We are facing various environmental problems at present, as man’s way of life is radicalizing a situation of confrontation with environmental damage. Nowadays, such realities as global warming and the destruction of the ozone layer are expanding and crossing borders of districts and states. Consequently, environmental problems emerge as topics of major importance and do not only concern the policies of a single nation.

While the feeling of crisis mounts, it is also true that the international community is not able to find a compulsive and concrete plan to solve the problem. On this background one might say that, between developing countries in favor of industrialization and modernization and our advanced nations, there is no consensus about environmental damage and its solution.

This essay deals with following aspects: First, I want to explain the environmental damage that affects the whole world. Second, what kind of relationship advanced countries and developing countries should build up in the face of the expanding environmental damage. And finally, I solicit the role of the citizens as political actors in solving these problems and to prevent catastrophes.

Environmental damage continually proceeds on earth. By the mass consumption of fossil fuels like oil, coal, natural gas as well as the enormous deforestation greenhouse gases like carbone dioxide and freon increase and the temperature on earth ascents. These are outstanding examples for environmental damage which cross state borders. Furthermore, the destruction of the ozone layer which is also linked with global warming and the gases which are produced by man’s life-style cause a change in the atmosphere, producing an environmental damage of worldwide scale. Additionally, the change of life-style which is related to these changes of the atmosphere leads to the problem of decrease in biodiversity.

It is characteristic of this kind of worldwide increasing environmental damage to be interconnected and interdependent, so that if one part collapses, this damage will spread like a domino effect. Furthermore, it should not be forgotten that environmental damage is of great relevance to the system of man’s life. Therefore, if the environmental damage gets seriously worse it is inevitable that it will have an impact on the system of man’s life.

Currently, a phenomenon is occurring which is opposite to the Chinese government’s intention to seek for industrialization. The price of industrialization and modernization is the occurence of environmental damage in many places. Along with the feeling of crises which is given to neighbor-states like Japan and South Korea, these damages are the reasons for international criticism that China is confronted with.

In like manner, in the Philippines, the environmental damage in its rural areas produces serious problems.

We have visited the Philippines twice, last year [2005] and this year in March [2006]. Through a local NGO that is active in the province of Cebu, we visited a place of rural development in the district Lepanto in the town Alegria. At this place it was the case that in view of the relation between the city, which Manila stands for, and the countryside, environmental damage is built on a circle of poverty which results from the structure of society.

In the Philippines, there is a continuing migration of human resources between city and countryside. The reason for migrating from the countryside to the city is mostly the hope for employment and higher income. On the contrary, the migration of the population from city to countryside lasted from 1960 till 1970, was was caused by the government who took a policy to achieve the flow of population from the city to the rural parts of the country.

The district of Lepanto is located in the highlands, 800 m above sea level, and in this place the population grew rapidly from the effect of this policy. This shows another trend that is occurring. Because in the Philippines the mountains are property of the state, the people of the poorest social class seek for land, and assuming the living conditions and the lack of means to migrate, they settle in the highlands.

Caused by the increase of population in such rural areas and mountains, the decrease of forest on the countryside has become a problem. In fact we immediately noticed the [denuded] mountain sides in the district Lepanto, which were highly affected by the increase of population. Accompanying the decrease of forest cover, the lack of water drains the soil and depending on where the springs are located and water flows, the drain on the soil as well as the water quality would become a problem.

This kind of environmental damage has become an important issue as it has great impact on people’s life. Normally [more noticiable] is the case that roads are not maintained, and because of this, the quantity as well as the quality of the crop are not sufficient to sell on the market. Thus, the people who keep living in self-sufficiency get into a situation in which the subsistence of their lives is endangered.

But the deterioration of water quality in the highlands and the drain of soil intensifies the severe situation of the poor in the region. This poverty causes the flow of population to the cities and leads to the deterioration of security and environment in the cities. Because environmental damage is linked to poverty, it derives from the structure of the society on the Philippines.

The environmental damage we saw on the Philippines is a problem is also true in many developing countries. At present, there has started a debate on how developing countries that seek for industrialization and modernization shall take environment impact as a consideration for development. This debate about the way of development appeared in the political stage in 1980s and the phrase ‘sustainable development’ stands for it. With the progress of the developing countries, environmental problems like global warming become more serious. Because of that, the feeling of crisis among the advanced countries mounted.

