The Myths of Development - Environmentalism

Myths of Development - Environmentalism

Development in the post-Second World War period is structured for rapid monetary growth. A developmental paradigm was set by US President Harry S. Truman to catch up with the West. Third-world nations started adopting policies that were based on quantitative growth-oriented industrialization.

Official Development Assistance (ODA) is a means through which developed countries assist LDCs. The parameters of development were internalized in the ODA.

Land was degraded, rivers were polluted and the human potential of the poor nations was degenerated. Global economic production has gone up several times since the Second World War. World food output has increased a lot yet it failed to better the people's living conditions in poor countries.

The deteriorating environmental conditions have given new meaning to the studies on security. No nation can insulate itself from the global effect of hostilities. A new approach to accommodate environmental issues challenged the concepts such as 'deterrence', 'peaceful coexistence', and 'collective security'.

Environmentalism challenged the myths of development such as economic growth indicates a nation's progress, free markets prevent the spread of poverty and wealth could be created through debt.

 

Economic growth indicates the nation's progress -

The first Human Development Report of the UNDP in 1990 gave a holistic consideration of provisions such as health, employment, housing, gender sensitivity, and socio-economic progress. Developed countries like the US, Germany, and Canada sharply declined their development ranks.

Free markets prevent the spread of poverty -

The concept of a free market shows a lack of understanding about the cause of poverty. When market barriers are dismantled, there is a free flow of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). FDI is meant to replace the ODA i.e., governmental support is replaced by pure business motives. Governments are pressured to deregulate their economies and compromise on environmental concerns to attract FDI.

Wealth could be created through debt -

Debt servicing in global economics allows the donor agency to bypass the environmental limitations of the poor country and ill-treat them as high-risk borrowers. To pay back the debts they step up production of primary commodities already in oversupply and the prices fall even lower in the international market.

By the 1990s, in India, the impact of the aid had been the burgeoning interest and principal repayments led to a 76% increase in the net cash wealth from India.

Vandana Shiva remarks: "The third world poverty is generated through the very processes that generate affluence in the North". The 1991 Human Development Report observes that global markets make developing countries lose economic opportunities whose worth is 10 times what they receive as foreign aid.

International relations have to work in accordance with the global ecological cycles and not the global market and profit orientation.

 

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