Fallout of Namibia’s drought is a red alert we cannot afford to ignore

Countries like Namibia are facing a prolonged drought due to shifting rainfall patterns forcing the poor into a situation of hunger. On the other hand, companies like Google need millions of gallons of water per day for cooling their data centres, keeping their water usage generally a secret and forcing water-strapped regions toward further scarcity.

When the news of the killing of wild animals by Namibia broke out, it did not attract the required attention even though it has crucial lessons for us. It demonstrates the ecological disaster created by the insatiable appetite of corporate capital and humans also point to the worst sufferers of that disaster — the poor and marginalized.

The United Nations Environment Programme’s Africa Office Director, Rose Mwebaza, allays any cause of concern if harvesting of wild animals is done using approved methods; and a few others also do not see this move negatively. The conflict between humans and nature has reached another stage, wherein humans will be killing the same animals that they had monetised through wildlife tourism to feed themselves, to ensure that those animals do not encroach on their land in search of food and water, and to also ensure that the limited resources of water etc., are not shared with them. This is a new moment in the human-nature relationship.

Wildlife tourism has been the backbone of the Namibian economy. It is estimated that travel and tourism contributed around 12% of GDP and 5.7% to total employment in 2022. In fact, in 2019, number of foreign visitors was 1.7 million when the total population was around 2.5 million. The national parks alone brought in ‘$3.2 million in income, not to mention $3.5 million in annual staff salaries’. The Federation of Namibian Tourism Associations has put the general tourism contribution of $1.6 billion to Namibia’s economy in 2023.

What John Bellamy Foster and others pointed out in The Ecological Rift is staring right at our faces. They said that, “At issue is not just the sustainability of human society, but the diversity of life on Earth.” Johan Rockström and a group of scientists proposed the idea of planetary boundaries in 2009. They identified nine interrelated boundaries “within the complex biophysical Earth system” and argued that a mere focus on climate change is not sufficient. It is important, they argued, that these boundaries are not transgressed; otherwise, human life and ecosystems will face critical questions of sustainability. By 2023, six boundaries have been transgressed, and others also face extreme pressure.

The authors of The Ecological Rift tell us that “we are at red alert status. If business as usual continues, the world is headed within the next few decades for major tipping points along with irreversible environmental degradation, threatening much of humanity. Biodiversity loss at current and projected rates could result in the loss of upward of a third of all living species this century.”

Nambia’s culling of wild animals is one of the tipping points. Who suffers the most? It is the poor who suffer due to the ecological crisis created by the wealthy. Reports have claimed that the richest 1% emit as much planet-heating pollution as two-thirds of humanity. The Stockholm Environment Institute published Climate Equality: A Planet for the 99% points out that “it would take about 1,500 years for someone in the bottom 99 percent to produce as much carbon as the richest billionaires do in a year.”

Capitalism started using natural resources in its project of wealth creation and surplus maximisation, and also started dumping its waste amidst nature. The principle of monetising everything has its logical culmination of ecological destruction. A 2023 report puts India in second position in terms of forest depletion globally between 2015-2020. India lost 384,000 hectares of forests between 1990 and 2000, and it went to 668,400 hectares between 2015 and 2020. As per reports India recorded 3,285 landslides between 2015 and 2022, and their frequency increased over this period. Researchers point out that fatal landslides have a human imprint and India has the highest instances of such human-induced tragedies owing to massive construction, mining, etc. Driving from Delhi to Shimla on a four-lane highway might be faster, smoother, and jazzier, but it has its own ecological cost and Himachal Pradesh appears to be facing it frequently. Reports have put the onus on mindless construction in the Himalayas.

Infrastructure development has been the buzzword and is seen as an important strategy to ensure that some economic activity within a crisis-ridden economy continues. It has brought about huge ecological destruction. For Delhi Metro Phase I at least 44,186 trees were felled, while only around 7,923 were transplanted since 1998. The scenario in Mumbai has been no different. The development of infrastructure for immediate and long-term capital accumulation by the rich has resulted in the destruction of ecology, which impacts everyone.

Whenever the rich have felt threatened by the impacts of nature's fury, they have tried to flee to safer grounds. There have been projections about where can one live when climate change reaches its unbearable limits. What they don’t tell is that not everyone can afford to go to those places, and many would perish much before.

There is already climate-driven gentrification taking place. We saw earlier during Covid-19 how during a threat to life the rich flee to what they consider as the safer place. Those who suffer due to the corporate capital-created ecological disaster are the poor.

Those who are facing hunger in Namibia are not the 2,300 millionaires in that country, or the three Namibians who have a wealth of $100 million and above. Reports have pointed to increasing inequality in Namibia. The population of millionaires has grown 32% between 2013-2023. Those who get affected immediately by the ecological crisis are the poor and those who cannot afford to delay the impact of that crisis on themselves.

It is not the billionaires and millionaires in India who get affected due to extreme rain, landslides, flash floods, or drought. It is the masses who bear the immediate brunt of this crisis. India may not be facing a crisis which would lead to the culling of its tigers, leopards, and elephants, but it is moving in a direction that would devastate the lives of people, endangering their very existence. The sinking of Joshimath needs to be taken as a warning as human greed pushes itself through the heart of ecologically sensitive Himalayas monetising the places of worship, and destroying its flora, fauna, and geological space.

Foster and Harry Magdoff show how “no-growth capitalism is an oxymoron” and “when growth ceases, the system is in a state of crisis”. This system “recognizes no limits to its own self-expansion”. This ever-expanding capitalism puts in peril the finite natural resources. In this process, it destroys not only the natural habitat of wildlife but also humans. Those are the consequences we are encountering today.

(Ravi Kumar is Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, South Asian University.)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.