But it is important to notice that the developing countries are not necessarily the reason for the worldwide increase in environmental damage. It is also the advanced countries that have caused the damage and thus have to take a major part of the responsibility. So how should developing countries and advanced countries discuss the problem of environmental damage? To investigate this, I want to start with considerations about the relationship between developing and advanced countries regarding the problems of environmental damage.

The Kyoto Protocol, which was adopted in 1997 during the international conference on climate change, is a differentiated agreement because it took the course to free the development countries from the emission of greenhouse gas. But because of Russia’s, India’s and China’s extremely rapid economical development, a debate started about the whereabouts of a Post-Kyoto Protocol.

In my opinion, one of the main problems of the Post-Kyoto protocol is the question whether a consensus can be reached about the responsibilities towards environment development which the advanced countries have to carry. Here it becomes also clear that there are differences concerning the consciousness of the problem of environmental damage between advanced countries and development countries. What can be found behind these different points of views are two logics which work together in close interdependence.

The first is that of the capitalist who seeks for maximal profit, called ‘capitalistic logic’. Because the capitalistic logic crosses state borders and expands, the ‘logic of state’ [the second], which prefers most the profit for the own state and determines international politics becomes essential. The political elite which is the moving force of the logic of state gets economical support from the capitalists who are the leading force of the capitalistic logic. Because of this, they develop a policy founded on the state-profit as well as in the capitalistic logic. That is why both logics followed by the political elite and the capitalists increase environmental damage and the social cleavage between rich and poor. In their defense for the increase in profit, they give birth to a composition which leads to the exploitation of citizens inside and outside the country.

At present, can someone really say that the main actor that is the leading force of the logic of state and the capitalist logic and determines international politics is America, and not Japan? One may ask if the origins of environmental damage and the differences in consensus about the responsibilities according to this damage lie in the overall picture of advanced countries like the United States and Japan [adversely affecting] the developing countries which become victims of the capitalistic logic and the logic of state.

Concerning the relationship between advanced countries and developing countries, I want to go on with more details. I will do this by dealing with the example of the Philippines which we, as students belonging to the Shitaba seminar, have visited during our study tours.

In 1980, the environmental contamination surrounding the copper-producing factory of PASAR in the Philippines was linked to the Japanese expanding pollution, and therefore it became a topic in Japan, too. The Shitaba seminar visited PASAR in 1998 for the purpose of a follow-up survey of this environmental contamination in the town of Isabel on the island Leyte.

According to PASAR, which started the initiative and invited us to Isabel, there occurred a great damage to their lives and health because of the coercive evacuation of the people and the loss of their fishing-based livelihood by the environmental damage. By investigating the course the problem of environmental damage has taken, through the invitation of this copper producing industry, the influence of the logic of the state and the capitalistic logic in the background of this problem becomes highly obvious.

From 1960 till 1980, it was the most urgent problem of the regime of Marcos to expand employment and establish industry in the regions through a way of industrialization by using methods of planned exports. In accordance with the introduction of foreign capital and the rights, interests and advantages linked to that we [Japan] were invited. The introduction of foreign capital had influence on the political interests of the Marcos regime. When accepting foreign investment, the problem that comes into one’s mind is that the attempt to set down better incentives compared to other competing countries results in lax environmental regulations.

The above-mentioned case of environmental damage expresses the relationship between advanced countries represented by Japan, and developing countries represented by the Philippines. Because Japanese ODA [official development assistance] is one part of international cooperation, Japan was partly involved in the problem of the copper-producing factory, PASAR. What the advanced countries call development or development assistance often increases the debt payments of the developing countries as well as the burden their citizens have to carry.

Furthermore, in March last year [2006], by visiting the town Biliran, we got into contact with another case which allowed us to think about the relationship between advanced and developing countries regarding their agricultural problems. Because in the Philippines the structures of land ownership are still existing, the income of tenant farmers is low and the number of people who get into a chronic situation of poverty is high. Because of this reason, parents increasingly could not give their children the opportunity for education, and the situation that diseases often remain untreated spreads.

In the background, among the factors that support this overall picture of poverty, the above-mentioned kinds of logic are also influential. The problem in the town Biliran is the high price of fertilizers and for that reason a circle of poverty exists in which the people make debts without being able to repay them, so that they cannot escape their poverty. Furthermore, depending on chemical fertilizers and agri-chemicals the soil becomes farmed out, another kind of environmental damage we saw there.

