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“The defining challenge of the twenty first century will be to face the reality that humanity shares a common fate on a crowded planet. That common fate will require new forms of global cooperation…” Thus states Jeffrey Sachs the theme of the book at the outset. In recent years the need for global cooperation found expression through a series of “summits”. There was the Rio Earth Summit of 1992 that made the nations and peoples of the world conscious of the rapid and alarming changes in global climate and the need to protect and preserve biological diversity. Soon after, the International Conference on Population and Development was held in Cairo in 1994. And then, at the meeting of the General Assembly of the United Nations in 2000, the leaders of the world adopted a Millennium Declaration and set the Millennium Development Goals to improve the conditions of the poorest of the poor everywhere by 2015.

The deliberations of this period crystallised the millennium objectives as environmental sustainability, population stabilisation, and ending extreme poverty. What Jeffrey Sachs does in this book is to spell out these objectives, indicate their implications and suggest how they may be achieved. The analysis is well documented and provides a rare synthesis as well as some strong warnings.

Each one of the problems is discussed in historical perspective. For the first 18 centuries of the present era, the growth of population was extremely slow and the use of resources too was limited. From one A.D. to about the mid-19th century, population increased only four-fold, from an estimated 230 million to one billion reached in 1830. The Earth’s resources proved to be adequate to cater to the limited needs of the population with natural calamities tending to wipe out large numbers from time to time. But the Industrial Revolution broke this pattern. The rapid change of technology led to an aggressive increase in the use of resources and new medical facilities drastically reduced the death rate. Hence in the 175 years from 1830 to 2005, the global population increased more than six-fold, reaching 6.5 billion in 2005.

Strange as it may appear, this period of rapid growth of population, especially the second half of the past century, also witnessed unprecedented increase in the material conditions of living, commonly referred to as “economic growth.” Measured in terms of constant U.S. dollars, world income increased from around $ 5000 billion at the middle of the 20th century to a little below $ 40,000 billion at its end. Per capita income too increased from some $ 2000 to $ 6000 during the same period.

However, this increase in number of people and their productivity resulted in two adverse consequences. The first has been the threatening impact on the ecosystem. Human exploitation of nature has driven down other species, some to extinction. Worse still, it is now being recognised that the future (and the not very distant future either) of human life itself on planet Earth is being threatened. The hottest years in recorded history have continuously been since 1995 and global warming is steadily increasing. In many parts of the world drinking water has become extremely scarce. Droughts and floods have become frequent causing much damage. Ocean levels are rising and habitats are being destroyed. Atmospheric carbon dioxide has reached dangerous levels.

The second aspect of the roaring growth is that it has been very unequally distributed. While some parts of the world, and some groups of people everywhere, have been growing in material prosperity, about a sixth of the world’s population, spread in most parts of Africa and in parts of Asia are in the grip of poverty with all the infirmity and indignity that it implies.

How are these problems to be tackled? “Markets alone cannot solve these problems,” says Sachs and emphasises that public policy at the national levels and cooperation among nations will have to play crucial roles in finding solutions. Of the three the population problem is the least worrisome. Public policy and global thinking now strongly favour regulated population growth and many countries of the world, including China and India, have shown that this is possible. More important, it is being demonstrated (look at examples of Kerala and Tamil Nadu) that couples themselves recognise the need for and the possibilities of limiting the number of children.

On the ecosystem too, says Sachs, the “Earth has the energy, land, biodiversity, and the water resources needed to feed humanity and support long term economic prosperity for all,” and technology is available to achieve this without destroying other species and damaging the delicate balances of the system. Hence, the issue is whether nations have the determination and the sense of cooperation to deal with a problem that is trans-national in nature.

And, surely, mass poverty coexisting with growing plenty is not caused by paucity of resources. It is a manifestation of the manner in which resources are owned and controlled by nations and sections of the population within nations.

Sachs tends to underplay this crucial aspect and concentrate on the financial implications of solving the three-fold problems identified. Going through a detailed exercise he arrives at the conclusion that a modest two to three per cent of the annual income of the rich countries is all that it will take to address the challenges of environment, population and poverty. For good measure he reminds the people of his country, the U.S., that the commitment is only “around half of our military spending.” That is a factual statement. But there is another factual statement to match it. That country has not yet reached the target of setting aside 0.7 per cent of its annual income as aid to developing countries, a commitment made a few decades ago.

Yes, we can do it. But will we? That is the question.

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