In tandem with nature

IN the mid-1980's on a visit to China, I met a mayor who would cycle to work, use the official car only to do office errands, then return home on her bicycle. There were no airs about this mayor. She was one of the Chinese tide of humanity that used the humble mode of transport despite her political status.

More recently I met Ms. Satu Hassi, Finland's Minister for Environment and Development Cooperation. She belongs to the Green League and has won the "Biker of the Year" award in 1999, the year she became the minister. She cycles to her Ministry every day. She goes to Parliament on her trusty cycle and even to the Prime Minister's office when she needs to consult him. Ms. Hassi's Helsinki home is six kilometres from her office. "I don't like being isolated from people by being in a big car," she says.

Ms. Hassi cycles not just to stay healthy and because she enjoys it, but because she wants to set an example and not just preach about keeping the environment clean. How amazingly different she is from our own ministers cocooned in the comfort of their cars and trailed by a fleet of escort vehicles.

Tall and slim, Ms. Hassi practises astanga yoga, learnt from a guru from Mysore, and sounds more like a Green Peace activist than a Minister from a developed country.

On a working visit to India last month-end, Ms. Hassi met the Environment and Forest Minister, the Minister for Non- Conventional Energy, the Minister for Power and the Minister for Social Justice and participated in a seminar on "Our shared responsibilities towards global ecological commons", organised by the Centre for Study of Development Studies, and another seminar on "Technologies for a better environment".

After her visit, greater cooperation has been worked out between India and Finland in environment technology - cleaning rivers of sewage, waste and effluents from factories, renewable energy, bioenergy and wind energy. However, Ms. Hassi feels renewable energy technology needs to be further developed to bring down the price of solar and wind energy.

Despite its low population density, just 15 persons per sq. km. as against Belgium's 350 per sq. km., Finland has its fair share of environment problems, says Ms. Hassi. Pollution of lakes was a major problem and these pollutants were from fertilisers from the fields and effluents from industry. To tackle the problem, alternative methods of agriculture were explored. Use of fertilisers was curtailed to meet just the required quantities and a 10-metre gap was made mandatory between agriculture fields and the waterline.

Another hot domestic issue of Finland's environment agenda is conservation of its biodiversity. Though three-fourths of the land area is forests, a special effort has to be made to preserve flora and fauna like mushrooms and insects. This could be because of the extensive commercial exploitation of the forests. Ms. Hassi, however, maintains there is not much difference between the commercially exploited forest and those regenerated by man.

Surrounded by lakes and waterways, climate change concerns most Finns. The per capita emission of green house gases has to be reduced. The emissions of an average Finn are now 11 tonnes of carbon dioxide annually which needs to be reduced to one-tenth if they were to live within their environmental spaces, she says.

There are just two representatives of the Green League in the five-party coalition Cabinet and it has not been easy pushing environmental causes. Whenever there is conflict on the economic versus environmental benefits of a project, "we are the only ones who opt for the environment", she says.

The Finnish political culture is now a participatory culture. The Green League has now made reforms in land use. The public has to be informed of all new land use plans that affect their lives.

Similar to the Sardar Sarovar controversy in India, in Finland there has been major disagreement for 50 years on construction of the Vuotos Dam in Upper Finland over 240 sq. km. for hydro power. All the Environment Ministers have opposed the dam since 1983 and the debate continues. In the 1980s, the Government decided to stop the dam. In 1991 the Government rescinded its earlier order and decided to go ahead with construction. Hassie's Ministry and some NGOs appealed against construction of the dam at the courts and won. Now the company that was to construct the dam has appealed to a higher court.

"We have our successes but we are not living in paradise," says the Minister.

However, on the use of compressed natural gas (CNG) for public transport, there has not been the kind of ugly controversy and politics as in India. Taxation laws in Finland were modified to encourage buses that ran on gas and as the number of such buses increased, the air quality improved. This is despite the sulphur content in diesel being one of the lowest in the world. However, the Government has not even discussed with the Finnish Minister, technology cooperation on this vital issue of a clean transport technology.

Ms. Hassi is indeed a remarkable person. She was the first woman to be employed as an engineer in a private company in Finland. But people could not accept her in that position. Male chauvinism made her quit and join the Tampere University of Technology as a researcher. But there too she felt frustrated because engineers were not taking about their environmental responsibilities. This has changed now.

Leaving University she took to writing - a book of poems, a novel, two non-fiction books and an insightful treatise on women's perspective on technology. "The gap between power and technology is a symptom of the wider gap between love and power," she says.

Ms. Hassi looks at technology in a holistic manner - its impact on people, human relations and the environment. For years, technology was used to enslave nature. This attitude of using technology to conquer instead of serving as a benevolent mother has led to technology being so harmful.

When coal and fossil technology was being developed no one asked about its impact on nature and people. If these questions were asked early enough, then technology would have developed differently. There would have been greater stress on renewable energy.

Quite obviously this is one minister who is in harmony with nature and technology.

USHA RAI

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