How Much Should a Person Consume?: Environmentalism in India and the United States by Ramachandra Guha (PDF)

Description

Based on research conducted over two decades, this accessible and deeply felt book provides a provocative comparative history of environmentalism in two large ecologically and culturally diverse democracies―India and the United States. Ramachandra Guha takes as his point of departure the dominant environmental philosophies in these two countries―identified as “agrarianism” in India and “wilderness thinking” in the U.S. Proposing an inclusive “social ecology” framework that goes beyond these partisan ideologies, Guha arrives at a richer understanding of controversies over large dams, state forests, wildlife reserves, and more. He offers trenchant critiques of privileged and isolationist proponents of conservation, persuasively arguing for biospheres that care as much for humans as for other species. He also provides profiles of three remarkable environmental thinkers and activists―Lewis Mumford, Chandi Prasad Bhatt, and Madhav Gadgil. Finally, the author asks the fundamental environmental question―how much should a person or country consume?―and explores a range of answers.Copub: Permanent Black

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: About the Author Ramachandra Guha has taught at the universities of Stanford and Yale. He has been Sundaraja Visiting Professor at the Indian Institute of Science, and Indo-American Community Chair Visiting Professor at the University of California at Berkeley. A pioneer in the field of environmental history, he is the author of The Unquiet Woods (UC Press), among other books. His essays have been widely anthologized and translated.

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐If you are interested in India, and especially if you are interested in the environment in India, then Ramachandra Guha’s work is probably your best first stop. But this book should probably not BE that stop.Guha’s most recent book,

⭐, is a masterful account of India’s politics and culture since Independence. It’s just a shame that he didn’t give this work nearly the same care.On the contrary. How Much Should a Person Consume? is really not a BOOK at all; it is, instead, a collection of essays written over the last thirty years or so, tied together with the frailest of strings. As chapters or assorted essays, many of them work and have real value. But as parts of a book, they are totally scattered. Here, we see an account of peasant protests concerning centralized forest policy; there, an appreciation of Lewis Mumford as an ecologist; elsewhere, some autobiographical notes; around the corner, a critique of western environmentalists.That critique itself might have had purchase 20 or 30 years ago; today, it is really shallow. Guha’s essential argument is that western environmentalists have embraced a “wilderness ethic” that neglects the needs of real people in the developing world, particularly poor people in the developing world. The sourcing is abysmally thin, but even so, it completely neglects developments in US and European environmental organizations since the mid-80’s. Many of these groups, think-tanks, and academics have spent years and much thought attempting to make environmentalism work for low-income people throughout the world, and have developed some of the most sophisticated models and accounts of how to do so. But you will not find them in Guha’s book: instead, he restricts himself to isolated statements from individuals with broad assertions about their representativeness and precious little evidence. It says something when chapter after chapter that purportedly deal with US “environmentalism” fail to mention NRDC, EDF, and the entire disciplines of environmental economics or ethics. And no, it is not good enough to say that the essays were written a while ago: the book purports to be up to date, and was published in 2006.The book’s major value, at least for me, was its historical examination of the shameful history of forest degradation and ignoring of poor populations, especially indigenous tribes of India. But even there, it seems oddly disconnected from reality: there is no discussion of climate change policy, the WTO, or even contemporary Indian environmental politics. And I suppose that that is because these issues do not fit into Guha’s quite trite division of environmental ideologies: agrarianism, nostalgia, scientific conservationism, and the wilderness ethic.Toward the end of the book, Guha draws an intriguing contrast between “omnivores” and “ecosystem people”, arguing essentially that the latter are subsidizing the former. This may well be true. He criticizes both what he calls “romantic economists” and “romantic environmentalists” and argues quite sensibly that we need some sort of new way of thinking. What he ignores is that lots of people, both inside India and outside, have been doing this. Are they right? Wrong? Misguided? Visionary? Guha cannot answer this question because he does not ask it. He does ask the question that is the title of his book. That is a crucial, seminal question. But he should try, at least, to answer it, and give credit to those who try to as well.

⭐I picked up Dr. Guha’s book because I was intrigued by the title. Is it really possible to quantify the amount one should consume irrespective of countries where they live in, the social classes to which they belong and the aspirations one has in life? In the end, the book is not so much about this question in spite of the title. Only in the final chapter does the author take up this question and ends up only posing further questions rather than answers. Of course, it is unfair to even expect that such a question can be answered with a number like ’42’!This book is mostly about the comparative history of the environmental movements in two democracies which are at the opposite ends of affluence – India and the U.S. It is also about the contributions of four eminent environmentalists – Patrick Geddes, Lewis Mumford, Chandi Prasad Bhatt and Madhav Gadgil. For me, the book was mostly an education in certain aspects of the environmental movement in India and the US and associated personalities.Dr.Guha says that the dominant environmental philosophy in India is Agrarianism whereas in the US, it is Wilderness Thinking. The curious thing about this is that wilderness thinking is hostile to agriculture whereas agrarianism is not favorably disposed to lovers of the wild. However, the author likes to believe that we are on the threshold of a new synthesis of environmental ethics – taking the idea of Diversity from Primitivism, the idea of Sustainability from peasant cultures and the value of Equity from Modern societies. He is however, very critical of the wildlife conservation movement in the West which seeks to deny the right of tribals to continue to live in the forests where they have lived from time immemorial – all in the name of protection of species. He says that these movements have done great harm to native populations in Africa, India and Latin America by this policy.Dr.Guha’s preference is for what he calls ‘Social Ecology’ which would bring together the complementary skills of the sociologist and the ecologist in its approach to the Environment. On this, he writes extensively about three social ecologists, two from India and one from the US. The first is about the Historical Social Ecology of Lewis Mumford, who advanced a conception of regional development that balanced the needs of the social world with those of the natural ecosystem. The second one is on the Subaltern Social Ecology of Chandi Prasad Bhatt from the Garhwal Himalayas. Mr.Bhatt is a humble, sparsely educated transport dept employee who caught the attention of the world in the 1970s through the Gandhian ecological movement called ‘Chipko’ where men, women and children of the Himalayas hugged hundreds of trees to prevent timber merchants from felling them. The third is about the Democratic Social Ecology of Dr. Madhav Gadgil, a professor from the Indian Institute of Science. Dr.Gadgil contributed greatly to forest policy and forest management in India looking both at the scientific limitations of forestry as it was practised and its wider implications in terms of social equity. The National forest Policy of the Govt. of India in 1988 bears the mark of his studies and recommendations, not least in its ecological focus but also in its relative sensitivity to tribal and rural interests. Finally, Dr.Guha says that the question ‘how much should a person consume’ should come to dominate the intellectual and political debates of our time. In this, he takes Prof. J.K. Galbraith’s question of the 1950s – ‘how much should a country consume’ as the point of departure.I would recommend the book not so much for any new ideas but as an education on the subject.

⭐With new clarity brought about by climate change, global disruptions, political revelations and the damage of our poor past decisions staring us in the face, the solid near-prophetic relevance of this text calling for micro-environments to preserve threatened species (bees for one example) along with greener use of scarce resources and safer energy alternatives has become crystal clear. Massive number of references, written at least a decade before the world was ready to read, let alone consider Guhu’s recommendations and analyses seriously. Everything you think you know about environmentalism, Guhu turns on its head. A must read.

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