Energy Descent at the national level: Bhutan
Bhutan is going organic, nationally!
This Rio +20 paper written by the Prime Minister of Bhutan - and it really seems to have been written by him rather than by a bunch of speech writers - is remarkable in many ways. It applauds the work done by small civil society groups, it repeatedly emphasises National Happiness, and it gives some quick insights into life in Bhutan. And what takes my breath away is what can happen when all the apparatus of a state works towards an ecologically sound set of goals.
Read the entire paper (it's not long). It shifted my sense of "what's possible" quite significantly. Kudos to the Bhutanese government for taking these bold steps.
It's worth me pointing out that there are a couple of areas that concerned me, and I don't know if they're a problem or not:
- “It takes 500 years for a single inch of topsoil to form” isn’t right at all - check out the first 5 minutes of this Keylining, Permaculture and Greening the Desert video, and/or google "keylining".
- He doesn’t mention land ownership issues – perhaps not a problem over there
- He doesn’t mention the impact of climate change on agriculture and whether the degree of adaptability of organic agriculture to changing conditions makes it more or less attractive than non-organic.
- He doesn’t mention energy much, which makes me wonder if they’ve fully appreciated EROEI (even though their actions do address it).
Imagine if the UK, or Italy or Australia took this approach...
Incidentally, he refers to a meeting in the US in April 2012 with lots of heads of state. Transition Network had the honour of receiving a highly personalised invitation to that meeting (someone from Transition US attended for us), and it's clear that Bhutan really did it's homework when looking for groups that are working in the same direction as them. Heartwarming!
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To be fair, it would be
23 June 2012 - 12:14pm — Shaun ChamberlinTo be fair, it would be technically true to say that it *can* take 500 years for an inch of topsoil to form.
Charles Kellogg, 1930s was soil survey chief for the U.S. Bureau of Chemistry and Soils, probably said it best:
Some people speculate about how much time is required “to build an inch of soil material.” The answer could well be, “somewhere between 10 minutes and 10 million years.”
Certainly keylining looks one of the most promising means for getting towards the lower end of that range!
I am of Asian ancestry and
15 August 2012 - 1:26pm — Alex LohI am of Asian ancestry and Bhutan is an "interesting" country in the context of the "Chinese" saying (which is actually British!) - "May you live in interesting times".
To be fair the Bhutanese do do a lot of the "right things" nowadays but in the context of being a much smaller (though strategically important) nation than their surroundings, for instance they can supply India with enough electricity to keep the Indian metropolitan light railways going during a power cut!
However, Bhutan does not have the same level of freedom and democracy of a Western nation and that is a big reason why they can "get things done".its not as bad as it might seem especially if you know about "Asian values" but the flipside of this is any form of dissent can be dealt with harshly. They have had some most unpleasant civil wars in the past and stability is only achieved folowing a decisive victory over the enemy.
In many Asian communities land ownership issues aren't a problem simply because the biggest family with the most resources fights for and takes the land and it has always been that way. The Internet helped me research at least the Chinese side of my ancestry (Hokkien, from Malaya) and it was steeped in the blood of thousands.
Warring tribes fought hard, and didn't fight to lose, and ruthlessly eliminated their enemies. That is why "less informed" Western folk say "Chinese look all the same", its not 100% accurate but about 200 tribes were whittled down to about 5 by everything from genocide to forced marriages.
For the winners, this worked. And yes, us Orientals can even "make love and win war at the same time!" - todays children are tomorrows workers and soldiers (hence Singapore's recent message to young couples to produce more children) and in high tech business the rôles can even blur (such as Chinese telecoms engineers physically fighting each other in recent years to gain control of Telephone Exchanges and a lucrative contract).
Once you've cut through the postive spin Bhutan comes across more like a "hippy friendly" version of Singapore. This isn't even to say what goes on in modern SG especially today is all bad, but often countries like SG and MY tend to be viewed more critically amongst "Western" environmental and progressive campaign groups than places like Bhutan, or other Asian nations, even though they often all share a common set of values.
Bhutan actually isnt' that dissimilar to Singapore in many respects, especially strategic and military importance - and like an Oriental martial arts expert, what may seem like small size belies strength, which gives power.
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