Economics vs Emotions

It was Humour Noir at its best, when MoEFFCC wished us ‘Happy World Elephant Day’ and urged us to live in harmony with elephants! People went bonkers on Twitter, calling them ‘elephant murderer’, ‘double faced liar’, and I sent in some juicy ones as well. Hot-headed reactions to an empty-headed post.

Dehing Patkai in Assam, is not only home to the Asian Elephant but also a number of endangered species, and a high density of wildcats. When coal mining is allowed in such a rich biodiversity zone, tempers are bound to fly. Which is of zero help. Instead of flying off the [social media] handle, sitting back to crunch some numbers, would be so much more helpful and is obviously being done by the people who are pushing for it to become a National Park. The profits from coal, along with all incidental economic value created vs the damage to one of the oldest bio-reserves in the world. The viability of coal, in a world where even blast furnaces are looking at 20% more efficient energy usage, not to mention the decreasing cost and increasing demand, of renewables. The opportunities in alternate industries, for those employed in Coal India Limited. Loss of tourism, increase in health bills – the list is endless and requires more than a linkedIn post.

So when the youth that I work with, many of them in my class, get ready to jump aboard the Rainbow Warrior, I humbly appeal to them to go back to their economics and statistics books instead. And throw graphs and figures at policy makers and their future employers, rather than impassioned moral pleas. Because, everyone, like the social media person in MoEFCC, are just doing their jobs really.

#worldelephantday #ecosystemvaluation