Why a new Paradigm for Development is needed for the 21th Century ?
By Mikhail Gorbachev Prepared for the Guardian, January 1st,
2000
This year the world commemorated the 10 year anniversary of the fall
of the Berlin Wall, the quintessential symbol of our times, the removal
of which demonstrated the power of human solidarity to provoke change.
This event was an opportunity for reflection on the 20th Century; a century
which has heralded a whirlwind of development in science and technology,
the birth of the universal concept of human rights, the disintegration
of the old colonial empires, and the rise of "globalism" as
both an idea and a reality. But the Century which we are leaving has also
been the first to know the untold death and destruction of World Wars,
humanitarian catastrophes and violations on an unprecedented scale, the
escalating gap between rich and poor, and the devastating destruction
of much of the natural environment. Let us hope that it is the first and
also the last century to bear witness to such calamities, and that an
increase in knowledge and awareness will bring with them an increase in
responsibility and care for each other and for the world.
In the 20th Century, millions of people fought and died in the pursuit
of freedom and democracy; now it is important for us to turn our attention
to the very fundamentals of life - as people living without clean water,
adequate food or decent shelter cannot exercise their freedoms of thought
or action. These people, over one half of the population of the world,
must now become our priority. We cannot go on believing that it is not
our business, and will not affect us, that billions of people live in
abject poverty. We need to extend the spirit of human solidarity to these
people and recognise that the economic choices currently being made are
leading only to huge inequalities and an ecological crisis on a global
scale. It took ten thousand years of human history to reach, at the beginning
of this century, an annual global gross economic product of sixty billion
dollars. One hundred years later, the world economy now produces the same
gross product in one day, which gives an idea of the kind of pressure
that is exerted by this tremendous human economic activity on Planet Earth.
The most affluent 20 percent of the world population consumes 83 percent
of this total income, while the remaining 80 percent lives on 17 percent,
and the bottom 20 percent lives on 1.4 percent. Most alarmingly of all
is the fact that 1.2 billion people live on less than one dollar day.
A sense of insecurity pervades even the most affluent societies. Nations
are looking inward, and the rich are turning their backs on the poor;
but the rich countries cannot survive on an island of wealth surrounded
by an ocean of poverty. Social inequality and environmental destruction
will together erode the legitimacy of the global capitalist system over
time, just as surely as the absence of personal freedom eroded communism
from within. We need to build bridges between North and South.
Human beings have long thought of themselves as the masters of nature
and felt that they could make use of it as they desired. The entire natural
environment which has evolved over billions of years, and which led to
the emergence of mankind and human society, is consequently now under
serious threat. The environmental crisis is world-wide: deforestation,
desertification, natural resource depletion, and air, water, and soil
pollution. In the 20th Century Mankind has acquired the power to totally
transform Nature, to affect the Biosphere with environmentally destructive
technologies, to alter the course of rivers, and even to destroy the Planet
itself with weapons of mass destruction. Alongside this increased power
has arisen increased knowledge of the limits of the natural resources
which sustain us, and the level of resistance of the Earth itself to human
abuse. With this information we are placed in a unique position. For the
first time, we have both the ability to change the course of nature and
the knowledge of the terrible risks we face in doing so. It is a fact
that today only one-third of the world’s population enjoys good,
normal or even acceptable living conditions, and at least two-thirds suffer
from malnutrition, disease, poverty and illiteracy. With the accelerated
growth of the world’s population, which began this century at one
billion and will certainly reach 10-12 billions by the middle of the next
century, and the over-consumption of natural resources, scientists all
around the world confirm that Humanity is running towards an unpredictable
future. We are at the brink of a transition - but one that could still
go either way. If we do not curb population growth, resource consumption
and waste, and thus preserve the habitability of the Planet, the consequences
will be severe. We must be starkly realistic now to provoke the behavioural
changes needed in order that we may be optimistic for the future.
One of the most important things to recognise is that we are all mutually
interdependent. No one nation can alone tackle the pollution in our seas
and rivers, global climate change, or the tragic scourge of poverty. We
must all telescope these concerns into the conduct of our daily lives,
and rally public opinion to push governments and organisations to do the
same. The very sustainability of the global system must be called into
question as future generations depend on how we use the planet today.
It is a strongly felt hope that the next century will be more peaceful
than its predecessor, and the realisation of this dream will also depend
heavily on how we treat nature. There is a strong link between the environment
and peace. In the past century, wars have been responsible for enormous
and long-lasting damage to our surroundings. In the next century, wars
may be fought over access to increasingly scarce natural resources, particularly
fresh water. Environmental hazards can threaten regional or national security
in a variety of ways. The failure to protect nature in many areas resulted,
in 1998, in 25 million environmental refugees being driven from their
homes by declining soil fertility, drought, flooding and deforestation.
Modern technology can be developed and used to help resolve many problems
of natural resource stress, for example in waste water reuse and improved
agricultural techniques. We desperately need to recognise that we are
the guests not the masters of nature and adopt a new paradigm for development,
based on the costs and benefits to all peoples, and bound by the limits
of nature herself rather than the limits of technology and consumerism.
Much can be achieved by a shift in human values. Green Cross International,
the NGO of which I am President, calls for a fundamental transformation
of society’s values with respect to the environment. To achieve this
we need a worldwide campaign of dialogue and action - based on tolerance
and supported by mutual respect. Without this, the most realistic forecast
of the next century is that it will be one of continued apathy in the
North and poverty in the South. It is necessary to think globally, but
globalisation should be grounded on solidarity not uniformity. Cultural
diversity must be preserved as one of the greatest resources we have.
Human society needs to evolve beyond the well-trod roads taken by civilisation
so far and develop a greater human spirit. With this spirit we may hope
to face the challenges of the future and tear down the remaining walls
which divide us: that between rich and poor, and that between the reality
of the present and the vision of a better future.
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