The consumption explosion

Photo: Prasad

Abstract: Plotting the rich-poor divide on a map of environmental responsibility. Climate change poses the challenge of finding just and politically acceptable ways of defusing the consumption bomb. Environmentalists in India and around the world were quick to see the downsides of the Tata Nano that would lock many more millions into private road transport for the rest of their lives.

The author is a Senior Lecturer in Environment in the Geography Department at the UK’s Open University. Courtesy: The British Council, New Delhi.