Environment & Elections 24; A Missed Opportunity

Even as he spearheaded India’s freedom struggle, the Mahathma, by early 20th century had realized that the unbridled pursuit of “development” would reduce every village in India to poverty stricken shell with all its natural resources relentlessly exploited with hardly any thought to the sustainability of such “development”. But it was only in the 1970s when the Club of Rome drove home the point that anthropocentric development was rapidly approaching the Limits to Growth as the pace of exploitation of our fragile but little understood environment was on the verge of surpassing the carrying capacity of Mother Earth.  

And today, we live in polluted cities, with scarce water supply even as we confront record breaking heat waves on land and in the oceans, severe floods, prolonged multiyear droughts, uncontrollable wild fires, and pandemics caused by increasing human-animal conflict due to habitat loss, all of which have become more frequent and intense. The influential and wealthy can cover, at least for now, some of the losses resulting from natural calamities. But as insurers and their actuaries find it increasingly difficult to predict and price such risks and the premiums skyrocket, large swathes of the population are faced with an uninsurable future. And should we continue to be myopic as hitherto, our coming generations are sure to be consumed by uninsurable apocalypse.

Yet the shrill election campaign that is drawing to a close has hardly found any mention of the misery of countless citizens whose lives and livelihoods are devastated by climate related disasters even as every political leader swears to better the lot of poor and the marginalized. In the midst of this election cacophony, noted environmentalist Sonam Wangchuck held a 21 day fast and slept outdoors in -10*C temperature of Ladakh, demanding statutory measures to protect the fragile ecology of the Himalayas. The fast ended on Mar26. But there was no response from the Government. Yet while reporting at international climate negotiations, India is projected as a leader and the rollout of ambitious green energy projects and the focus on electric mobility are touted as great success stories of climate action. This, however, masks slow or no action on other fronts. Even the landmark judgment by the Supreme Court of March 21 which declared that people have a right to protection from the impacts of climate change was drowned in the din of electioneering while our myopic netas were selling “development” dreams to the masses already inundated with misinformation, not ever realizing that development is likely to crumble sooner than later in the face of environmental collapse.

It is not that government or politicians are not aware of the problems posed by deteriorating environment. The Lancet’s 2023 Report of the Countdown on Health and Climate Change has warned that heat related deaths have increased by 85% between 1997 and 2022 and set to increase by over 370% by 2050. The Union Government’s own report on India’s climate vulnerability has warned that 29 states are staring at imminent climate crisis. Arunachal Pradesh faces devastation that is likely to be caused by hydroelectric projects in the fragile ecology of the Himalayas. Disruptive floods have become a regular feature in Assam. People of Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh suffer the deleterious consequences of poorly regulated or illegal mining and concomitant degradation of biodiversity along with landslides, cyclonic storms and deaths caused by heat waves with temperature soaring to 49*C in some places. In Kerala no party has bothered to discuss the plight of residents of coastal areas affected by rising sea levels or saline water incursion or even 1040 day stir against illegal mining. The encroachment of water bodies and degradation of lakes in Bangaluru and Hyderabad are conveniently ignored if not abetted by netas in connivance with babus with itching palms. 

Several factors are responsible for this situation. Climate change is a complex issue and there will be few leaders who understand it and are willing and able to break it down for voters and offer tangible solutions. Even where environmental issues are gathering space, their links to food security, health and livelihood are not well understood or explained and voters are still unclear if extreme weather events are random manifestations of the wrath of nature or a result of damage caused by man’s mindless pursuit of growth and wrong policies. Addressing climate change needs a long term horizon whereas political parties work on a five year cycle. Even in constituencies, where urban flooding, landslides, deforestation, groundwater depletion, or crop loss due to extreme weather are major problems, climate change does not become a poll issue as people in the absence of appropriate information, consider them to be ‘local issues’ to be addressed by the municipal or panchayat elections. How climate change is framed in voters’ minds through public discourse, civil society activism as also media participation matters and this needs a push at the political level from visionary and committed leadership. In the US, Al Gore, a former Vice President was awarded Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 for making climate change a significant political issue. His iconic Oscar winning documentary The Inconvenient Truth reached out to audiences across countries and social segments.  India too can boast of its galaxy of environmental activists. We had Suderlal Bahuguna who led the “Chipko” forest conservation movement and the decade long anti-Tehri dam protests, Medha Patkar who led the Narmada Bachao Andolan, the celebrated ornithologist Dr. Salim Ali, M. C. Mehta, a public interest attorney responsible for several landmark judgments in the area of environmental law and the indefatigable M. S. Swaminarthan, an abiding friend of the farmers and a world famous scientist who spearheaded the green revolution. The powers that be always found it expedient to praise and honour these men & women and then quietly burry their advice and recommendations along with them! And there have been many other lesser known climate warriors who might have lost steam or have been silenced. This is because in India environment hasn’t become a politically important issue with the masses. India still lacks a national level “green party”, a political entity dedicated to environmental concerns.

While climate change needs to be an urgent political issue at the global, national and local levels, powerful lobbies are working to derail the movement that is gathering momentum though at a far slower pace than warranted. Industries across the globe and in India constantly seek to influence climate science, negotiations, adaptation and mitigation actions and transition to non-fossil energy. Most of our community leaders are still blinded by the development logic. In the sweltering heat of every summer, religious leaders in temples, mosques and churches exhort people to pray for timely and adequate rains. But seldom do they exhort them to take care of trees and surrounding forests. This is so, may be because they will be the first ones to mow down the green cover without the slightest hesitation when they have to implement their expansion plans in the name of progress and “service” to community.

May be we need the Mahathma to visit us again to ensure that our development plans are guided by the principle of material minima to enable mankind achieve spiritual maxima and the notion of trusteeship. Or, may be we need one more environmental saint a la Francis of Assisi with his Canticle of the Sun and the wolf of Gubbio! But, alas, Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical “Laudato Si” which takes its name and inspiration from Saint Francis’ work seems to have fallen on deaf years among most of his followers.