[sustran] What's new at CSE, India

[SUSTRAN Resource Centre]

Several new transport-related items at the CSE web site.

>From: "webadmin" <webadmin at cseindia.org>
>Organization: Center For Science and Environment
>To: <CSE-LIST at cse.org>
>Date: Sun, 14 Jan 2000 16:28:30 +0530
>Subject: What's new at CSE, India
...
>
>What's new at the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), New 
>Delhi, India
>
>Among the glitzy cars and short skirts that are the usual 
>attractions of the annual auto expo held in New Delhi, CSE's 
>exhibition on air pollution stood out as a grim reminder that 
>there is a hidden price behind the expanding automobile sector. 
>An indication comes from the statistic that every time the GDP 
>in India doubles, air pollution rises by 8 times. CSE's press 
>release is at 
>
>http://www.oneworld.org/cse/html/au/au4_20000113.htm
>-------------------------------------------------
...
>
>Dirty rich city
>
>It will take $3.8 billion to clear the thick haze of dirty 
>particles in the Hong Kong air. Check it out at 
>
>http://www.oneworld.org/cse/html/dte/dte2000115/dte_srep1.htm
>-------------------------------------------------
...
>
>A message from the Director, Anil Agarwal:
>
>
>Conspiracy to kill
>
>
>THE total lack of interest and foresight that the Atal Bihari 
>Vajpayee government is showing while dealing with the country's 
>growing pollution is downright appalling, to say the least. An 
>excellent indicator of this came recently when the government 
>reconstituted the council on trade and industry to set up eight 
>working groups ranging from good governance to education and 
>health with the full participation of India's industrial 
>leaders. But there was not one group that dealt with industrial 
>growth and environmental pollution, almost as if this issue does 
>not figure on the Vajpayee government's political agenda.
>
>All over the world, experience has shown pollution rises 
>extremely rapidly with industrial growth. A study carried out by 
>the World Bank showed that when the Thai economy doubled during 
>the 1980s, the total quantity of poisonous pollutants released 
>went up ten times. The Centre for Science and Environment found 
>that during the period 1975-1995 during which the Indian economy 
>grew by about 2.5 times, the total quantity of pollutants 
>increased by eight times. Not surprisingly, almost every Indian 
>town and city is choking because of vehicular pollution today. 
>
>Most people tend to think that Delhi is one of the most polluted 
>cities in the world. The high levels of deadly particles in 
>Delhi's air probably make it the worst in the world. Mexico City 
>looks like a kitten in front of Delhi. All this is relatively 
>well known because the World Health Organization monitors air 
>pollution in some 20 metropolises of the world and Delhi indeed 
>comes out pretty bad in this sample of cities. The Indian media 
>has also publicised this fact.
>
>But what is not well known is that when Delhi's air pollution is 
>compared with the air pollution in other Indian cities, this 
>capitally polluted city appears quite clean. The Central 
>Pollution Control Board has just released data on air pollution 
>levels recorded in 90 cities in 1997. This data shows that 
>Shillong is the only town that has clean air round the year. The 
>Prime Minister's own constituency, Lucknow, suffers from 
>pollution that is worse than Delhi.
>
>Should all this be surprising? Not at all. Within just 15 years 
>of what economists call the post-Second World War economic boom 
>(1945-1960), a period during which the Western world created 
>unprecedented material wealth, literally every Western city from 
>Tokyo to London and Los Angeles began to gasp for clean air and 
>every Western river from the Rhine to the Thames had become a 
>sewer, much like our Yamuna. And Japan was reeling under unknown 
>and crippling neurological disorders like the frightening 
>Minamata disease. The same is happening in India today and, in 
>fact, all across Asia.
>
>The growing pollution in the West led to a powerful 
>environmental movement that then forced Western politicians to 
>take the matter seriously. They did two things. During the 1970s 
>and 1980s, these countries poured in enormous sums of money to 
>control pollution. According to one estimate, nearly 25 per cent 
>of the industrial investment in Japan in the post-70s period 
>went towards pollution control. And the governments strictly 
>enforced their pollution control laws. As a result, the air and 
>water had become a lot cleaner by the late 1980s and early 
>1990s, that is, in a period of about 20 years or one generation. 
>The battle is, however, still not won. The West still has to 
>find ways to deal with carbon dioxide pollution of the 
>atmosphere, disposal of hazardous industrial waste (which often 
>gets shipped to developing countries), growing groundwater 
>pollution and disruption of the nitrogen cycle because of 
>largescale use of fertilisers and manure, among a number of 
>other vexing problems. 
>
>The question that we need to ask ourselves is whether we will be 
>able to see a turnaround in India in the next 20 years? It is 
>extremely doubtful that this will be the case. India's economy 
>is just beginning to grow. Industrial development, agricultural 
>modernisation and urbanisation - all of which pump poison into 
>the environment - are still at a nascent stage. We still have a 
>long way to go. Therefore, we can see enormous quantities of 
>poisons being produced in the decades to come. And on top of all 
>this, at the turn of the century, India does not have the 
>wherewithal to emulate the West of the 1970s. Firstly, India's 
>current per capita income is still not even a fraction of 
>Western per capita incomes of the 1970s. As a result, India will 
