SCHWERPUNKT Zukunftsfähiges Deutschland

From Environmental Space to the Ecological much scope for „dematerialization" and „de- energization", without a decrease in living stan- dards. Don't get frantic and aggressive! This is The the main message to the Germans which comes out of Zukunftsfahiges Deutschland. However, in is increasing all the time the meantime, the Ecological Debt which arises from excessive use of Environmental Space in Die Auswirkungen auf die Länder des Südens gehören zu den stark diskutierten piling up. Which is the message from the report Aspekten eines Zukunftsfähigen Deutschlands. Nach Meinung des Autors ist die for the people of the South? In this respect, I am disappointed, because the report puts no Botschaft dieser Studie an diese Länder ungenügend: Es werden weder die emphasis either on the Ecological Debt or on „ökologischen Schulden" des Nordens gegenüber dem Süden behandelt noch die the Environmentalism of the Poor. Rather on the „Umwelteinstellungen der Armen" berücksichtigt. Im Gegenteil, die Studie contrary, the report uncritically accepts the übernehme unkritisch die These von der postmateriellen Werthaltung. „post-materialist" thesis. Let me explain.

Wackernagel (4) have developed the notion of • Postmaterialist values? By Juan Martinez-Alier the (implicit already in the The relationship between wealth and environ- That wealth provides the means to correct „organic" urban planning of Patrick Geddes and mental degradation varies with each factor ana- environmental damage, that wealthy people are Lewis Mumford). Another good idea is the con- lysed. Let us for instance consider emissions of environmentally more conscious because they trast between „ people" and „ecologi- sulphur dioxide, water quality, the production of can afford to care for quality of life issues, and cal trespassers" (used by Gadgil and Guha with carbon dioxide, and domestic . Emissions that poverty is one main cause of environmental reference to , but which could be applied of sulphur dioxide increase with industrialisati- degradation, are the politically correct beliefs. to the world) on, but diminish when a country becomes However, for many ecologists from the South, richer. Water quality is lower in poor countries this constellation of beliefs provokes outrage, • Don't get frantic and aggressive and increases with wealth, but the consumption even when the speaker comes from the South The occupation of an environmental space lar- of water also increases with wealth, and thus such as the Finance Minister of India Dr. Man- ger than one own's territory, gives rise to an Eco- water reserves are overexploited in some rich mohan Singh, who justified programmes of tra- logical Debt (5). If increasing wealth means - countries and suffer salinisation in coastal de and market liberalization on the grounds that despite efforts at increasing efficiency in resour- areas. Emissions of carbon dioxide increase they would generate resources for cleaning up ce use - more use of undervalued natural with wealth. The production of domestic the environment (1). In the report „Zukunfts- resources from other territories, and also an increases as living standards increase, and their fahiges Deutschland" which comes from the increased production of residues, then there is composition makes them harder to recycle. North, we find a realistic description of the pro- an increasing Ecological Debt (which is admit- There has been recently a discussion on the spects for decreasing the „environmental spa- tedly difficult to quantify in money terms). But relations between wealth and environmental ce" (Umweltraum) used by the German eco- the Ecological Debt is not a theme developed in impact, in terms of the so-called „inverted U nomy, which is a Raubwirtschaft which imports the report „Zukunftsfahiges Deutschland". Such relationship", (7). This relationship applies to cheap natural resources (such as oil), and Ecological Debt is not only towards future gene- sulphur dioxide. Emissions per head increase in exports residues (such as C02). This report rations (6), it is also towards the members of the early stages of industrialization, and then comes in the steps of the 's our own generation which are using little envi- decrease as filters are installed in metal smelters report on the Netherlands of 1993 (which, using ronmental space (6). It also includes an histori- or in power stations, or by changes in fuel (from appropriate assumptions, showed that the cal element, on account of the past occupation brown-coal or lignites to gas). If one defines Netherlands uses an environmental space which of environmental space - the report gives infor- „environmental quality" by one indicator such is about 15 times larger than her own territory), mation on German historical emissions of carb- as sulphur dioxide, then one might conclude and also in the steps of the report by the Wup- on dioxide, which is relevant to this issue. that most industrialized countries are achieving pertal Institute, Towards a Sustainable Europe Certainly, a strict thesis of global ecological substantial improvements in environmental qua- (Febr. 1995) (2). Another physical measure of limits would reduce economic growth to a zero- lity, and that therefore, as much as the realities environmental unsustainability (not used in sum game, and this may lead (in the rich of environmental degradation, it is a cultural Zukunftsfahiges Deutschland) is the North), not so much to feelings of guilt over the change towards so-called „postmaterialist" appropriation of net (3) burden of the Ecological Debt as, on the con- values which makes some rich societies increa- which, if calculated for different regions and trary, to an aggressive reaction (e.g. the coloni- singly sensitive towards . countries of the world, would show how some of al war against Iraq in 1991, or the present By providing the results of a few selected indica- them live beyond their own production, emphasis in NATO towards the Southern Flank tors, it can be argued not only that wealth and some of them are still much below their rich in oil and gas). Fortunately there are no increases appreciation for environmental values own production. In an urban context, Rees and strict global ecological limits because there is but also that wealth itself is good for the envi-

