Environmentalism

spiked essays, 2004

Survival and well-being of all animate things depend on the healthy and productive environment. As a result of human interference, unsustainable growth and inadequate precautionary measures our planet is witnessing environmental imbalances, affecting the lives of all creatures including human beings. The problem of environmental pollution transcended geographical limits necessitating the co-operation between all State parties and other stakeholders at the international level. In this regard, International Environmental Law seems to be subjectively sufficiently developed, yet due to its inherent defects and aversion of State parties in implementing International Conventions has turned the problem of environmental pollution and degradation from bad to worse. There are many instances wherein lack of accountability on part of State parties concerning environmental protection resulted in total destruction of habitat (ex: Ganga River Water Pollution in India) and often human activity caused many irreversible or inherently dangerous impact on both natural and human environment, but respective State Parties and stakeholders failed to take timely actions to maintain ecological balance and prevention of environmental degradation. To the contrary, with view to protecting economic interests, international commitments are also undermined and no affirmative steps were taken to implement conventional obligations, amongst of all such vulnerable aspects of International Environmental Law, the Principle of Precautionary measures is one, and it is being regularly exposed to dilemmas interpretations, both as to its meaning and relevance. Accordingly, the researcher considered it as an apt subject matter of research. Key Words: Precautionary Approach; Cost-Benefit; Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO); Genetic Engineering (GE); etc.

The debate over the precautionary principle is intimately linked with values and worldviews. I examine how diverging conceptions of 'the good world' affect the conceptualisation of the precautionary principle. Three complementary conceptualisations emerge: 1 a call for a change in attitude, 2 a prescription for formalistic action and 3 guidance for contextual action.

Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare, 2012

The environmental crisis is related to the crisis in economic thought and practice. The crisis in vision in economics is related to the economic system in general. This part exposes economics to be an ideology in the critical sense, that is, as not knowledge as such but a distorted knowledge concerning appearances which serves to conceal contradictions, material interests and power relations to the benefit of the dominant class. Conventional economics treats ‘the economy’ as an abstraction which functions independently of the political, social, moral and ecological context. This part restores economics to its true status as a means. Part of dealing with the future orientated problem of ecology involves examining in what direction economic thought must go in order to once more become relevant to human beings. The ecological problem is related to the globalisation of economic relations and the ‘free market’ economy. A distinction is made between price and value to reassert use value embedded in communities to the exchange value pursued on the market. The question of morality within market societies is addressed in terms of the need to secure the building blocks of a viable civilisation. The view is taken that the individual of Anglo-American liberalism an abstraction of market relations, a fictional person who exists only in the figure of homo economicus. Real individuals are shown to exist and flourish within a social matrix of reciprocal relations and trust."

The precautionary principle was included in 1992 in the Rio Declaration on Environmental and Development and is a part of important international agreements and documents, for example, the Convention on Biological Diversity. Yet the interpretation of this principle is not straightforward as a guide for environmental policy – a variety of interpretations are possible. This paper identifies and examines various economic versions of the principle. Furthermore, it shows that different economic versions of the principle can give rise to conflicting policy recommendations for resource conservation. In addition, it demonstrates that applications of the principle do not always favour (natural) resource conservation (for example, biodiversity conservation) although the main support for it politically has been on the assumption it does. The principle’s potential consequences for biodiversity conservation of the introduction of new genetic material, such as genetically modified organisms are explored.

Environmental Practice, 2014

Einstein is reputed to have said “We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” This theorem is perfectly applicable to the idea that capitalism could embark on the path of sustainability if some political authorities assigned a price to natural resources. Since the ecological crisis is a consequence of generalised commodity production, the destruction of the environment cannot be stopped by “commodifying” water, air, carbon, genes or any other natural resource. Not only does this “internalisation of externalities” not bring us any closer to a solution, it takes us in the opposite direction. Needless to say, the transformation of natural resources into commodities implies their appropriation by capital. Accordingly, the matter is settled because capital, by subjecting them to the law of labour-value, thereby tends to remove them from any governing principle other than profit.

Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, 1991

The long-range biological imperative for survival has its economic counterpart. The present techno-economic system, with its heavy dependence on exhaustible stocks of natural resources, including environmental waste assimilative capacity, is unsustainable. The stocks of high quality raw materials, such as fuels and metal ores, are being drawn down rapidly. But this is the least of the problems because of possible technical 'fixes'. More ominous, there is an irreversible disappearance of tropical rainforests and other valuable and irreplaceable ecosystems, erosion of topsoil, a buildup of toxic heavy metals in soils and sediments, an accumulation of 'greenhouse gases' in the atmosphere, and a catastrophic loss of biological diversity. None of these trends is reversible by any known or plausible technological intervention. Long-run human survival therefore requires that the use of the environment as a 'sink' for waste residuals, especially from fossil fuel combustion and dissipative uses of heavy metals, must be slowed down drastically in the near future. The paper examines the relevant economic adjustment mechanisms in terms of both 'standard' neo-classical and evolutionary theories. It concludes that a policy based on reliance on market signals (i.e. prices) alone to induce change is likely to be ineffective. Even if the polluter pays principle (PPP) were fully implemented, market mechanisms would not suffice. The problem is that existing large-scale systems evolved during a period when environmental concerns were not serious, and now retain their economic dominance partly due to economies of scale and partly through influence over the political system.