Need for society to focus on minimising the demand for materials and energy

By Shankar Sharma*
"Overconsumption by the rich must be tackled,.." says acting UN biodiversity chief, as in an article.
Whereas this issue of overconsumption by the rich has always been there, certainly in modern society, what is of serious concern in 2023 is that the country governments also are consciously indulging in such overconsumption in many forms.

Such overconsumption by the governments is epitomised by the high GDP growth rate paradigm, which invariably involves much more travel and tourism focus, huge number of vehicles being added every month, continuous increase in air travels, air condition facilities, 24 hour shopping malls, continuous addition of air ports, express highways, fancy tours such as luxury cruisers, increase in night time sports etc.

It is easily questionable as to how each of these economic or non-economic activities are essential to lift the masses from the clutches of poverty, whereas all of them are intricately linked to the degradation of critical elements of nature, and in exacerbating the Climate Change phenomenon.
So, there is a need for the entire society to have a steady focus on minimising the demand for materials and energy in each and every one of our daily activities. Since our bureaucrats and political leaders do not seem to care of the consequences of overconsumption for which the pursuit of a high GDP growth rate paradigm is the root cause, civil society groups have the onus to try and do all that is feasible to arrest this mad rush towards calamity.
---
*Power & Climate Policy Analyst

From margins to microphones: The rise of Dalit hip-hop in India

By Tersina Maria Toppo* A protest does not always arrive as a slogan shouted from a street corner. Sometimes, it arrives on a beat. A microphone replaces the megaphone, a music video becomes a public square, and the smartphone becomes the space where a history once pushed to the margins is narrated, debated, and shared.

UCC push would lead to state surveillance, erosion of women’s rights: Feminist alliance

By A Representative The All-India Feminist Alliance (ALIFA) has issued a sweeping condemnation of the push to implement Uniform Civil Codes (UCCs) across 21 BJP- and NDA-ruled states, warning that the legislation masquerades as gender justice while fundamentally expanding state surveillance, criminalizing consensual relationships, and undermining the constitutional and economic rights of women and marginalized communities.

Xi Jinping’s visit to USA: Recognition that China can't be contained?

By Vijay Prashad President Xi Jinping’s forthcoming visit to the United States must be understood as more than an encounter between two heads of state, but it must be seen as an encounter between two possible futures. In one future, the United States imposes a spiral of confrontation against China. Trade disputes harden into economic warfare, then economic warfare intensifies into technological blockades, technological blockades produce military encirclement, and finally military encirclement creates incidents, and incidents the danger of becoming an unimaginable war.

Counterview

Search This Blog