BOOK REVIEW Asians can't have it all Consumptionomics: Asia's Role in Reshaping Capitalism and Saving the Planet
by Chandran Nair
Reviewed by Muhammad Cohen
These are dark days for people who care about the planet. The heralded United
Nations climate change process has disintegrated into a toothless talking shop
offering full employment to environmental bureaucrats and the illusion of
significance to their green-group sidekicks. Climate change doubters have
seized the initiative, urging us to wait and see, and if it turns out there
really is a problem, to let markets to find solutions.
Chandran Nair thinks that's ridiculous. In his new book, Consumptionomics:
Asia's Role in Reshaping Capitalism and Saving the Planet, Nair argues
that relying on capitalism to solve ecological problems is like relying on the
fox to keep the chickens safe. The founder of environmental consultant ERM
correctly observes that climate change is an example of massive market failure,
so the world can't rely on markets to fix it.
More immediately, Nair contends that Asia cannot follow the same consumer
capitalism development model the West has. There are simply too many people in
Asia, and not enough resources on the planet, to transplant America's steak and
SUV lifestyle there. Asia has to do things differently.
"The biggest lie of all is that consumption-driven capitalism can deliver
wealth to all," Nair writes. "In Asia it can only deliver short-term wealth to
a minority; in the long term, it can only deliver misery to all."
Against
the current
That's a simple, intelligent argument. It's also a very courageous view because
it runs counter to three major trends that have gained currency in the
policymaking mainstream.
First, Nair disputes the market solution claim noted above, that capitalism can
find the answers. The world can't risk "don't worry, something will probably
turn up" as an approach to environmental issues, Nair writes. "No company CEO
[chief executive officer] would depend on some undefined future development to
safeguard the future of his or her business, and no competent board [of
directors] would allow it. Yet serious opinion makers rely on this argument
rather than face the uncomfortable truth."
Less obviously, but more importantly, he opposes the notion of rebalancing
trumpeted as the cure for the global recession. Since the 1990s, global growth
has largely founded on American consumers borrowing to buy goods produced
overseas, mainly in Asia. Rebalancing prescribes that Asians consume more to
even the scales. While there's some economic logic to the argument, from an
environmental perspective, Nair thinks that's a prescription for global
suicide.
Nair also dismisses the case for climate justice that's been a cornerstone of
the UN climate change process. Because the developed countries created the
current environmental situation, they bear sole responsibility for cleaning it
up. That sounds reasonable enough, but in reality, it's as deadly as the
Solomonic justice of cutting the baby in half. Climate justice entitles
developing countries to pollute all they want to catch up with the West. The
Copenhagen conference collapsed over this issue when the US resisted, and the
US-China accord on climate change was based on the idea that developing
countries also bear responsibility to help save the planet.
Human vs nature
Asia needs to lead the way, according to Nair, regardless of what the United
Nations or the rest of the world does. He advocates finding alternatives to
overconsumption, based on prioritizing resource preservation to avoid the risk
of catastrophic climate change and pricing resources accordingly. Preserving
natural resources should lead to greater use of human resources as a
substitute, a strategy that plays to Asia's strengths. Rather than accepting
free market dogma - the so-called Washington Consensus - Nair advocate focusing
on economic development on poverty alleviation. He suggests traditional Asian
values and activities as an alternative to Western capitalist lifestyles,
because Asia simply can't have it all.
That's a solid foundation, but Consumptionomics doesn't build on it
effectively. This thin book doesn't make the case for why Asians should accept
that they can't have it all. Nair may assume that everyone understands what's
at stake, but statistics such as auto sales and electricity consumption
indicate that the vast majority of Asians don't get it, don't care, or both.
To its credit, the book highlights the often ignored issue of water resources
that has widespread political implications with so many of Asia's rivers
originating in China. But it doesn't mention the likely consequence of water
policy, significantly higher water prices for consumers. The book also doesn't
mention consequences of environmental degradation including the threat to
tigers and orangutans or potential impact of rising temperatures and seas in
developing communities. The book could use a touch of apocalyptic vision to
establish the need for immediate, drastic action rather than kicking the can
down the road.
More importantly, the book doesn't offer a tempting vision of an Asian
alternative to consumer capitalism. Nair says specific prescriptions are up to
individual countries. His recommendations mainly take the form of bland
platitudes and suggestions for further study; gee, can you believe this guy was
a consultant? The book consistently derides economic growth as inherently evil
without explaining what will take its place in the drive to alleviate poverty,
silently echoing the "something will turn up" view it ridicules.
While recommending an expanded role for government to act in the public
interest, the book fails to acknowledge widespread corruption that sets
government in motion against the public interest in much of Asia. Instead, Nair
is far more interested in attacking Western capitalism, which puts him in
league with much of the environmental movement that's failed so spectacularly
to convince the public to act for decades.
Because I said so
Nair has an alternative to winning public support for actions to save the
planet: authoritarianism. His models for good government are China and
Singapore. He repeats the canard that democracy holds back progress, as if
Myanmar wouldn't trade its growth and human development numbers over the past
20 years for India's. Nair finds racism in the advance of free market democracy
but not his own claim that Asia isn't ready for democracy.
Moreover, the idea that Asian values provide an alternative to environmental
degradation requires a highly selective interpretation of region's current
state of environmental affairs. Nair says that Japan's maintenance of
traditional values has encouraged wilderness conservation and, aided by obscene
subsidies, preserved rice farming. However, those values haven't prevented it
from joining the top five in carbon emissions. China's rapid rise to top
polluter status and its firm embrace of consumerism indicates that the
combination of authoritarianism and Asian values don't guarantee any different
results than the Western model. China keeps talking green and belching black as
the world's top coal consumer, but Nair sees only half of the equation.
Instead of breaking new ground or meaningfully incorporating Nair's years of
practical experience, the book becomes just another hollow manifesto claiming
great wisdom, promising better tomorrows if we follow its advice today. In
place of such futile preaching, genuine progress toward saving the planet
requires less talk and more action, both to build popular consensus for
necessary steps to halt climate change and to find policies that are both good
for the environment in the long run and acceptable to people now. It's a
difficult struggle that could benefit from Nair's knowledge and commitment.
Unfortunately, Consumptionomics isn't his enlistment form.
Consumptionomics: Asia's Role in Reshaping Capitalism and Saving the Planet
by Chandran Nair. Singapore, John Wiley & Sons (Asia), 2011. ISBN:
978-0-470-82857-1. US$27.95; 202 pages.
Former broadcast news producer Muhammad Cohen told America’s story to the
world as a US diplomat and is author of
Hong Kong On Air,
a novel set during the 1997 handover about television news, love, betrayal,
financial crisis, and cheap lingerie. Follow
Muhammad Cohen’s blog for more on the media and Asia, his adopted home.
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Against
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,
a novel set during the 1997 handover about television news, love, betrayal,
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