Impact of energy crunch on human rights
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Posted on June 14, 2006
Filed Under Justice, Global warming/Climate change, Deep ecology, Ecological overshoot, Ecological hope, Consumer culture, Fossil fuel dependency, Environmental disasters, Earth spirituality
Fostering Ecological Hope
Today from Margaret Swedish:
As I have noted before, one of the challenges we face in moving this world towards a rich, nurturing, sustainable future is the explosive growth of the economies of China and India. Both are thirsty for energy to fuel that growth, and both are actively looking well beyond their borders.
One of the ignored issues in this debate is the impact of this desperate search for energy resources and other raw materials on human rights. China in particular is doing business with some pretty nasty players, among them several repressive regimes in Africa. As the Washington Post reported yesterday, China has secured ‘drilling rights in Nigeria, Sudan and Angola,’ and is working on deals ‘with Chad, Gabon, Mauritania, Kenya, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Ethiopia.’
In addition to oil extraction, the Chinese are making deals for copper and timber, and lots of investments in trade and development projects, dams and such, while pushing open African markets to Chinese consumer goods. And they are doing this with little concern for the impact on respect for human rights, the environment, or the problems of repression and corruption in several of these countries. Military aid is also part of the equation.
These economic relationships translate into Chinese protection for human rights abusers, like Sudan and Zimbabwe, in the United Nations.
It’s an old story in Africa – economic colonization. China continues this long terrible legacy, one of the principal reasons for Africa’s impoverishment over centuries. China’s President Hu Jintao defended his government’s behavior in the same terms he did while visiting the US last month, reiterating his country’s "policy of noninterference in other countries’ internal affairs." Convenient for them.
Ecological Hope rests in large part in the creation of a different ‘world order’ than the one now operative. China has a right to develop, to raise its population out of poverty – as does
India or any other poor country. The question is, how?
Right now we have a world torn by an enormous gap between the small minority of wealthy or privileged and just about everybody else. Two billion people live on less then $2 per day. They have a right to a dignified life no less than our own. China and many other poor countries resist pressure to develop in ways less harmful to the earth because of the unwillingness of this wealthy country to make the sacrifices that are necessary in order for development to happen in a way that does not threaten us with ecological suicide.
If we are not willing to make radical changes – sharing the world’s resources, down-scaling our lives to what we need, rather than consuming whatever we want simply because we have the bucks (multiple homes, cathedral ceilings, multiple low-mileage cars and SUVs, things and more things) – than we cannot expect others to accept impoverishment and misery to save the planet.
This reality also shows us the absolute imperative of creating international, enforceable mechanisms to reduce human consumption of non-renewables, drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions, responsibly share resources needed for life (like fresh water), and respect the right to dignified life for every person on this planet along with the rich biodiversity of which we are a part.
Ecological Hope is a project of the Center for New Creation. Donations are tax deductible and can be sent to the address on this blog.
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