18 Ökologisches Wirtschaften I/1996 Zukunftsfähiges Deutschland SCHWERPUNKT

ronment. The report Zukunfsfähiges Deutsch- environmental debt", Ecological Economic„14 (1), pp.7- land does not agree with the view that economic Der Autor 20, 1995 growth brings its own cure to environmental Juan Martinez-Alier is Professor of Economics at the Borrero, José M., la deuda ecol-gica. Testimonio de una degradation. On the contrary, it recommends a Universität Autönoma de Barcelona. reflexi-n, FIPMA, Cali, 1994. substantial decrease in the material and energy Kontakt: Universität Automona de Barcelona, -Robleto, Mar'a Luisa and Wilfredo, Marcelo, Deuda Ecol- throughput in the economy, which will not come Department d'Economica I d'Histöria Economica, gica, Instituto de Ecolog'a Pol'tica, Santiago, Chile, 1992 6) Agarwal, Anil and Sunita Narain: Global Warming in an une- about spontaneously by the process of economic Spain, Tel. 0034-3-5811200, Fax 5812012 qual world. Centre for Science and Environment, Delhi, 1991 growth. The change will come about by changes 7) Arrow, Kenneth, et al., „Economic growth, carrying in the fiscal system, through the improvement of cars as . This misrepresentation allows capacity, and the environment", , 15 technical efficiencies, and also through a feeling then to attribute Dutch environmentalism most- (2), pp.91-95,1995 of „sufficiency", in the sense that people will ly to „postmaterialism". The Scandinavian coun- -Seiden, Thomas M. and Song, Daqing, „Environmental find that they have enough. tries are also classified by Inglehart as relatively Quality and Development", Journal of Environmental Eco- „pristine" environments (ibid). They are cer- nomics and Management, 27, pp. 147-162,1994. • More sensitive towards envi- tainly less populated than the Netherlands. Scan- 8a) Inglehart, Ronald, „Public support for environmental ronmental issues dinavian environmentalism (i.e. the concerns proteccion: Objective problems and subjective values in 43 Which could be the reasons for this feeling of expressed in Scandinavia over the state of the societies", Political Science & Politics, pp.57-71, March 1995 „sufficiency"? Which are the reasons for the environment due to human action) is attributed 8b) Inglehart, Ronald, The Silent Revolution: Changing growth of environmentalism? Some authors by Inglehart mostly to „postmaterialism", with Values and Political Styles,Princeton: Princeton University believe that environmentalism in the rich coun- no regard to the following facts: their economies Press, 1977 tries is not a materialist reaction against the are partly based on extraction of natural resour- 9) leipert, Christian, Die heimlichen Kosten des Fort- „effluents of affluence", but rather a post-1968 ces, one of them (Sweden) has an excessive schritts, Fischer, Frankfurt, 1989 shift to postmaterialist cultural values. This opti- number of nuclear power stations relative to its 10) Barnett, HJ and Chandler, Morse, Scarcity and growth: , they have been subject to radiation mistic position, which takes „dematerialization" The economics of natural availability, Johns Hop- for granted, is known as Inglehart's „post-mate- from Chernobyl, and they have been subject to kins U. P., Baltimore, MD, 1963 rialist" thesis. It is accepted by the report. I do acidification from external sources. There are