When you walk the ravaged landscape of Gurgaon
Or the mushroom city of Mumbai
Or sit under a plastic coconut tree in Chennai
you can find amidst the concrete chaos
the vestigial remains of Americanization
Bright pink Disney characters
promising a plastic childhood and a lot of gas
and if you bothered to look close
you would perhaps find poisonous toxic phthalates
(And if you click on the highlighted link, a child inside you may feel terribly sick.)
But why worry about toys when hundreds of tonnes of hazardous waste is being dumped in India every single day? But why worry about any of those things when India isn't worried? All we are worried about is 8% economic growth. At any cost. Human cost. Environmental cost. Human Rights cost. And hazardous waste dumping is a booming industry in India. We don't care if our people die as long as we can rake in the dollars.
Oh no, we don't care about our people. Didn't I tell you about the water crisis in India? Here's more: drinking water is mixed with sewage in Mumbai - India's crowning glory of development.
So, go on send that trash to India. We are ready to poison our people for foreign dollars. And hell no we will never put you in trouble. Remember Bhopal? Dow Chemicals / Union Carbide is fighting the case in our courts for the last 25 years saying they are innocent. Sooner than later we will believe them. Or their dollars.
Further reading:
http://www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/taxonomy/term/2170
Hemant,
This is a very valid issue. I can relate because the Philippines has the same problems. There’s just not enough political will power to address environmental issues such as this.
“But why worry about any of those things when India isn’t worried?”
Here’s the problem: if you are ready to sell yourself for a few bucks and forget about long-term implications of your actions. Hemant, is money the main reason for India’s government to accept this behaviour (I can’t think of anything else, only ignorance)?
A few months ago there was a report on BBC’s local programme (not even News or other nationwide programme) about electronical garbage being shipped to Africa as “second-hand” devices, of which like 2% were actually working, the others were complete trash. This trash is being shipped from the UK to Africa and dumped there, piles and piles of old computers, fridges and microwaves, all a waste, all dangerous, not needed in the “developed” territory anymore.
The common attitude is like there are twenty five worlds, you know, one to live, another to litter. How erroneous.
I think this issue effects the developed world more than we realize too, although obviously not to the same extent. How many of us drink bottled water, when plastic bottles have been shown to lead to small amounts of dangerous plastics being ingested? How many of us use harsh chemicals in cleaners, when the dangerous side effects are very well known. This is an issue that, if people were educated, would cause chaos in the developed world too.
Did you guys know about the connection bw hazardous waste and the piracy off the Somalian coast?
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article22428.htm
There were some v interesting reports about the same in The Guardian and The Independent. And National Geographic. Check them out as well.