Why I should be tolerant. This title of my new book has generated much interest. The fact is that as an environmentalist, I should be increasingly intolerant at the growing filth, disease, pollution and wasted war against poverty and basic services. Then why would I argue for tolerance?
In December 2016 at the Paris climate conference when the debate on intolerance was at its height in India, there was another side to intolerance that I could see. Climate change intolerance meant that for the first time since the beginning of climate negotiations, the erstwhile climate renegades were in control of the dialogue, narrative and the audience. The Umbrella Group is led by the US and includes the biggest rich polluters, such as Australia and Japan, who have always been in the dock for not taking action to combat climate change. In Paris, these countries went through an unbelievable image makeover.
This was done by systematically and systemically decimating any counter-voices or differing opinions. So, for instance, when the Indian delegation (meekly) asked for the climate agreement to be both effective but also equitable - take into account past responsibilities of countries in contributing to the greenhouse gas problem - they were scolded or simply ignored. What Western governments could not do, their media did with great aplomb. The New York Times for instance, was quick to publish a cartoon terming India as the roadblock for a successful climate deal - an elephant blocking the railroad - and significantly said that would end up destroying President Barack Obama's legacy.
So, intolerance was scripted so that the other side's version was erased. In this way, the Paris climate change talks ended with an agreement far from ambitious and way off from being equitable.
The fact is that the world today is hurtling towards two catastrophes, one caused by our need for economic growth, and the other by unparalleled and gluttonous consumption that impels emissions into the atmosphere. These greenhouse gas emissions, primarily emitted because we need energy, contain portends of a future being placed at extreme risk. We already see how weather variation - linked to climate change, or not - has jeopardised the livelihoods of millions of farmers in India in 2015. Farmers are now driven to ultimate desperation - suicide. These failures, a combination of poor policies, are now exacerbated by untimely, weird weather, and have caused so much human pain.
But the real catastrophe that awaits us in 2016 is about living in a more inequitable, insecure, and intolerant world. Let's be clear. The Paris Agreement tells us, more than ever, that the rich world has bubble-wrapped itself, and believes that nobody can prick it or burst through. To be secure in the bubble, conversation is restricted to only what is more convenient. In this age of internet-enabled information, ironically, the world is actually reading and being sensitive to less, not more. The circles of information have shrunk, to what is most agreeable to listen to. It is no surprise, then, that in climate change negotiations - in trade talks, too, or international relations - there is one dominant discourse.
The most powerful nations would like to believe that there is nobody on the other side. There was no longer another side. So, there is no respect for another's position. It is believed the other side is either a terrorist, a communist or is just corrupt and incompetent. There is a fatal refusal to fathom, or approach, opinions or realities that are different.
In all this, there is growing inequality in the world. No amount of growth and economic prosperity is enough anymore, because aspiration is the new God. This means anybody who is poor is marginalised simply because they have just not made the grade. There is no longer space for such "failure" in our brave, newer, world. It is about the survival of the fittest, in a way that would have made Darwin insane.
It is no surprise that we, in India, are mirroring this grave, new world. The very real plight of the poor, distressed, flooded, drought-stricken and famished is banished from our television screens and newspaper articles. Our world is being cleansed. If we do not know they exist, we do not need to worry about their present or future. We can think about a way of life that benefits us, solely. This is the true emerging face of intolerance in an intolerably unequal world.
This does not make for a secure future. No. It makes for a bloody war. But that is what we have to change, now and forever. I haven't lost hope. Intolerance will not make for a world that is safe or liveable. This is why we will have to become tolerant; we will have to be inclusive. So that we can be sustainable.
(Why I should be Tolerant: On environment and environmentalism in the 21st century is available from cseindia.org)
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