Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
It is worth noting why the LDCS should have a particular liability to suffer
from natural resource destruction and deterioration. In the first place,
development initiatives generally come to these countries from the outside, from
another country, from the world markets for particular products, and through the
action of MNCS. Because the thrust of development is externally driven there is
little interest in environmental protection, which will not help the outside
company or country in any direct way. This may be regarded as an extension of
the dependency argument, in that lack of care for the environment is part of the
exploitation theorized in dependency writings. In the case of MNCS, even if they
have some interest in protecting the supplies of the resource they are themselves
using, such as quebracho wood which grows in Paraguay and has long been used
as a source of tannin, their timescale of interest is relatively short. It is most
unlikely to include the 200 years necessary to regrow the quebracho, which is a
slow-growing tree in dry tropical forest. In the case of fossil resources such as
oil, they do not have any interest in the diversification of the local economy away
from oil after the reserves have been exhausted.
Local indifference and the case of China
Control by the MNCS is not an adequate explanation in many important cases,
however. Mainland China has been recognized for some time as having highly
polluting industries, based on coal being burnt in an inefficient manner, and this
has been at a time when that country tried to sever virtually all contacts with the
West. But even when China has sought to move forward from coal, it has had
little concern for the environment. The classic case is that of the Three Gorges
Dam on the Yangtse; this river, the third largest in the world, formerly had some
62 smaller dams on its middle section, which were all swept away in a powerful
flood of 1975. This gives little cause for rejoicing at the present plan to build one
huge dam near Yichang, for the purpose of energy generation and to control
floods.
The new dam is on a geological fault, and will produce a reservoir nearly 400
miles long, submerging much farmland, nearly 800 villages, and many historical
sites of interest. This dam is likely to be built (work has begun) despite
opposition from international agencies such as the World Bank and the United
Nations. The dam is built in a country where conservation issues and the
environment have relatively low value, at least to the leaders, and where the
voice of opposition coming from many Chinese in the country is stifled by a
dictatorial government.
In many LDCS in Africa and Latin America, it would appear that local
governments have little interest in any case in environmental protection or
sustainability of development. Where there are non-representative governments,
whether military or civilian, there is often a determination to promote
development with a minimum of extra costs, such as those of maintaining the
environment. A somewhat similar case is that where one sector has been taxed to
