Māris kļaviņŠ, azamat azizov, JĀnis zaļoksnis environment, pollution, development: the case of uzbekistan

Figure 12.1. 
Variability 
of characteristic human 
develop ment  indicators 
over the last centuries

---

12. Sustainable Development
 281
Exponential growth is the driving force that is responsible for 
our economy approaching the physical limits of our planet. Rooted 
in human culture, exponential growth has become an inseparable 
part of the global system.
The concept of exponential growth, simple on the face of it, 
can produce surprising results if we look into what it means in our 
everyday life. It can be illustrated by a Persian legend about the 
wise courtier who gave his ruler a gift of wonderful chessboard. 
When asked about a reward, he asked for grains of rice the number 
of which would be doubled on every next square of the board. One 
grain on the first square, two grains on the second, and on the tenth 
square there should be already 512 grains, on the fifteenth – 16 384, 
while the twenty-first square required over a million grains of rice. 
Naturally, the ruler’s resources of rice were insufficient.
The number of human population and capital are the driving 
forces that ensure the growth of the industrialised world. Other 
parameters – food production, use of resources and pollution – also 
show a trend of exponential growth, although not because they 
themselves multiply but because of the impact of the human popu la-
tion and capital. Thus, food production and the use of resources and 
energy have been increasing not because of their structural capacity 
but because the exponential growth of human population demands 
ever more food, materials and energy. It is the growing number of 
population and capital that determine exponential growth. As they 
increase, they call forth demands for materials and energy which, in 
their turn, increase pollution emission. This is no arbitrary assump-
tion; it is a fact. Exponentially growing systems have a structural 
nature, and the mechanism that determines growth is known and 
comprehended. We have to bear in mind that human population 
and capital as well as the supporting flows of energy and materials 
have been increasing for centuries, with a few short-term lapses. 
Production capital includes equipment, hardware, machines and 
plants that are necessary to produce goods with the help of labour 
force, energy, raw materials, land, water, technologies, management 
and our planet’s natural ecosystems. Production capital creates an 
incessant flow of production.
Changes in the nature of capital can be characterised by expo-
nen tial growth, exponential decrease or dynamic balance. Just like 
the number of population depends on demographic changes in the 
process of industrialisation, so is economy dependant on the process 
of long-term changes. Production capital grows exponentially and 
faster than the number of population. Between 1970 and 2008, the 
world production volume has grown by almost 100%. Such a growth 
should have produced twice as many industrial goods per person if 
the number of population had remained constant. However, with the 

---

282 
ENVIRONMENT, POLLUTION, DEVELOPMENT:  THE CASE OF UZBEKISTAN
growing human population, the average amount of industrial goods 
per person has grown only by a third.
If the rate of capital growth exceeds that of population growth, 
according to the demographic transition theory, an increase in the 
material standard of living should slow down the rate of population 
growth. To a certain extent and in some places this is true. However, 
neither economic growth nor its demographic counteraction is 
sufficiently fast. In individual cases these factors even facilitate each 
other. That is why economic welfare dwindles while the number 
of population remains constant or is on the increase. In a way, this 
trend is determined by the type of distribution of goods.
Economic  stratification  of  the  world  society  is  particularly 
evident. The type of distribution of natural resources as well as 
human-produced material and non-material wealth has created both 
very well-to-do people and an extremely destitute part of society. 
According to the World Bank estimates, an average income of one-
fifth of the world’s population is less than 0.7 euros per day. 70% of 
these people are women.
The world’s twenty most developed countries, comprising ap-
proxi mately one-fifth of the world’s population, mostly are in North 
America  and  Western  Europe,  and  Japan,  Singapore,  Australia, 
New  Zealand,  the  United  Arab  Emirates  and  Israel  also  belong  to 
this group. Over three billion live in the poorest countries in Africa 
and Asia. The gap between these two worlds is growing. The annual 
income level of an average person in a world’s affluent country is 
over 100 times higher than that of an average resident of a low-level 
income country. The inequality gap is even more striking at the level 
of  individuals.  The  total  wealth  of  the  world’s  200  richest  people 
amounts to 0.7 trillion euros, which is more than possessed by the 
three billion of world’s poorest people together. 
The lifestyle of the well-off people has an essential impact on 
the  consumption  of  the  world’s  resources.  For  example,  the  USA 
with its 5% of the world’s population consumes about one-fourth of 
the world’s industrial goods and produces nearly half of industrial 
waste. An American citizen’s average daily consumption comprises 
450  kilograms  of  raw  materials,  including  18  kilograms  of  fossil 
fuels, 12 kilograms of agricultural produce, 10 kilograms of timber 
and  paper,  and  450 litres  of  water.  Annually,  Americans  dispose 
of 50 million tons of paper, 67 billion bottles, 18 billion pampers, 
2 billion razor blades and other resources.
The  economist  Jeffrey  Sachs,  Director  of  the  United  Nations 
Millennium Project, points out that eradication of extreme poverty 
by 2025 is feasible if the developed countries donated just 0.7% of 
their GNP towards aid to developing countries. These funds should 
be used on vaccinating children against infectious diseases, ensuring 
While all sectors of world 
human activity have 
witnessed huge develop‑
ment, social problems in 
the world become more 
vexing year after year:
 
Œ every year over two 
million children below 
the age of 5 die of easily 
preventable diseases;
 
Œ every day 6000 children 
die of diseases that are 
related to the shortage 
of clean drinking 
water or poor living 
conditions;
 
Œ about two billion 
people have no 
electricity, another two 
billion suffer from its 
shortage;
 
Œ since 1985, over seven 
million people in 
25 countries have died 
of AIDS;
 
Œ out of 1.2 billion 
people who live in 
extreme poverty, 
around 900 million 
reside in rural 
regions; their survival 
directly depends on 
biodiversity, level of 
water pollution and soil 
degradation.

---

12. Sustainable Development
 283
general accessibility to primary education, family planning services 
for those who need them, provision of drinking water and sanitation, 
food for the famine-stricken, and for strategic micro-loans to self-
employed people. This sum – 10 billion euros a year – is much bigger 
than the current donations; however, the question is about the 
priorities. At present, military expenditure exceeds 0.7 trillion euros 
per year, which amounts to the annual income of half of the world’s 
population. The price of an aircraft-carrier is tantamount to the sum 
that all the industrially developed countries donate to aid developing 
countries in ten years.