Tumourous Growth versus Meaningful Growth

It has been argued many times in this blog that the adoption of a U.S. style model by China, India, and other Asian countries can have disastrous effects for the entire planet. It is hard, of course, to ask Asians to restrain themselves while the West keeps on splurging and depleting Nature's assets. Hence, a meaningful question needs to be asked- do we desire any growth, or do we desire meaningful growth? How can we have beneficial growth rather than an uncontrolled tumourous growth? Another writer raises the same questions...

Arguments for constrained capitalism in Asia | Madeleine Bunting | Global development | guardian.co.uk: "'It's a matter of numbers,' Nair said on a visit to London to speak at the Royal Society of Arts. 'What Europe and America does about restricting its impact on the environment is pretty irrelevant. The future will be determined by what happens in Asia. Three billion Asians want what you and I have, but there is not enough to go round. By 2050, there will be 5 billion Asians,' says Nair, who grew up in Malaysia and now lives in Hong Kong.

"If Asia continues like the west, the game is over; as people in Asia get richer, they eat further up the food chain. If 500 million Chinese want to eat just one seafood meal a week, it will empty all the seas of Asia. If Asians ate as much chicken as Americans, by 2050 that would amount to 120 billion birds a year instead of today's 16 billion. To aspire to the western model in Asia is a deadly lie.

"If China and India had the levels of car ownership evident across the OECD [Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development], that would amount to 1.5bn more cars – and it would take the entire oil production of Saudi Arabia to run them," says Nair, whose bookConsumptionomics: Asia's Role in Reshaping Capitalism and Saving the Planet has just been published.

Yet this is the reality that Asians are reluctant to face. Western car manufacturers want to sell cars to Asia, and Asia wants to buy them. No Asian chief executive is prepared to talk publicly about the need for consumer constraint. Only privately, says Nair, will senior government officials and business figures agree that the arguments he makes is crucial to Asia's future – and has relevance for every part of the developing world. Could Asia offer Africa, for example, an alternative model of development?

"Governments need to tell their people that they can't have everything," says Nair. "The dream of a lifestyle commensurate with US sitcoms needs to be deconstructed immediately."..."