As a libertarian, I have been a long-time critic of the Ministry of Environment & Forests. Our forests, of course, are disappearing under their control; and as for the people who live in these forests, the denizens of this ministry are their sworn enemies - otherwise there would be no Maoists and Naxalites. As far as "environmental clearances" are concerned, I have always viewed them as a new form of the "license-permit raj" - and I fail to see what good they can do when all our cities and towns are dirty and full of disease.
My views have only been confirmed during my recent years in Goa - where the poor people on the coastline possess no rights to their ancestral Property because of environmental legislation from Nude Elly: the Coastal Zone Regulation Act. There is constant erosion on the shoreline - no one can stop it - and all that this nasty piece of legislation does is empower a corrupt bureaucracy. Whereas fisherfolk who "own" beachside property all along our 2500-mile coastline could have been rich beyond belief, this evil anti-property legislation keeps them poor - permanently. And Jairam Ramesh, our current central minister of environment and forests is on record lambasting real estate development on the Goa coastline. Meanwhile, they allow mining all along the coast. And Jairam Ramesh has personally approved of the Jaitapur nuclear power plant on the Konkan Coast just north of Goa - on which I have just commented.
I wonder what would have become of him in Florida or California. But then Ramesh is not really a "politician" - if you read what Wikipedia reveals about him you will discover that he is just another backroom boy of the CONgress party, a wheeler-dealer, and only a Rajya Sabha member of Parliament. He represents "interests" - not "people."
I was particularly horrified when Jairam Ramesh declared SUV owners "criminals" the other day. In my book, those who design and build our roads are the real criminals - and SUVs are a lifeline for all who can afford them. Would you like to go back to the bad old days when all you could buy for off-roading was a Mahindra jeep with three gears?
Jairam Ramesh is playing to the environmental gallery - and this is a great big global gallery. This is a New Religion that worships Nature and hates Man. In India, they are made up of city-dwellers. We are extremely fortunate that our rural masses and forest-dwellers don't buy this bull.
Jairam Ramesh is very much in the news these days because of the "climate change" nonsense going on in Cancun, Mexico. Quite frankly, I don't trust weather forecasts of even the day ahead - so what to speak of 100 years hence. Anyway, it has already been proved beyond doubt that the "science" supporting Al Gore and RK Pachauri is totally false. To me, these global "clubs" of governments are always anti-people, and must be distrusted - like the World Bank or the IMF. If their ideas are put into effect, our poor people will never be able to avail of modern energy. Throughout India, women can be seen carrying firewood. Throughout India, one of the biggest health hazards facing poor people is smoke inhaled from indoor wood-burning stoves. In Cancun, they are not solving the energy needs of poor people today. That, in any case, cannot be accomplished by a club of governments. This can only be accomplished by competing private energy suppliers in a free market. In Cancun, they are busy trying to solve "climate problems" of the very distant future - and these, in my view, are all "imaginary problems."
Fortunately, I am not alone in this opinion. I am joined by Barun Mitra of Liberty Institute, who has penned this powerful article against the global, governmental, environmental agenda - the people who are now meeting in Cancun. But he does better than that - for he equates them with the "save the tiger" freaks. Barun argues that the tiger can only be saved by The Market - and the right to Property. In the same vein, he argues that the real energy problems of poor people in poor nations can only be solved by The Market - and not by the politicians and bureaucrats meeting in Cancun. His conclusion is apt, and to the point:
It is the economics of development that should determine the climate of politics, rather than the other way round. It is only with economic development that environmental quality will improve as well.
This is so very true! The Soviet Union was the world's biggest environmental disaster. Rich countries boast great environmental quality - clean cities and towns, well looked after forests, clean lakes and rivers, great beaches (with fancy real estate on them). The air in London is cleaner than the air in Nude Elly. So, do read Barun's great piece.
We don't need the ministry of environment and forests in Nude Elly, and its minister, Jairam Ramesh, who is supported by a bunch of bureaucrats and all the crazies from Pachauri's TERI.
We need economic development - and that can only come from The Market.
But there's too much at stake for these "climate change" alarmists to even think of backing down. Lots of money and reputation(nobel prize winners and "experts") are at stake.
ReplyDeleteWhat amazes me is that no prominent world leader( with the exception of Václav Klaus, the president of Czech Republic)has opposed any of this nonsense, not even leaders of Africa, Latin America or developing countries(like ours).