racial stereotyping
3 November 2006
The comments of the Democratic Alliance leader at the Oxford debating
society on Thursday included the following uninformed statements: "Rich people
are good for the environment: they have fewer children, they can afford
cleaner, efficient technologies, they use resources more efficiently, they
donât chop down trees for firewood, they donât kill wild animals for food and
they have the time and the money to enjoy and protect nature."
"These generalisations have no foundation in reality. He has used an
international platform to perpetuate the most abhorrent form of class
stereotyping with an underlying racial tone. There are wealthy people that
engage in environmentally responsible behaviour, so too, poor people. There are
poor people that cause damage to the environment, but so does rich people.
However, resource consumption patterns in developed nations provide ample
evidence that the majority of people living in these nations use resources
inefficiently and wastefully. The simple fact is that developed nations are
primarily responsible for almost all forms of environmental degradation that we
have experienced to date. In fact, unbridled consumerism and unsustainable
consumption and environmentally harmful production has become a feature of the
lifestyles of most affluent countries," said Minister Marthinus van
Schalkwyk.
The Minister said: "By making disparaging and derogatory pronouncements
about the impact of subsistence livelihoods on the environment, he demonstrates
a flagrant disregard for the daily struggles of millions of poor people who
live from hand to mouth. The fact is that many of the poorest of people,
particularly on our continent, have of necessity and in line with their
indigenous value systems found many ingenious ways of stretching scarce
resources and living in harmony with the natural environment. Although all
contributions to the climate change debate should be welcomed, this statement
of the DA leader feeds an elitist view of conservation that is outdated. It is
not supported by facts and is not befitting of the leader of a political party
in South Africa, where we have to mobilise rich and poor to be co-owners of our
conservation vision."
"The internationally acclaimed Stern Review makes it clear that
international consensus is that wealthy developed nations do the most damage to
the environment and that poor developing nations bear the heaviest brunt of the
resulting degradation. This consensus also forms the basis of the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Kyoto Protocol.
"Furthermore, in his report released last week, former World Bank economist,
Sir Nicholas Stern concluded, 'Climate change is the greatest market failure
the world has seen'. What is required is a range of solutions that requires
commitment and concurrent co-ordinated action by several role-players, which
include multilateral institutions, governments, businesses and individuals.
Markets and businesses do have a role to play, but when you are dealing with a
market distortion of this magnitude, and adaptation challenges as daunting as
those faced by Africa, the free market offers only limited solutions."
"The reality is that we have a technology-rich North, whose technology is
protected by intellectual property rights which are largely owned by the
private sector. On the other hand, we have a technology-poor South, most
notably Africa, which has been struggling for decades to gain access to cleaner
and more efficient technologies that are currently unaffordable for the poor.
If we had to leave it to the functioning of the free market alone, in other
words the transfer of technology solely on a commercial basis, the required
scale of technology transfer would never materialise."
Enquiries: Riaan Aucamp
Cell: 083 778 9923
Issued by: Ministry of Environmental Affairs and Tourism
3 November 2006