Martin Khor states in Susumu kankyouhakai, hirogaru kakusa that a multinational corporation of 20 companies corners 90% of the worldwide sales of agri-chemicals. Furthermore, the development aid policy of the advanced countries has been built on the logic of state and depending on the basic conditions development countries have to fulfill to get aid, the problem of debts becomes more serious and the gap between rich and poor widens. As a result, Khor is of the opinion that it is unavoidable that the poor communities cut down forests to get ressources.

If one investigates the problems one region has in this context, the real circumstances of the capitalistic logic, which is led by multinational corporations, and the logic of state which works by agreeing with the capitalistic logic, become visible. Assuming this kind of relation between these two logics and in view of the expanding environmental damage, the question arises what we as citizens can do to prevent environmental incidences and solve the problem of environmental damage.

In the above-mentioned international conference on climate change and the political process resulting in the conclusion of the Kyoto protocol, one influential factor that in fact guided to the conclusion of the treaty was the Transnational Civil Society (TCS). This term describes the network of people crossing state borders. I think that this successful example of the TCS is the answer to the question of what we as citizens can do.

The TCS which worked for the conclusion of the Kyoto protocol is a network of NGOs dealing basically with a lot of different topics as environment, human rights, medical treatment and education. These NGOs crossed state borders and assembled in pursuit of the common goal to achieve a treaty for stopping global warming. Then they included the people into the political decision making process and observed the negotiations at the government level. Advanced countries as well as developing countries transcended the differences between their points of views, participated in policy-making and mobilized the people.

The actions of the NGOs which were based on such networking strategy led to the successful conclusion of this multilateral treaty. But the Kyoto protocol is also a product of compromise and the country with the highest emission rate, the United States, remains separated from the treaty. Therefore the justice of this treaty is still doubtful.

The environmental problem is continually developing. But the place where a solution can be demanded and restraints can be taken is only the closed arena of decision-making process of intergovernmental diplomacy. Although the cooperation of the TCS has as its basis the conclusion of the Kyoto protocol, that does not mean that there is a setting where the people can participate in the political decision-making processes in such a way and where they can exercise influence on the processes and results of diplomacy. In fact, the handling of the people on the topic of environmental damage leads to the collision of many problems.

Ralph Nader [the consumer advocate] states that there are five roles of a citizen. He is a voter, a producer, a taxpayer, a laborer, a consumer, and indirectly or directly an investor. By understanding the meaning of these roles and performing them with efficiency, the citizen can participate in the political process and take actions to find a solution to such kind of [environmental] problems. Also in the case of TCS, there were thousands of people who became active towards the problem and led to the settlement of the Kyoto protocol. As the citizen is an actor on the levels of state, economy and the international system, he is able to exercise influence directly or indirectly [in putting this into effect].

But it is no exaggeration to say that the cooperation of the TCS was led by strong NGOs in America and Europe, which paid great attention to the problem. In Japan and South Korea, the power of citizens in the network of relationships of all actors is very weak, and the cases in which they could gain influence are few. Seeking for state border crossing cooperation among the TCS, there are demands to build up the network of citizens in East Asia to enable the citizens to play a decisive role in diplomacy. If the citizens act out their five roles together, first in Japan, followed by South Korea and China, then they can be raise up and become a great bulwark against the expanding environmental damage.

The Shitaba seminar since 1992 has aimed to raise up citizens, so-called global citizens, who are able to solve problems which affect their lives, in practice by social involvement. The development of the activities of the Shitaba seminar are orientated towards this aim. To learn by gaining experiences on the spot, workshops to become familiar with theoretical backgrounds, and study tour activities are the three pillars the Shitaba seminar are based on. The students themselves go directly to different places on the Philippines, South Korea, Germany and Japan to work on the solution of urgent problems by maintaining dialogue with society.

As I have mentioned before, for the solution of the problems of the environment, citizens of high quality are absolutely necessary. Going to the places of interest by oneself, experiencing the real circumstances of the problem, seeking for a solution build up on one’s own experience and taking it into practice, and sending a message to society - in my opinion these are the things which become a force to help raise up real global citizens.

(NOTE: This essay, originally written in Japanese, was translated to English by Miss Maren Mordau, an exchange student at the Tokyo International University.)

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