Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Two decades on, global inequality has substantially clearly increased
(Krugman 2002) and foreign aid from Western societies remains low and,
despite a few valiant rearguard actions, unfashionable. In some cases - espe-
cially in China and East Asia, where human fertility was already low and
where a great emphasis continued to be placed upon education - economic
takeoff was achieved. Although China, in particular, has vast environmental
problems it stands a good chance of continued lift-off, even if climate change
increasingly bites.
But in much of sub-Saharan Africa the application of these new policies
has been truly catastrophic. Populations in a host of African countries have
experienced massive declines in life expectancy, deepened food insecurity,
appalling governance, and periodic and barbaric conflict. South Asia is also
not out of the woods. Two countries rich enough to bear nuclear arms - India
and Pakistan - also contain populations with substantial hunger, high mater-
nal and child mortality rates, regional political instability and patchy govern-
ance. They also still have worryingly high birth rates and high inequality.
Brazil - a land of kidnappings, excess, gated communities and contem-
porary slavery (Bales 1999) - is often considered to house the most unequal
single national economy. In parts of Sao Paulo, Brazil's largest city, a new
caste is arising, where security guards employed in the gated communities
need to demonstrate that their
parents
have a clean police record. Now, a
Left-leaning government has been elected, and inequality is likely to fall, bet-
tering Brazil's long-term prospects.
If the world were a single country, its inequality would make Brazil look
fairly egalitarian. This is true no matter how inequality is measured. A cur-
rency known as international dollars which adjusts for purchasing power
increases the income of the poor in developing countries. If inequality is
measured using an internationally traded currency, such as US dollars, ine-
quality is even more pronounced (Butler 2000). A vigorous debate rages in
academic circles over the virtues and failings of these competing measures of
inequality, yet neither side disputes the central fact that global inequality
between countries exceeds that which exists inside any nation (Wade 2004).
Debate also rages over the extent to which inequality matters. Defenders
of high inequality argue that a rising tide lifts all boats, and that as long as
real wages and living conditions improve for the poor it is irrelevant if they
fall even further behind. This argument reflects ignorance of human nature.
Increasingly, it also reflects ignorance of the facts; in many ways the tide is
