Resources by Vandana Shiva PDF

by Vandana Shiva Vandana Shiva is an Indian scholar, environmental activist, food sovereignty advocate, ecofeminist and anti-globalization author. Based in Delhi, Shiva has written more than 20 books. She is often referred as "Gandhi of grain" for her activism associated with anti-GMO movement. ...

by Vandana Shiva Vandana Shiva is an Indian scholar, environmental activist, food sovereignty advocate, ecofeminist and anti-globalization author. Based in Delhi, Shiva has written more than 20 books. She is often referred as "Gandhi of grain" for her activism associated with anti-GMO movement.  Desacralization of Nature Natural Industrial Scientific Sustainable Resources Revolution Revolution Development GIFTS INPUTS SUBSTITUTES SUSTAINABILITY Spring that continually rises from the ground Container for raw materials waiting to be transformed into inputs for commodity production  Natural Resources GIFTS Resource implies life. God created the earth in abundance. Genesis 1:29-30 (NIV) 29 Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so. The earth bestows gifts on humans, who in turn, should have diligence in not suffocating her generosity. In early modern times, the relationship between humans and nature suggested reciprocity along with regeneration. Genesis 2:5-6 (NKJV) 5b For the LORD God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to till the ground; 6 but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground. Industrial Revolution INPUTS Resources are now ‘any material or conditions existing in nature which may be capable of economic exploitation’. Its capacity to regenerate has gone and man’s attitude of reciprocity has lost.  Human inventiveness and industry imparts value to nature. The destruction of the commons were essential for the creation of natural resources as a supply of raw materials for industry. Draining Marshes  Landless peasants, and the medium and smaller peasants would be impoverished by the loss of some of their pasture and common rights on which the viability of their livelihood depends. Also losing out would be the cottagers, labourers and industrial workers who would be deprived of the resources that kept them from entirely dependent on wages or poor relief. Forest struggles took place as people fight for their access and rights to forests upon the introduction of the Forest Acts of 1878 and 1927. Penans in Sarawak Forest Satyagrahas Women of Garhwal in Chipko Movement Exploitation of nature have taken place in two phases: When nature’s wealth was considered abundant and freely available, resources were exploited rapaciously. When degradation and scarcity was created, the management of resources unfortunately resulted to uncontrolled destruction of nature. Scientific Revolution SUBSTITUTES Nature was disregarded, probably because of the technological euphoria of the post-war period, in which technology was viewed as a miracle of limitless abundance through the substitution of plentiful materials for scarce ones. Material inputs needed seemed to be in abundant supply – the scarcity was of capital and technology. Biotechnology seemed to free society from the limited availability of land and its produce, and appeared to make available unlimited reserves of substitutes: Synthetic Chemical Genetic Animal G.M.O. fibres Fertilizer Resource Cloning FRANCIS BACON (1561-1626) – the father of modern science, the originator of the concept of the modern research institute, and of industrial sciences as a source of economic and political power. For Bacon, nature was no longer Mother Nature, but a female nature conquered by an aggressive masculine mind. The transformation of nature from a living, nurturing mother to inert, dead and manipulable matter was suited to the exploitation inherent in capitalism. The period of post-war recovery in the North coincides with the need to invest surplus capital in the Third World. Aid and technological transfer became the mobilizing forces for the early years of planned development. There was a euphoria about capital and technology as they have self-regenerating powers. Growth has created an end to scarcity, and an end to the struggle for survival. Money and investment had completely replaced the life process of nature in the economists’ equations and debates about scarcity. “Even suppose we are running out of some resources, can we not substitute others?”, they asked. “New investment is a substitute for a currently partly depleted stock such as coal.”, they proclaimed. Value of Maintained Current Current High Levels of Investment Depletion Consumption The theology of the market and the belief in technological miracles allowed Robert Solow to argue that: “If it is very easy to substitute other factors for natural resources, then there is, in principle, no problem. The world can, in effect, get along without natural resources, so exhaustion is just an event, not a catastrophe.” Through the promise of technological fix for scarcity, the debate generated in 1970s was thus economized.  The industrial revolution and scientific revolution, economies and technology, have mutually reinforced the assumption that the nature’s limit must be broken for the creation of abundance. The desacralization of nature entailed the violation of nature’s integrity by violating the limits which had to be maintained for the resurgence and renewal of nature’s life. As the limits of nature’s renewability are violated and its ability to rise again is damaged, real scarcity is generated. Sustainable Development sustainability The development process has unrestrained appetite for destruction and consumption of resources was not merely depleting non-renewable stocks but was also transforming renewable resources into non-renewable ones as a result of ecological disruption. This creates the notion of ‘sustainable development’ and ‘sustainable growth’. The crisis of scarcity is now being formulated in the language of sustainability. CONCLUSION Viewing nature only as a resource and nature’s limit as constraints has created unprecedented man-made ignorance which is a new source of threat to life on this planet. Money is not convertible into life. CONCLUSION Limitless growth and limitless consumption are actually ecologically destructive and a source of class, cultural and gender inequality. If nature’s limits are not respected, sustainability refers to not sustaining nature but simply means ensuring the continued supply of raw materials for industrial production, the on-going flow of ever more commodities, and the indefinite accumulation of capital. To what does the road of development leads us?