Just blame it on China and India
By Sreeram Chaulia
NEW YORK - Two recent pronouncements by US President George W Bush illustrate a
new Western tendency to blame China and India for pressing global problems and
divert attention from causes that originate in the West itself. On April 17,
Bush denied special environmental exemptions for China and India since they
"are emitting increasingly large quantities of greenhouse gases, which has
consequences for the entire global climate".
On
May 3, the American president argued that India's
burgeoning middle class is "demanding better
nutrition and better food ... and that causes the
price [of food grains] to go up". US Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice had earlier elaborated on
the quack doctrine that apparent improvement in
the diets of people in India
and China and consequent cereal export restraints are among the causes of the
current global food crisis.
Bush's implication of China and India in global warming and food shortages has
one common theme - that the rise of these two countries is problematic. In his
April 17 comment, the US president said the economic growth of the two was
"good for their people and good for the world", but suffixed it with the caveat
that this is harming the environment. In his May 3 address, Bush said that
"prosperity in the developing world is good", but quickly elaborated its
supposed negative repercussions on food supplies.
In plain language, the American president is reflecting a deep-seated belief
that Asia's rising powers are irresponsible "free riders" as opposed to the
more benevolent and magnanimous West. Bush's accusations mask deeper structural
malaises in the global environment and economy that can be traced back to
Western over-consumption and exploitation of resources.
The
US and the EU repeatedly chant that China and
India, as the second and fourth largest emitters
of greenhouse gases, cannot wash their hands of
responsibilities by
claiming differential treatment. What they do not highlight is the difference between measuring pollutants on
a national basis and on a per capita basis. By virtue
of their huge populations accounting for more than 30% of
the world's inhabitants, China and India, taken as aggregate units of analysis, do appear
as major offenders spewing toxic gases. ( Late last year, data from the International
Energy Agency and other research organizations revealed that China had overtaken the
United States as the largest source of greenhouse gases,)
But if per capita emission is the unit of comparison, Canada, Russia, Germany,
Britain, Japan and Italy, with much smaller populations, are far above China
and India in pollutant rankings (see table below). The US is ahead of every
other country both in absolute national-unit and per capita-unit pollution.
Top 10
emitters of greenhouse gases on a national basis
Top 10
emitters of greenhouse gases on a per capita basis (tons of carbon per person
per annum)
1 United States
2 China
3 Russian Federation
4 India
5 Japan
6 Germany
7 Brazil
8 Canada
9 United Kingdom
10 Italy
1 United States (6.6)
2 Canada (6.3)
3 Russian Federation (3.6)
4 Germany (3.2)
5 United Kingdom (3.1)
6 Japan (2.9)
7 Italy (2.5
8 Brazil (1.3)
9 China (1.1)
10 India (0.5)
Source: US Congressional Research Service, 2005
One only has to look at disparities in standards of living among the top 10 per
capita emitters for the complete picture. China and India, in comparison to the
leading per capita polluters, are the poorest. There is an obvious link between
past pollution ("stock" of emissions), present pollution ("flow" of emissions)
and economic well being of people. In the absence of greener technologies and
alternative development paradigms, the unfortunate implication of the per
capita emissions column of the above table is that polluters grow economically
and provide better for their populations in material terms. Western colonial
empires and industrial advancement rest on the ugly reality of massive plunder
not only of the inhabitants of the "Third World" but also of the planet Earth.
The essence of the Bush administration's repudiation of the present climate
change regime is that it imperils US industry and jobs, which are facing tough
competition from China and India. More broadly, Washington's fear is that the
prosperity gap that exists in favor of the leading Western per capita emitters
will be reduced if China and India are "let off the hook" on carbon emissions.
As long as attaining and maintaining "modernization" through industries is the
main currency of so-called "progress", the US and European Union (EU)wish to
retain their lead over the catch-up players, China and India. At the 2007 Bali
conference on climate change, Washington threatened to unleash "green tariffs"
or trade sanctions on developing countries for failing to meet designated
carbon cuts. The very linkage between trade and environmental or labor
standards reveals the politics behind scapegoating China and India, which are
long-term challengers of American world supremacy.
The Bush administration's innuendos against China and India on the issues of
food prices are also misleading. Indians and Chinese are not high per capita
consumers of grains and cereals. Food consumption statistics clearly
demonstrate that Western people account for the highest rates of nutrition and
calorific intake in the world. Restrictions on food exports in India, Vietnam
and Brazil are not meant to pacify the swelling middle-class bases of these
emerging economies but to provide a safety net for the mass of the poor in
these countries. Bush's contention that the protective measures are responses
to growing middle-class demands for nutrition is completely misplaced.
Studies also show that wastage of food is most rampant in advanced industrial
countries of the West. According to researchers at the University of Arizona,
40-50% of edible food in the US never gets eaten. Every year, US$43 billion
worth of edible food is estimated to be thrown away in the country known better
for its gas-guzzling habits. A complex phenomenon, wastage of food is not only
a sore spot in a phase of escalating grain and pulse prices but also associated
with greenhouse gas emissions.
In Britain, environmental activists are campaigning that reducing food wastage
could curtail at least fifteen million tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent
emissions per annum. Steeped in a consumerism described by economist J K
Galbraith as a "culture of contentment", Western people and governments rarely
self-introspect while pontificating on China and India as monstrous food and
energy consumers.
It is now well-established that there is a relationship between fuel market
inflation and food shortages. The per-unit production cost of food grains has
risen globally because of the increased input costs of oil, petrol, diesel,
kerosene and fertilizers. To what extent is American destabilization of the
Middle East, especially the crippling war on Iraq, a contributor to the
stratospheric levitation of oil prices? How much has US investment in bio-fuels
like ethanol affected food supplies? These important questions are being swept
under the carpet in Washington, which has found the alibi of ascribing every
major global problem to the doorsteps of China and India.
When economic recession, soaring fuel costs, spiraling food prices, and
deteriorating environmental indices occur together like a package of woes, one
can expect a blame game in which every country will defend its own innocence
vis-a-vis the alleged culpability of others. As shortages, conflicts and crises
seem to congregate like a collective plague, there is a natural tendency to
search for culprits.
This is especially true of the United States, which has a history of thriving
on the construction of mean-spirited and selfish enemies against which American
exceptionalism is contrasted. Psychologist Sam Keen observed famously about the
end of the Cold War that "we [Americans] were getting desperate in our search
for a new enemy".
The erosion of the Soviet challenge opened up a fascinating melange of new
scapegoats in Washington, ranging from Japan, the "axis of evil" states, and
"Islamofascism" to the crystallizing new consensus around China and India being
the causes of plagues. The shift of emphasis to China and India as the new "hit
me" toys in Washington is a surface-level manifestation of the realization in
American strategic circles that the new competitors of the longue duree come
from Asia.
Sadly for humanity, such politicization of survival needs like food, fuel and
liveable temperatures continues to divert focus away from the real
"inconvenient truths" that Al Gore had the courage to unmask as an American.
Sreeram Chaulia is a researcher on
international affairs at the Maxwell School of Citizenship at Syracuse
University in Syracuse, New York.
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