To the various sources of friction between the developed and developing nations, a new issue may be added: the environment. Increasingly, conflicts between economic development and environmental protection are proving a source of tension between the haves and have-nots, and the situation is likely to worsen with time.
For example, at a conference on global warming held in New Delhi last February, Third World delegates were quick to blame the industrialized West for problems such as ozone depletion and global warming. Vowing not to sit on the sidelines any longer, the conferees recommended such steps as imposing a tax on gasoline and other fossil fuels with the proceeds earmarked for assisting Third World reforestation programs and other environmental projects.
Finger pointing aside, however, the Third World's practices in regard to environmental questions often fall far short of its rhetoric. For instance, none of the underdeveloped nations present in New Delhi was among the 31 original signatories to the 1987 Montreal Convention that froze the production of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) or among the 20 nations that have ratified the pact since. Yet CFCs, which are used as refrigerants and in manufacturing insulation, are believed to be a principal cause of depletion of the earth's ozone layer and therefore a major contributor to global warming. In defending their apparent inconsistency, the delegates argued that the 1987 accord discriminates against developing countries, which lack the financial or technical resources to develop alternatives to CFCs.
Perhaps the most graphic conflict between the growing international concern over the environment and economic development is found in the debate over preservation of the Amazon Basin's rain forests. Covering some two million square miles, the Amazon Basin reputedly contains half of the earth's known plant and animal species. Although it extends into parts of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia, most of the basin's rain forests lie in Brazil. Once the exclusive preserve of Indian tribes that lives in relative harmony with their environment, this resource-rich region is increasingly being claimed by emigrants from the poverty-stricken coastal areas of Brazil, who burn off vast areas of the rain forests of clear the land for cultivation.
Depletion accelerating
Estimates of how much of the Amazon rain forest has already been lost to development vary widely, ranging from 5 percent to as much as 30 percent. Whatever the actual loss to date, there is general agreement that the rate at which development is consuming an irreplaceable resource is accelerating.
In the 1970s, according to a former Brazilian environmental official, approximately 24 million acres were lost to development, but in 1988 alone, however, some 19 million acres of rain forests were burned off. The international environmental community, alarmed by the rapid pace at which the Amazon Basin's rain forests are disappearing, has issued dire warnings that if the process is allowed to continue, the effects on the earth's ecology could be devastating.
Environmentalists argue that the lush vegetation found in the world's tropical rain forests is a major source of oxygen to replenish the earth's atmosphere, acting in effect
...
Read Full Article
|
