I have to admit I sniggered a bit when I heard that this was an item in India’s recent budget. Having struggled for years to understand environmental policies in India, this topped it all by glueing together religion and a supposedly secular state into a something slightly monstrous, like the rubble of a mosque. But, then  I recalled something I had read a few years ago, written by my old supervisor Mark Hobart:

“Even Etats cannot defy Tekram, the Omniscient and Omnipotent, the Creator-Destroyer, who possesses the most powerful known magic, Nosaer. The initiates of the sect of Tekram are among the wealthiest people in Taerg Niatirb and, with the irrationality of primitive races, they treat such riches as evidence of the God’s bounty to his devoted and willing subjects, who in thanks brag of their riches. The power of the sect of Tekram cannot be exaggerated. To it is attributed the success of the crops, trading ventures, even the survival of their rudimentary, dilapidated industries. Fame and fortune accrue to the many seers and diviners who prey upon the simple ignorance of their peers and claim to be able to foretell the Will of Tekram.”

He is engaging in a reverse Anthropology of my and his home country, the conceit is revealed when you reverse the letters of the words in italics. It seems that the ruling gentle-folk of the British Isles are no less superstitious than those India is blessed with, and this raises the slightly chilling prospect that something akin to religious fundamentalism frames our current global predicament. You see, what made me snigger was my internal commentary “well, that’s a coherent environmental policy for you.” Then it dawned on me, in one way or another, appeasing the modern gods of Tekram and Etats (well, Tekram mostly) is what environmental policy is about in nearly every country on earth.

I mean if you look at one of the big environmental issues, like climate change, and look at the solutions, what do they reflect? The will of the people, the need to preserve the biosphere, or perhaps a need to keep certain ruling rituals being carried out, to enact an odd form of human sacrifice to these capricious gods.  If that sounds totally crazy, where does the madness lie?

Take carbon trading. So, if I give someone in a developing country money, preferably someone who pollutes a lot, and they accept my money on the basis that they will pollute less, then I can sell this promise to someone in a rich country so that they can pollute a bit more. This will create a global market in carbon and this will somehow solve the problem.

This is a pretty crude butchering of the debate, but here is the catch. Nobody has shown how carbon markets will lead to the development of renewable energy sources, how it will lead to changing all our infrastructure to let us have a low-carbon economy. There is just a vague sense that if the price of carbon is right, then tekram, having delivered these prices from the heavenly realm of equilibrium, will take care of the rest, through the force of his invisible hand. One wonders if Indra isn’t a better bet.