Krutilla, JV., „Conservation reconsidered", American Econo- not agree with it. Inglehart (8a,8b) accepts that then enough material reason to become envi- mic Review, LVII (4), 1967 in the affluent countries there is worry about the ronmentalist in Scandinavia, as in the Nether- 11) De Bruyn, SM. and Opschoor, JB., „Is the economy deterioration of some environmental indicators, lands or in Germany. There are even more rea- ecologizing?", Tinbergen Discussion Papers, Tl 94-65, Tin- and about the increasing part of GNP which sons to become environmentalist in poor bergen Institute Amsterdam, 27 pp, 1994 must be spent on „protective", „defensive", countries or in poor regions, whose environ- - Cleveland, CJ., „ scarcity and economic „corrective" or „mitigatory" expenditures mental space in being used to the benefit of the growth revisted: Economic and biophysical perspectives", in against environmental damage (9), but never- rich. This is after all the well known Environ- R. Costanza, ed. Ecological Economics, Columbia Univeristy Press, New York, 1991 theless, quite apart from „objective" environ- mentalism of the Poor (of Chico Mendes or Ken - R.B. Norgaard, 1990. Such debates on the „demateria- mental impacts, Inglehart's thesis is that the cul- Saro-Wiwa), potentially the best kind of support lization" and on the energy-intensity of the economy tural shift towards postmaterialist values is for the northern environmentalists, whose - Norgaard, RB, „Economic indicators of resource scarcity: A making some societies more sensitive towards domestic task would become easier if loud voi- critical essay", Journal of Environmental Economic and environmental issues. This was also the consen- ces were heard from the South asking for repay- Management, 19, pp.19-25, 1990 ment of the Ecological Debt. sus among mainstream environmental and - Schmidt-Bleek, F., „MIPS revisited", Fresenius Environ- resource economists in the United States (10) mental Bulletin, 2(8), August 1993 until challenged by the new ecological econo- Notes mics (11). Indeed, mainstream environmental 1) Singh, Manmohan, Economics and the environment, economics had proposed that the demand for Foundation Day Address, Society for the Promotion of environmental goods increases with income, Wastelands, New Delhi, 1991. Anzeigenschluß and that the poor, are „too poor to be green". 2) See also the references in Opschoor, JB, „Ecospace and der nächsten Ausgabe: the fall and rise of throughput intensity", Ecological Econo- • „Postmaterialism" mics, 15 (2), pp.137-140, November 1995 15. März 1996 3) Vitousek, Peter M, Ehrlich, et at: „Human appropiation In trying to disentangle the sources of support of the products of ", Bioscience, 34(6), for environmentalism in various countries, Ing- ökom Anzeigenberatung pp.368-373, 1986 lehart (8a) describes the environment of the 4) Rees, William and Wackernagel, Mathis, „Ecological Dietrich Engler Netherlands as relatively „pristine", a most opti- footprints and appropriated ",en A.M. Tel. (069) 96206339 mistic assessment since this is a country with a Jansson et al, eds., Investing in . Island Fax (069) 96206338 population density of 400 persons per square Press, Covelo. Ca., 1994 kilometre, and nearly as many cows, pigs, and 5) Azor, C and Holmberg, J., „Defining the generational

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