Shaping Asia’s Future / Part 1

I was reading through a recent USAID Asia Bureau funded report. It is a long report – 74 pages – that was prepared by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, The Environmental Change & Security Program and The China Environment Forum. The title is: Asia’s Future/Critical Thinking for a Changing Environment (09/2009).

The details are dramatic.

I thought the best way to move through the report would be in several parts. Part 1 will be an introduction to the content of the report. Part 2 will provide excerpts that I found to be particularly dramatic that substantiate the challenges that face global sustainability.

The content is especially relevant is because of the global demands placed on Asia as it has become “the producer for the world.”

The impact of this report can be felt from its opening pages.

In Section 1.1 Long-Term Effects of Short-Term Thinking, the issues are laid out in plain view:

“This behavior (necessary expenditures are too often deferred, and capital is drawn down at unsustainable rates until suddenly disaster emerges, sending everything into crisis mode and further curtailing wise, long-term planning) may be one of the many factors at the root of the global economic crisis of 2009, but it also has parallels in biodiversity and the environment – [especially in Asia].’

‘Here too, natural capital is being expended faster than it can be replenished, and the mounds of waste pile ever higher, leaving future generations more environmentally impoverished.’

‘While Europe and the U.S. accomplished their own levels of environmental degradation over centuries, already densely populated Asia, with its lightning-speed economic development, natural resource-dependent economies, and globalization of trade, is currently playing out this environmental version of unsustainable growth in fast forward, and its rich biodiversity is paying the price.”

A panel of over 90 experts agreed that there are six primary trends and drivers that will most affect Asia’s future environment and biodiversity:

1. Rapid Economic Development and Rising Living Standards in Asia
2. Globalization of Trade and Demand for Asian Natural Resources
3. Rise of Asian Science and Technology
4. Exploding Energy Demand in Asia and Globally
5. Projected Effects of Climate Change and Post-Kyoto Mitigation Approaches
6. Continued Population Growth and Urbanization

“THE MOST IMPORTANT conclusion reached by the Wilson Center’s analysis on these trends is the urgent need for environmental sustainability—for sustainable use, sustainable consumption, sustainable development— in ways that do not enrich current generations at the expense of future ones.’

‘At least five of these six drivers and many of the related trends reflect unsustainable demand and use of Asia’s natural resources and environment, some of it originating from within the region and much from outside.

‘Most of the drivers are related to economics, as human economic activity, especially the pursuit of financial gain, is what is most significantly affecting Asia’s environment, both directly and indirectly.’

Most of these trends also demand ever increasing amounts of freshwater, a recurring theme.