures global income inequality has grown worse, Human Development Index (HDI) has declined, the gap between the rich and the poor has increased considerably, the global economic growth rate has worsened, the per capita GNP of many Third and Fourth World countries has decreased over the years, developing nations as a whole have fallen in debt traps and are experiencing a deterioration in terms of trade.

The fourth chapter, The Ideological Roots of the Crises, records the dawn of human civilisation and lists six main trends that constitute the underlying causes for environment and development crises. These include human understanding of the universe because of science and technology, ignorance or non-recognition of ecological limits, increasing dominance of economics contributing to societies getting increasingly out of touch with reality, fallacy of measurement of economic success and welfare by Gross National Product (GNP), people escaping personal, community and planetary responsibility and increasing centralisation of political, economic, technological and social power by relatively fewer and fewer nations.

Another chapter traces the historical rise in the vast accumulation of wealth due to a number of reasons, including colonial expansion, technical progress and increase in commercial activity. However, the massive spurt in economic progress has not necessarily improved economic welfare for average citizens and has done a lot of damage to the planet, its environment, and to the natural resources on which our future depends. The process of real progress has failed as the processes of development have mainly benefited either the rich nations or the rich and the upper middle classes in developing nations. The history of development has shown the picture for developing nations turning more and more bleak as a few countries keep becoming richer and richer.

The second part of the book discusses concepts like deep ecology and social ecology and other similar concepts, to fashion models of holistic progress and rejuvenating the planet. The author’s view that in the past, people have been adjusting to the type of economics and progress models adopted by nations and that now a time has come when the progress versions must cater to the needs of the people, as these have merits and deserve serious consideration by policy planners. He feels the development process needs to be democratised to involve the people for whom the ‘progress’ is meant; to that extent, empowerment of the people and the adoption of ethics by policy planners and economists is mandatory.

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