STAYING AHEAD

DICHABA MOLOBE | Friday May 25, 2007 00:00

The environmental lobby and the untold economic harm they cause on the very poor people they claim to help is a case in point.

What started off as movement that relied on the power of science to keep all of us in check and ensure that we don't pollute oceans, and rivers and ground water resources has metamorphosed into a completely different institution? For purposes of illustration, let's take the environmental lobby's position on global warming.

It has adopted an abrasive, hostile and intolerant attitude towards those who dissent from the widely-held views about global warming. The fact that the dissenters employ scientific data to counter the hysteria of global warming seems not to count at all.
On one side we have United Nations backed groups, which posit that human activity generates the carbon dioxide that leads to greenhouse effect and climate change.
On the other hand we have those who use scientific data to dispute the very basic tenets on which the notion of global warming is founded.

Some people may not know this, but there are top scientists around the world who question the theory of global warming.

The most notable has to be Richard Lindzen, a professor of atmospheric science at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Writing last year in the Wall Street Journal, Lindzen accused the global warming lobby of ' a clear attempt to establish truth not by scientific methods but by perpetual repetition.' 

The consequences of wacky environmentalism   have now hit our shores and three examples easily come to mind. Firstly, I gather that the Ministry of   Environment, Wildlife and Tourism has banned the use of light plastic bags in favour of heavier variety.
Apparently the heavier one is reusable. This brings us once again to the fundamental problem of 'good intentions but bad outcomes'. The intention is good because it seeks to rid Botswana of the litter problem.

The economic outcome however is problematic.

Light plastic bags are cheap to produce and popular with low cost supermarkets. The heavier and slightly expensive ones are found in up market stores. The typical up market shoppers own cars and have higher disposable income than the folks who shop at the other end of the market.

Once home, the up market customers have little use for the plastic bags. Moreover, they will not be reusing them on their next shopping spree. At the other end, the lowest cost retailer will adhere to the new plastic regulations bag by passing on the cost of the heavier shopping bags to his low-income customers. Good intentions, bad outcomes
Secondly, I see the City Council is collaborating with the local United Nations to promote cycling in the city in order to alleviate traffic congestion.

Good intentions.
 No one wants traffic jams, but who in his right mind wants to cycle to work in the morning or worse still, let his kids cycle to school in the morning given Gaborone's atrocious driving habits and roads. In a city where driving through red traffic lights is part of the daily driving protocol, who wants to have their kids knocked by a taxi?

Thirdly, I see Botswana is lobbying hard for support to sell ivory under CITES. Once again we are suffering the consequences of outsourcing environmental policy making to tree huggers from both the local and international NGO movement.

For far too long African governments allowed tree huggers to perpetuate a template where environmental policy is underpinned by anti-globalisation sentiments and pits the developed world against the Third world. It did not matter that the Third World countries are not homogenous.

For example, Kenya's economic interests do not necessarily coincide with Botswana's even though they are both less developed countries. Sometimes our interests on wildlife resources may coincide with Japan or Norway's whaling policies. 

The issue therefore is not whether Botswana wants to sell ivory and Kenya is opposed to the idea. Rather, this is about what best serves the two respective countries. If Botswana's economic interests are best served by selling ivory, so be it.