Environment and Development
| DOI | 10.1177/002070207302800105 |
| Published date | 01 March 1973 |
| Author | Clyde Sanger |
| Date | 01 March 1973 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
CLYDE
SANGER
Environment
and
development
It
is
a tale
simply
told.
How
Maurice
Strong,
with
the
help
of
his
golden
group
of
economists
and
writer
friends, enlisted the leaders
of
developing
countries
for
his
environment
crusade.
How
they
were
recruited with
sympathetic
words
about
the
problems
of
poverty
in
their
own
countries,
and
encouraged
by
the
leaders
of
industrialized
countries
to
believe
that
the
crusade
will
bring
them extra
assistance
in
their
primary
struggle
away
from poverty.
How,
on
the
whole, they
marched
off
in
step
with
the white
knights
from
the rich
polluted
lands
under
the
Stockholm
banners.
So
far
is
simple.
But what
happens
next
is
uncertain. Will
the
rich
lands
make
good
their
declarations
at
Stockholm
and provide
increased financial
and
technical
assistance?
If
tkey
don't,
will
the
poor
countries
turn
sour
on
this
broken
promise,
break
ranks with
the
crusaders,
and
return
to
their
own lands to
mess
them
up
in
the
ancient
name
of
progress? Does
everyone,
in
fact,
really
believe
with
Barbara
Ward
that
this
is
Only
One
Earth?
Parable
from
Maurice
Strong:
if
you
drop
a
frog
into
boiling
water,
he
will
jump
out
immediately;
if
you
pop
him
in
cool
water
and
heat
it up
gradually,
he'll
probably
let
you
boil
him
to
death.
This
lesson,
learnt
from schoolboy
experiments
in labora-
tories,
came
back
to
him
during
the
planning
for
the
Stockholm
Conference on
the
Human Environment.
The
frogs
that
are
the
industrialized
countries
now
realize
that
they
are
in
boiling
water
Editor
of
General Publications,
International
Development
Research
Centre,
Ottawa;
author
of
Half
a
Loaf:
Canada's
semi-role
in
developing
countries
(Toronto
1969).
The
views
expressed
are
those
of
the
author
and
do
not
necessarily
represent
the
views
of
the
Centre.
104
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
(of
their
own brewing);
but
what
about their
cousins
in
the poorer
countries?
Will
they
swim
around
too
long
in
the
cauldron
while
it
warms
up?
How
do
you
warn
them
of
the
dangers?
Brazil
was
at
the
outset
the
difficult
case.
Being
2684
miles from
north
to south, and
2689
miles
from
east
to
west,
it
is
massive
enough
to
persuade
its
leaders
that
man
(even
90
million
men
and
women)
cannot
do
much
damage;
that
the
country
will somehow
cleanse
itself,
or
at
least
can
tolerate
a
few
very
messy
comers.
When
someone
expressed
reservations
about
the
welcome
that
Brazil
was
giving
to
a
very
profitable
-
and
very
polluting
-
wood
pulp
oper-
ation
which
some
Japanese
investors
recently
proposed
on
the
south
Atlantic
coast,
the
Brazilian
Planning
Minister
countered:
'Why
not?
We
have
a
lot
left
to
pollute. They
don't.
Brazil
can
become
the
importer
of
pollution.'
Are
they
applauding him
in
Tokyo?
The
Japanese
have
been
extremely
frank
about
the
social
costs
they
themselves
are
paying
for
industrialization.
Are
the
poorer countries
facing
a
real
dilem-
ma,
in
which
they
have
to
choose
between
development
and
a
clean
environment?
The
answers
that
came
from
different
voices
at
Stockholm
can
sound
confusing. Listen to
Galo
Plaza,
secretary-general of
the
Organization
of
American
States.
Latin
America,
he
said,
saw
'the
conflict
between
development
and the environment
as
a
false
dilemma,
since
both
must
be
taken
into
account
in
the
integral
effort
to
improve
man's wellbeing.'
At
another
point
he
said
that
'strict environmental
controls are
a
luxury
which they
cannot
afford.'
Now
listen to
Canada's
Minister
of
the Environment,
Jack
Davis,
as
he
expresses
disappointment
that
the
idea
of
'global
pol-
lution
standards,'
which he
pushed
in
his
opening
speech, was
watered
down beyond
recognition
before
the
resolutions
were
finally
typed
out:
'The
underdeveloped
countries
are
lined
up
against
that
idea
today,
but
I
don't
think
they
will
be
in
five
years'
time,'
he
said:
nations
will
have
to agree
on
international
pollution
standards
for
specific
industries
before
the
issue
of
environmental
quality
versus economic
development
is
resolved.
So,
to Jack
Davis
there
is
a
dilemma.
To
Galo
Plaza
there
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