PESTICIDES OR
ENVIRONMENTAL & SOCIAL POLLUTANTS
MIRZA ARSHAD ALI BEG
Ph. D.
RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT PUBLICATIONS
136-C Rafahe Aam Housing Society
Karachi 75210
PESTICIDES OR ENVIRONMENTAL & SOCIAL POLLUTANTS
Mirza Arshad Ali Beg
Research & Development Consultants
Karachi 75210, Pakistan
ABSTRACT
The overrun of Third Change in World Economic Order was used for maintaining superiority over the less developed and developing countries and as deterrent on allies as well as foes during World War II. In general the profits of WW-II viz. the chemicals, their by-products and wastes were applied for the manufacture of a broad range of consumer items starting from construction materials, wearing apparel, to food and agriculture and replaced thousands of traditional items as well as traditions.
Modification of the environment to obtain a higher ecosystem that suited the requirement of the modifiers, was just the beginning of the process of imposing the modification on others in the lower ecosystem to consolidate the gains obtained during the second change in world economic order. The worst was yet to come and it did come during World War II when the warring nations made extensive use of their mass production system to bulk production of chemicals for warfare, and atomic power without caring for the long range impact of their use on posterity, aiming only at short term gains in overpowering the enemy.
The forces of industrialization and urbanization unbalanced many ecosystems by making irreversible changes in habitat and reducing biodiversity of colonies and conquered territories. In their lust for power and to enjoy better quality of life and affluence, the industrialized countries have induced environmental and social pollution. They have irresponsibly degraded the environment of traditional homes, which have had to make increasing use of man-made materials, chemicals, pharmaceuticals and pesticides. The normal processes of bio-degradation, which degrade natural materials including plant products have become inoperative in modifying man-made substances to levels compatible with the environment. This has introduced serious modifications in the ecosystem and displaced many of its modifiers and important components.
Analysis of Corruption Perception Index, developed by Transparency International, has been used by the author as a pointer of level of social pollution, to show that a lowering in the score occurs with increasing deficiencies in democratic infrastructure. The balance of good governance is tilted towards poor governance when the driving force of social pollution hinders the operation of the virtuous circle and allows the informal system to operate the vicious circle. Operation of this vicious circle has also been democratized and the global network of facilitators and middlemen so created has globalized corruption. That is the main reason for corruption being rampant in developing as well as developed countries. The operation of social pollution is best described by Peter Eigen, Chairman of TI, “Political elites and their cronies continue to take kickbacks at every opportunity. Hand in glove with corrupt business people they are trapping whole nations in poverty and hampering sustainable development."
Operation of the vicious circle in application of pesticides in farming has been at enormous costs and sacrifice of environmental values. Pesticides brought only short term gains. Recent studies and the several case histories do not support the views that the benefits from pesticides outweigh the damages done to humanity and the environment. Pesticides, particularly DDT saved the lives of millions by preventing the population from contracting malaria, bubonic plague and typhus since the late 1940s. That, however, was short term gain. Now people are scared of its persistence and scourge of cancer. The forceful lobby of the manufacturers led the users to believe that pesticides work faster and are more effective than the alternatives. This is no longer true; their application even at very low concentration compared to the older products, does more harm than the latter.
Perpetuation of hunger is the tool of social pollution that favours the corporate sector to remain in food business. It is only under such conditions that the corporate sector is able to market its products and earn profits. Hunger is the type of social pollution, which when imposed takes away the ability to think, to perform normal physical actions, and to be a rational human being. This form of social pollution has its linkage with poverty. Of the 830 million hungry people worldwide, about 250 million live in India but the socially diseased Indian governing hierarchy did not distribute the surplus 10 million tons of food grains in 1999 to alleviate poverty.
INTRODUCTION
The First major Change in World Economic Order occurred with the industrial revolution in the mid 19th century and was followed by chemical revolution that caused the transition in living from natural to artificial. It changed the basic mode of production of goods and services and started changing the lifestyle. The revolutions were comprehensively translated by the then industrializing countries for value addition of their products, for achieving superiority in trade and in weapons for waging wars and winning them.
It all began with the 20th century when the countries, which initiated the changes or were associated with them, used chemicals along with conventional weapons to attain supremacy over those who lacked the capability. The spill over of World War I induced the Second Change in World Economic Order and set pace to a mechanical age that set off the chemical revolution and initiated the development of artificial products substituting natural materials including agricultural and food products. Mechanical operations and chemical processes were integrated into the mass production system, which started replacing the craft system and thus rendering a series of well established traditional production lines obsolete.
Land resources that were initially being developed with animal power, yielded to use of mechanized implements. Agricultural practices of the past were seriously modified; agricultural implements, inputs and technologies that were otherwise available from the local environment were sidelined or transferred to lower ecosystems. The desired resources were duly committed from the ecosystem of the colonies, or acquired and distributed according to the demands of processes of an organized agricultural production in a higher ecosystem. The superiority in technology and quality of its products emerged as the determining factor in agriculture and trade.
Modification of the environment to obtain a higher ecosystem that suited the requirement of the modifiers, was just the beginning of the process of imposing the modification on others in the lower ecosystem to consolidate the gains obtained during the second change in world economic order. The worst was yet to come and it did come during World War II when the warring nations made extensive use of their mass production system to bulk production of chemicals for warfare, and atomic power without caring for the long range impact of their use on posterity, aiming only at short term gains in overpowering the enemy.
