us, china & environment

On Mon, 29 May 2000 kjkhoo@pop.jaring.my wrote:

> The environmental issue is the model of development. And that is a
> fight that cannot be put on the shoulders of the Chinese, however
> disappointed one may be that they have gone along with the model, and
> of other non-EuroAmericans. It is a global fight, and has to be
> fought globally. The correction or atonement for the sins of the past
> cannot be the speciality of non-EuroAmerica while EuroAmerica carries
> on 'enjoying' the wages of sin, indeed flaunts that enjoyment at the
> rest of the world, worse tells us how that enjoyment is actually
> pulling us along -- you know, all that talk of export market of last
> resort, etc., which is all true enough in the order of things. But it
> is precisely the order of things that has to be changed.


The issue is the model, and it is the order of things that has to be
changed.  I agree, although that is mighty abstract.  The point I want to
emphasize is that environmentalists, whether they be located in the
periphery or the core, have to be willing and able to critique and propose
radical changes without being cowed by the threat of being accused of
abrogating national sovereignty.  The ecological crisis is global, and
it is local/regional/(according to ecosystems), but it does not recognize
state boundaries.  Using Ehrlich's formula I = PCT (environmental impact
is equal to population X level of consumption X level of technology, the
necessary changes will compute differently in different parts of the
world, but radical change is required all the way around.

RH