The Real Environmental Crisis: Why Poverty, Not Affluence, Is the Environment's Number One Enemy

Rating:
Summary: The Economic Foundations of Environmental Integrity
Review: As I have pointed out in my reviews of this important book (in ENVIRONMENT magazine and in POPULATION AND DEVELOPMENT REVIEW), Hollander provides badly-needed balance and perspective to contentious issues of environmental quality and resource adequacy -- issues that, all too often, are drowned out in a swirl of dogmatic and ideological rhetoric and posturing, to which neither the political left or right are immune. The author addresses topics critical to a sorting out of the many strands entering into the environment-resources-economic growth debate: population, agriculture, air quality, energy, transportation, among others. Although the author believes that environmental progress and threats to resource abundance aren't nearly as dire as sometimes depicted, there are indisputably major challenges to be confronted. But improved management, emerging technologies, market incentives, and reforms in governance (especially in developing countries, where many environmental and resource dilemmas will manifest themselves in the years to come) can all contribute to a more reassuring future.

No book can escape some critical dissent. While I agree that rising income typically gives rise, in turn, to a demand for enhanced environmental amenities, it can also make the solution of some problems -- say, traffic congestion -- less tractable. And my "precautionary" instincts would probably have me move more aggressively on dealing with the possibility of climatic disruption than Hollander. Overall, however, this book -- judiciously melding natural and social science, and eloquently written, to boot -- is one I can unhesitatingly recommend.

Joel Darmstadter
Economist
Resources for the Future
Washington DC

Rating:
Summary: Dangerous
Review: Despite some very important and true points, The Real Environmental Crisis has the potential to be a dangerous book.

The volume's central argument -- that the environment can be improved by eliminating or reducing poverty -- does at least in part stand to reason. Several important environment-related issues (e.g., water and air quality, deforestation, and over population) clearly improve in countries as they become wealthier. And while I'm not sure I agree with author Jack Hollander's claim that fighting poverty may be the single most important environmental step available to us, it is certainly among the most important steps.

But the idea that poverty is responsible for all of our environmental ills is a simple-minded and counter-productive argument. If that were so, how does one explain that 80 percent of the world's greenhouse gasses (which most scientists link to global warming) are produced by only 25 wealthy and industrialized countries? How many developing countries have had nuclear reactor accidents? Why are cancer rates higher in wealthy nations? What percentage of the world's bunker fuels (toxic transport-related pollution, mostly from jet airplanes) is released by groups based in Africa, Latin America, or unindustrialized Asia?

Even taking all of that into account, the scale is tilted even more toward the environmental culpability of wealthy nations than is apparent. Witness the biggest environmental disasters of the last generation: Shell in Nigeria, Dow Chemical in India, and Texaco in Ecuador, to name three. They all took place in the developing world, true, but only with the money, technology, and personnel paid for by companies from wealthy countries.

The most damning evidence against Mr. Hollander's thesis may be related to climate change. It is accurate to say that the developing world burns unfiltered fossil fuels, which, gram for gram, release more CO2 into the atmosphere than natural gas, refined petroleum, or even coal. But how many small fires designed to keep a family warm during a cold desert night are needed to balance out the smelters and factories of Pittsburgh, Manchester, or Turin? Yes, the third world is still using polluting leaded gasoline that most wealthy countries outlawed a decade ago, but does anyone think that all the old cars on the streets of Havana or Nairobi can produce the same pollution in a week that a single hour of traffic on the highways of Los Angeles or Hong Kong releases into the atmosphere?

Of course, poverty issues must be addressed, but addressing them will not produce an environmental panacea. In fact, it would likely do the opposite: the quickest route to wealth for most poor countries is a rapid industrialization, simply because that takes advantage of cheap labor and it sidesteps the need for a widely educated workforce. But that route usually involves the purchase of outdated equipment, the use of cheep (and usually polluting) fuel sources. And third-world governments bent on industrialization rarely have a desire to pass and enforce environmental rules.

There are important areas where eliminating poverty would help the environment: wealthier farmers are more likely to rotate crops to assure the long-term viability of the land (and give less reason for deforestation) and less likely to pollute the water supply with harmful fertilizers. Population growth rates are lower in rich countries because children cease being an economic asset (free labor) and start to become an economic cost (another person to feed and clothe). And of course there is the incontrovertible injustice of those of us in wealthy countries doing nothing while millions around the world are at risk of starvation.

But framing this in an environmental context is just wrong. Not only is it inaccurate, but it can also be spun into a dangerous diverting tactic, an excuse for rich countries to do nothing about their own environmental sins and instead point a gnarled finger at the Third World and claim those countries must act first.

Rating:
Summary: Dangerous
Review: Jack Hollander has managed to write a book that is not only informative but also speaks to the general public. In an age where environmentalism has turned into either an intellectual debate (nobody can understand it) or a political agenda (nobody cares to understand it), Hollander has brushed aside the traditional jargon and the conventional perspective to find the underlying problem that plagues our planet and its environment. Writing with ease on all environmental subjects, from global warming to fossil fuels to agriculture, Hollander provides a solid and strong argument that poverty is the world's worst environmental problem. The text is lucid and reads like a novel, as it was intended to appeal to intellectuals and laymen alike. Yet the author goes well beyond rhetoric--he backs his arguments up with accurate data and appropriate evidence from reliable sources. Hollander doesn't just provide optimism for the future; he lays down a framework on which that optimism is based. For the avid environmentalist, this book should be read if only to get a different perspective based not on rhetoric, but on hard facts. For the layman, like me, this book will clarify the environmental debate that has been making headline news since the 70's and will continue well into the future.

Rating:
Summary: A Lucid, Educated and Focused Book
Review: Jack Hollander has managed to write a book that is not only informative but also speaks to the general public. In an age where environmentalism has turned into either an intellectual debate (nobody can understand it) or a political agenda (nobody cares to understand it), Hollander has brushed aside the traditional jargon and the conventional perspective to find the underlying problem that plagues our planet and its environment. Writing with ease on all environmental subjects, from global warming to fossil fuels to agriculture, Hollander provides a solid and strong argument that poverty is the world's worst environmental problem. The text is lucid and reads like a novel, as it was intended to appeal to intellectuals and laymen alike. Yet the author goes well beyond rhetoric--he backs his arguments up with accurate data and appropriate evidence from reliable sources. Hollander doesn't just provide optimism for the future; he lays down a framework on which that optimism is based. For the avid environmentalist, this book should be read if only to get a different perspective based not on rhetoric, but on hard facts. For the layman, like me, this book will clarify the environmental debate that has been making headline news since the 70's and will continue well into the future.