Re: [greenyes] Emerging Countries, waste and pollution

["Vipen Mahajan" <VMahajan@no.address>]

Hi,

I have been a silent listner to the valuable debate taking place on this
forum. While in the US through the good work done by people on this and
similar forums an awareness and urgency has been created and action is
picking up momemtum. However, in the emerging and developing countries there
is a rush into "modernization" using the very same technologies and
solutions which have caused the problems here.

Perhaps we should be proactive in guiding/monitoring that new plants etc.
that are now coming up in these countries which will just add to the
existing problems. Currently we have a billion odd people , largely in the
industrialized countries causing the pollution and waste. But the way China
has recently grown its economy, and with India and other neighbouring
countries, they can easily add much more waste in a short while.

This probably needs a change in lifestyles and sustainable consumption,
rather than just copying the "successful" models of the industrial nations.
CK Prahlad has talked about developing newer/appropriate technologies for
markets for the 4odd billion poor people, hopefully they will be less
polluting.

I was wondering if any groups are working on these ideas.

Thanks,

Vipen Mahajan
Chicago.