>remain heavily constrained in investing in high quality, 
>environmentally-sound technology. India will continue to use low 
>quality, highly-polluting technologies for a long time. 
>
>Secondly, India's regulatory system is highly corrupt and 
>incompetent in dealing with the new challenges arising out of 
>pollution. And, finally, there is as yet no powerful popular 
>movement against pollution, which can translate into votes and 
>put the fear of God into our politicians. 
>
>What we, therefore, see is absolute mayhem in the years to come. 
>What took the West one generation to control could take our 
>already heavily polluted India as much as two to three 
>generations to control, in other words, some 40-50 years. 
>
>What does all this mean for the Indian economy and Indian 
>industrialists? The answer is 'Simply nothing'. Pollution will 
>hardly have any effect on Indian industry and the Indian 
>economy. They will continue to grow. But what will this mean for 
>Indians - the country's common people who can least afford to 
>deal with diseases like cancer, neurological disorders and so on 
>when they still find it difficult to deal with malaria and 
>diarrhoea? For them, it will mean a lot - in terms of an 
>appalling quality of life and premature death. Already some one 
>million people die every year because of polluted water and some 
>hundred thousand due to air pollution. 
>
>In other words, more than one million a year die unnecessarily 
>because the government cannot ensure clean air and water. And in 
>the years to come this number will rise further, unless strong 
>steps are taken to start controlling pollution right away. If 
>the turnaround takes two to three generations instead of one, we 
>are talking of more than 50 million fatalities at the least 
>because of the government's incompetence and political apathy. 
>
>In a nation where the population has already reached one billion 
>and is still growing, one can even be cynical and say that 50 
>million deaths is hardly a big price to pay for economic 
>development. The Vajpayee government appears to be giving us 
>precisely this message with its inability to factor in 
>environmental concerns into its industrial development policy.
>
>Yet all this mayhem can be prevented but only if the government 
>develops some foresight on the issue and sets up an effective 
>regulatory framework which gives industry the right incentives 
>and signals to be environment-friendly. The work done by the 
>Centre for Science and Environment, under its Right to Clean Air 
>Campaign, has repeatedly shown that India's industrial leaders 
>do not recognise that pollution is a serious problem. They also 
>definitely do not want to take any proactive steps to control it 
>in the absence of an effective regulatory framework. Industry's 
>argument is that in a competitive environment no company will 
>invest in more expensive environment-friendly technologies and 
>competition will inevitably force it to the lowest common 
>denominator unless government rules and regulations prevent that 
>from happening. 
>
>A fine example of this kind of behaviour by industry was brought 
>to the knowledge of the public when industry rushed in head over 
>heels to meet EURO I vehicular pollution standards (imposed in 
>Europe in 1992). All this was a result of the April 1999 Supreme 
>Court order that made it mandatory to impose these standards in 
>less than three months and EURO II standards in less than a 
>year. Till then, all companies, Indian and foreign, from Maruti 
>to Mercedes, had been merrily selling outdated technology 
>because government regulations in India imposed EURO I standards 
>from 2000 and EURO II standards from 2005. Even a joint sector 
>company like Maruti was found way behind the times although it 
>was exporting EURO II cars to Europe to meet standards imposed 
>there. 
>
>Now in 2000, Indian companies like Maruti and foreign companies 
>like Toyota and Ford will be selling EURO III compliant vehicles 
>in Europe. But none of them will care to introduce these in 
>India because they are not expected to do so under government 
>regulations. Thus, Europe will get squeaky clean technology even 
>though its skies are clean and India will continue to get 
>outdated technology even though its skies are a deadly grey. 
>
>All this can begin to change rapidly. Just like changes brought 
>about by the Supreme Court order, but only if the government 
>decides that this is a task that it wants to undertake. If not, 
>we should be prepared for a living hell. Our current crop of 
>politicians, given their age, will disappear in the next 10 to 
>20 years, but they will leave behind an absolutely unliveable 
>legacy for our children. They will find it hard to believe that 
>India had such callous 'leaders'. 
>
>- Anil Agarwal
>
>
>Visit our website at www.cseindia.org or www.oneworld.org/cse 
>and check out what's new. Our website carries our science and 
>environment fortnightly Down To Earth, a weekly Feature Service 
>of articles on environment and a daily environment news flash by 
>subject categories. We also give regular updates on all of our 
>campaigns on topics like vehicular pollution, climate change, 
>biodiversity, water resources, wildlife, forests etc. Our online 
>library of books, journals, images and videos is searchable 
>through a thesaurus of environmental keywords at 
>http://data.cseindia.org 
>
>We are also looking for reciprocal linking to other websites in 
>this area. Let us know your website address and we would be 
>happy to link to you. Please feel free to forward this message 
>to other interested individuals. 
>
...
>
>Usha Sekhar 
>Website Unit 
>Centre for Science and Environment 
>
>
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