We have exploited our resources and degraded our environment to such an extent that the global implications of our decisions can now be measured on a yearly basis, rather than decades or centuries. The trees are being cut down at a faster rate than ever, the traditional sources of energy are getting depleted with time and the pollutants in our surroundings have crossed their specified values by an unprecedented margin. The effects are conspicuous in the form of Global Warming, Ozone Layer Depletion and an increasingly unpredictable nature of rainfall. Conceiving the gravity of environmental degradation, it has been officially cautioned as one of the Ten Threats by the High Level Threat Panel of the United Nations.
Till now we have been using technology to increase the productivity; but now there is an urgent need for retrospection on how best we can modify these technologies to fulfill our needs while causing minimal ecological disruption. The stream of science which deals with this is Ecotechnology. Some developed countries have evolved techniques which reduce the environmental impacts immensely. But as a whole we cannot account for our negligence until the developing countries also join in in this cause. The question that arises is whether the developing countries should simply adopt the ecotechnology same as the developed countries or they should work upon their own ideas. Before we address this, let us first consider the pros and cons of the issue.
The developing countries have so many primary concerns which have not been solved over the years. Poverty, healthcare and illiteracy are some of these. Government proposes some objectives in regular time intervals which it fails to meet in spite of so much effort. As an instance, India had targeted a growth rate of 8 percent in her 10th 5 year plan but at the end could achieve that of 7.7 percent. In such a situation, the developing countries’ adopting the ecotechnology of the developed ones is not viable.
The adoption of the high-tech solutions from the developed countries is not feasible also because of the amount of energy required to construct and run these plants. In a country like ours, the towns manage to get the electricity supply for a few hours a day and there are still some villages which are devoid of electrical wiring. According to an estimate on a worldwide basis the increase in power consumption would be from an estimated 275 GWh in 1990 to 538 GWh by 2015, which is totally contradictory to the goal of reducing energy consumption by 50 percent over the next 40 years.
The developing countries have their own restrictions in terms of infrastructure. If they decide to develop their own ecotechnological solutions, they will have to invest a huge amount of money. Firstly, the research centers will have to be setup keeping in mind the accessibility of resources. Secondly, there is not much incentive for research in the developing countries. Students after graduating from the premier institutes either opt for a job or research in the developing countries. Thirdly, these technologies, once ready, will have to be put to rigorous testing in the laboratories. They will have to be scrutinized for productivity and feasibility. Finally, existing machinery in the industries will have to be replaced by newer ones and the staff will have to be trained accordingly.
In recent times, governments in some developing countries have taken some measures to derive eco-friendly techniques. Carbon Credit is a remarkable example in this respect. The countries which have signed the Kyoto Protocol are bound by Cap and Trade Legislation to keep a check on their emission levels. According to this, the countries which exceed the emission levels (Cap) are required to compensate for it by assisting the other countries in their technological advancement thereby reducing their emission level by an equal amount. In this way, the developing countries can get to use the ecotechnology of the developed ones, without hampering their economy.
Since the industrialized countries already had a high rate of production, they started earning profit at an earlier stage. The production of developed countries is comparatively very less. So if they decide to adopt ecotechnological methods they will be able to compensate their initial capital investment after a few years. Thus, the GDP is expected to register a much slower rate of increase and no doubt, the other aspects of economy will also get affected.
There is a need for sustainable development. Whether or not to adopt the ecotechnology from developed countries directly, the developing countries will have to take a number of factors into consideration - ensuring that their economy does not slow down to an extent that they fail to keep up with the developed countries.
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