In October, representatives of the Indian publication HuffPost India met with the Norwegian Erik Solheim, who heads the UN Environment Program (UNEP, United Nations Environment Program). In the discussion of India's environmental problems, more global topics were also touched upon.
The discussion began with the impressions of how the world's largest garbage collection took place on Mumbai's Versova Beach. During the year, the inhabitants of the Indian metropolis were able to remove about 3 million kilograms of garbage: “It was truly inspiring! A fantastic, outstanding example of what can be done around the world. People stood up and began to act, ”Eric shared his admiration. He himself also took part in the cleaning on Versova Beach, which took place on October 2 in honor of the anniversary of this large-scale garbage campaign.
However, not everything is so rosy in India, not to mention the planet as a whole. For example, the capital of this Asian country - Delhi - until recently remained the leader in the ranking of the World Health Organization (WHO, World Health Organization) in terms of air pollution. Now Delhi has managed to move to 11th position, but half of the 20 most polluted cities in the world still belongs to India. This situation was remarkably commented by the head of UNEP:
I think that the biggest problem is a false attitude, which is present not only in India, but also in the USA, China and other places where they believe that there is a choice between ecology, prosperity and development. That first we develop, and then we take care of the environment. This is fundamentally wrong. The most successful countries in the world, such as Germany, care about both development and the environment.
Protecting the environment can become a huge industry. Caring for the environment does not remove jobs, but creates them.
This “absolutely false choice” between development and conservation of the environment, according to Solheim, was followed by India. However: “If the central bank and the government regulate the market in such a way as to encourage investment in green areas, climate change will present huge business opportunities and a chance for India to make its economy much more modern and efficient,” Eric emphasized. Hopes for India's development in this direction were added by the country's signing of the Paris climate agreement COP21 .
Commenting on the famous saying of Mahatma Gandhi: “The world is big enough to satisfy the needs of any person, but too small to satisfy human greed,” Solheim noted that two things will contribute to improving the world situation in this matter: raising taxes on wealth (“The Most time to properly tax the world's multi-billionaires and distribute those earnings to the benefit of the rest of the world") and preventing food waste in developed countries.
See also anekdotig:
- Newsletter: " WHO: China No. 1 in absolute mortality from air pollution, Ukraine No. 1 in relative " (September 27, 2016)
- News: " UN proposes to improve the environment by introducing a tax on meat production " (May 27, 2016)
- Newsletter: " Outcomes of the UN Conference (COP21) in Paris on Climate Change " (December 18, 2015)
- Article: " How India Fights Garbage ".
- Article: How to Reduce Your Food Waste? »
- Article: " Food that will never be eaten ."
- Article: " 9 limits of the Planet and how we already stepped over 4 of them ."