Ideas Of India 2023: At the second edition of ABP Network’s flagship event ‘Ideas Of India’, Indian author Amitav Ghosh spoke about how climate change has resulted in demographic changes in the country as well as in the world, how colonialism triggered climate change, and why capitalism is the “greatest market failure of all time”, especially in relation to climate change. Ghosh told actor Gul Panag, who hosted him during the session on climate change, that the world is on the brink of a food crisis.
‘Capitalism is the greatest market failure of all time’: Ghosh
Panag asked Ghosh if capitalism as an economic experiment ensuring “safeguarding our climate” has failed. Replying to Panag’s question, Ghosh said: “Capitalism is the greatest market failure of all time, you know, especially in relation to climate change. You know, how can you actually expect people who are told that greed is good and people who are told that you know, ‘Just go out there and make money for your shareholders’ to care about the environment or to care about, you know, the land. And they obviously don’t.”
Ghosh also said that a lot of capitalists talk about greenwashing, which refers to the practice of making unsubstantiated claims to deceive customers into believing that a company is running environmentally friendly operations.
Ghosh added that one of the many “amazing things” about Narayana Murthy is that he founded a company which actually was not harming the environment. He said the company was not predatory. He said the New York Times had a small article about Infosys where the top officers refused to take more money.
Ghosh said that entrepreneurs like Narayan Murthy have shown a different path.
‘India has whole-heartedly adopted this model of extractivism in relation to the environment’: Ghosh
Ghosh spoke about the problems India might face in the long run because of exploiting the environment. “India has whole-heartedly adopted this model of extractivism in relation to the environment, which is going to lead to absolute disaster. You can just see it,” he said.
The coastal road of Mumbai is going ahead despite the fact that it is known that the coast is incredibly threatened by “sea-level” rise, he added.
According to Ghosh, within the next 10-15 years, the coastal road of Mumbai will be impacted “very badly”. It is going to be completely exposed to the impacts of sea-level rise and the intensification of cyclones.
“And yet, the coastal road is going ahead. I have a theory about it, which is, everywhere you look in India – actually this is true all over the world – there is some giant building going up. And I think the huge push for this comes from the cement lobby. You know, the cement lobby is actually one of the most powerful in the world,” Ghosh added.
He also said that the cement and real-estate lobbies are pushing the building of dams. And dams are giant blocks of cement, he explained.
All these forms of so-called development will prove to be “catastrophic” in the long run, Ghosh said.
The author also said that “climate change is a geopolitical contest, a war against the poor.”