Environmentalism and Development

As I sat among a crowd of Namibians listening to panel discussion on plant genetic resources, I began to re-consider the privilege of environmentalism.  I am proud to call myself and environmentalist, and having been born in Montana and raised in Colorado, I met many others who climb 14ers, backpack, and just generally love spending time in nature.  But environmentalism isn’t solely connected to the nature-loving hobbies, but rather is defined by a sustainable lifestyle.  For example, the ideal environmentalist might eat organic local food, install solar panels on his/her roof, utilize grey water to water their garden, have a low-water requiring yard, use reusable grocery bags, use public transportation when possible, drive a hybrid car, listen to NPR, and pay to be a member of the Sierra Club.  These are likely the actions most people correlate with environmentalism.  However, this version of environmentalism is extremely Western oriented, not to mention privileged.  How many people in the world, let alone the US, can afford a solar energy system?

Loving nature  from an early age

And again, I return to Namibia.  What does it mean to be an environmentalist in a developing country?  Development requires resources, and therefore is detrimental to the environment.  Sustainable development is not development that does not harm the environment, but rather development that harms the environment at a rate that ensures future use of the resource at the same rate.  Sustainable development, therefore, requires a country to slow down and think of the bigger picture.  Western countries call for sustainable development all the time.  But who are we to call for other countries to slow down when we never did.  In fact, the environment is only now in such a precarious position due to the careless actions of Western countries in the 1900s.  It seems pretty hypocritical of us to make others slow down to reduce the impact of a problem that we created.

Uranium mining contributes to about 7.5% of the Namibian GDP.  Further, mining provides over 14,000 jobs in the country, which is expected to grow significantly with the development of the world’s second largest uranium mine in the coming years (which will be Chinese owned… an entire potential blog post of its own).  Mining is nearly synonymous with development in Namibia.  To slow mining down to account for the environment means to slow down development.  Is it worth it?  White Southern Africans and foreigners that I’ve heard from on the topic (who aren’t funded by mining) have been adamantly against mining.  But black Namibians who are counting on development to raise their standard of living deserve at least as much of a say as the white German environmental scientists.

Langer Heinrich Uranium Mine

Environmentalism is a privilege.  One can only think of conserving their resources once they have an excess.  Is the person who pays big dollars to drive a hybrid car with a big “LIVING GREEN” bumper sticker on the back more of an environmentalist than the person who takes public transportation because they cannot afford a used car?  Is the person who buys organic food at the grocery store at twice the price more of an environmentalist than the indigenous person who harvests endemic fruits at an unsustainable rate to survive?  And who am I, fitting into the privileged category of environmentalists, one to tell the indigenous man to harvest more sustainably?

Topnaar family harvesting the !Nara melon

As I sat amongst a crowd of Namibians listening to a panel discussion about plant genetic resources, I felt ashamed to be an American, and ashamed to be a privileged environmentalist.  The panel debated the pros and cons of growing cash crops like wheat, corn, and rice in place of native crops like mahangu, a Namibian strain of pearl millet.  One of the proposed solutions was to begin advertising native crops to Western environmentalists and health nuts.  Mahangu is gluten free and full of protein, fiber, and various important vitamins, nutrients, and amino acids.  One only need look at quinoa, which is originally from several countries in South America, as an example of the effect this might have.  Quinoa was a cheap product for mostly poor South Americans to eat a healthy meal.  As soon as this crop took off in Western countries as a “health food”, the value of quinoa increased substantially, ultimately making it harder for people in South America to purchase.  These rural South Americans now must buy cheaper cash crops, which do not provide the same nutritional value, and are still more expensive than native crops used to be.

Panel discussion on plant genetic resources

In sum, the options for Namibian farmers (and farmers in developing countries worldwide) include:

1. Continue growing native crops and selling to a local market ultimately going broke.

2. Continue growing native crops and cater to the Western healthy organic market ultimately surviving, but no longer see locals eating the once staple foods.

3. Stop growing native crops, and instead plant cash crops like wheat, corn, and rice ultimately surviving, but allowing native crops to disappear entirely.

It comes down to an essential question: How can we provide incentives to farmers to grow native crops without catering to a Western market?  I honestly have no answer for that question, and have yet to hear a good one.

The solutions to these problems cannot come from the West.  So this begs the question: what can I do, as a privileged American environmentalist, to help solve these problems?  Here’s the best I could come up with:

1. Check, but do not feel guilty about, my privileged environmentalism, and understand the inability of most of the world to meet the standards of Western environmentalism.

2. Understand where the resources I use come from, and the consequences my use of them might have on the environment and other people, rather than simply feeling happy with the “GREEN” label on all my products.

3. Encourage and participate in capacity building in developing countries rather than [thinking I’m] solving the world’s problems with my own limited world view.

4. Be open-minded about different versions of environmentalism that do not fit within my Western cannon.

5. Be critical of those who are privileged enough to be environmentalists, but who still ignore the need for change.  These rich corporate CIS men (generalizing) need to change much more than the Topnaar man harvesting too many !nara melons each season.

I’m sure I missed about a million things, and I would love to hear some other people’s thoughts on this matter.  But for now, I am even more excited to ship out with the Peace Corps in a year to work in an environmental placement in a developing country.  I have so much to learn, and truly think this will be the perfect opportunity to widen my environmentalist perspective and branch out.  I also strongly believe that by living in other countries as an environmental worker, I can become a better environmentalist, and ultimately be a better instigator of change in the US and the West.