[BRIEF NOTE] On Global Equity

[rfmcdonald]

I rather like Brian Stableford and David Langford's The Third Millennium: A History of the World AD 2000-3000. The book is a bit dated in certain areas--the geopolitics and the far-future high tech come most quickly to mind--but it's still a fascinating read. The future of Stableford and Langford is one that comes to be concerned, after a near-catastrophic 21st century, with the ethics of life in a global community. In a world that is functionally unified by modern technology but divided by political frontiers, what is owed by the rich to the poor? When economic growth anywhere could exacerbate environmental failures, is it acceptable to strive to develop the Third World? The 21st century scientist Coral Shutler, Nobel laureate and the developer of fusion power, gave an interesting reply to that school of thought.

"You remember the old days, when you were rich and no one else counted? You spent and spent and broke your toys like spoilt children and perhaps you didn't know any better. You were loveable but you were wrong. Then you felt the cold a little, and learnt new words like conservation . . . while down the road the not-so-rich people tried to have the fun you had. 'Oh no,' you said. 'We cut down our trees, yes, but you must not. We had our fun with nuclear fireworks, yes, but you must not.' Perhaps you were right, but it wasn't a loveable wayt to be right. Now the cold bites deeper, and you sit cosy in furs while the not-so-rich are shivering. 'Light fires for the world,' they say. You smile in your rich furs, and tell them: Thrift is a virtue, waste not want not, we have learnt to do without and so should you.' And now I do not think you are either loveable or right" (42).

In our 21st century, when the industrialization of Asia is certain to increase the global consumption of raw materials and the production of wastes of all kinds regardless of what the First World does, Shutler's words merit attention. I don't think that the thesis that, because I'm a native of Prince Edward Island I deserve to enjoy a higher standard of living than my Punjabi counterpart, is at all morally supportable. We're in this together.