The upper hand given to them by this second change in economic order was instrumental in displacement of traditional methods of production. A new phase emerged when the overrun of the use of chemicals and technologies during post-World War II period brought in the Third Change in World Economic Order. This third change earned the winners the pleasant living and joys of supremacy but broadened the gulf between the rich and the poor. It brought misery for the poor in the countries, which had been colonized or were conquered and were not considered trade partners. The overrun was used for maintaining superiority over the less developed and developing countries and as deterrent on allies as well as foes during the war. In general the profits of World War II viz. the chemicals and their products were applied for the manufacture of a broad range of consumer items starting from construction materials, wearing apparel, to food and agriculture and replaced scores of traditional items as well as traditions.
The natural dyes, which were agricultural products, became scarce since synthetic dyes became available. Drugs, pharmaceutical products and pesticides were mass produced from chemicals and the natural products were discredited in the industrialized countries as being slow in action and import dependent. Availability of products from synthetic chemicals contributed to mechanization of processes and industrialized countries, in having taken the lead, started trading in industrial products, plants and mechanical equipment. The lead given by the industrial revolution aided by chemical revolution carried each industrialized country along with enthusiasm and enabled them to enjoy the superiority attained due to their application.
Until the industrial revolution in the Western countries, the flow of technology was from the East to the West and the main contributors were the established civilizations in the higher ecosystem of the Indus and Nile Valleys. The civilizations that emerged subsequently were a result of the will to attain supremacy over the neighbouring countries and extending their domain to far flung territories, or the will to migrate. From the early 19th century, there was a reversal of the process since the colonialists started forcing their trading materials on the conquered territories. The colonialists had started harnessing energy from steam during the development processes that made the industrialized countries. They subsequently developed the infrastructure facilities for mechanization of agricultural and industrial production. They immediately set themselves to quality controlled mass production by machinery and plants, using synthetic chemicals wherever possible. This enabled them to become leaders in industries, farming, mining, energy and transportation.
The process of technology development and transfer as well as trade of value added products was one sided after the second major change in world economic order i.e. from the industrialized to the developing countries. The latter set of countries had been colonized during the period in which these developments were taking place. They had to remain mere spectators to the developments and accept the terms of trade dictated by the colonialists.
The colonies emerged as the developing countries at the end of World War II when the third change in economic order took place. They were still struggling with harnessing of animal power all through this period. With the on set of the third economic order the people in the colonies had no option but to silently accept machine made products manufactured in the industrialized countries and to adopt the technologies developed for crop production, yield enhancement, crop protection, harvesting, processing, storage etc. without even modifying them to make them appropriate to their environment.
Industrial enterprises in the colonies, if there were any, could not face the challenges from changes in the production system and of trade pattern induced by the colonialists in the west. Their traditional methods had to yield to the system that was being developed in the west. The late 19th and early 20th century was witness to learning from the western countries and to acquisition of technologies from there. Assembly line production system took roots to which the entrepreneurs of the latter set of countries responded positively and accepted the technologies and plants that became available in the market. The entrepreneurship lay in the agro-based industries that needed machinery for grain processing, cotton ginning, spinning, weaving, oil expelling, metal working etc. The colonialists in the mean time promoted the corporate culture and developed an engineering industry base in a region of their choice only if they had a stronghold and if it suited them to manufacture the plants and machinery there.
The forces of mechanization and industrialization using man made materials ruthlessly induced the alteration of traditional methods and the serene environment, which the earth initially had. These two forces have faltered in obvious and not-so-obvious ways and their negative impact has unbalanced many ecosystems making irreversible changes in the habitat and reducing the biodiversity of the colonies and conquered territories. In their lust for power and to enjoy better quality of life and affluence the industrialized countries have reaped rich harvests from the short term positive impacts in exploiting the resources of the colonies as well as their own and did not take any account of the consequences of the long range negative impact of the diverse changes.
SOCIAL POLLUTION
The process of exploiting others resources is a continuing process with changing dimensions every so often. During the third change in economic order the industrialized countries have geared to different ways of sustaining their superiority in trade, industry, agriculture food production in addition to weapons. They have, in doing so, induced changes in lifestyle and food habits. They have irresponsibly degraded the environment of traditional homes, which have had to make increasing use of man-made materials, chemicals, pharmaceuticals and pesticides. The normal processes of bio-degradation, which degrade natural materials including plant products have become inoperative in modifying man-made substances to levels compatible with the environment. This has introduced serious modifications in the ecosystem and misplaced many of its modifiers and important components.
Call it induction of social pollution or selfishness or by whatever name, but it is true that the course adopted by the industrialized countries has given rise to a rat race all over the less developed world to achieve a better quality of life. The end of the last century did see unprecedented gains in many indicators that are used for making an estimate of the progress in human development, for example life expectancy, per capita income, education and rate of growth of population. This by itself may not be a mean achievement but it has given rise to consumerism and large scale adoption of processes, technologies and lifestyle of the industrialized countries, which in turn has polluted the social fabric or has caused social pollution to take deep roots. Social pollution in taking different forms and shape is largely responsible for the disparity in incomes between the rich and poor within nations and between wealthy and poor nations. The disparity has in general continued to widen, meaning that a relatively small percentage of the global population and nations controls the economic forces and natural resources of the world.
The last half century was the period when the impact of human activity on the physical environment increased dramatically as a result of increase in the scope and intensity of the third change in world economic order. This period was witness to many negative trends, such as loss of tropical forests, accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and appearance of a wide hole in the ozone layer over the Antarctica followed by its widening. It was also the period when the industrialized countries passed on the evils of social pollution to the developing countries and had started getting control on their economy.