The Importance of Environmental Sustainability in the Face of the Conflict

Episode #163: Jack Jenkins Hill, a PhD student at the University College London, joins the show to discuss the state of capitalism and the deteriorating environment in Myanmar. Hill has spent the last decade studying such issues as deforestation, mining, and natural resource governance, as well as how indigenous communities have been impacted in Myanmar.

Since the colonial era, Burma has had a sorry history of exploitation of its natural resources. The British engaged in massive logging, while in the last decade, deforestation has largely come in the guise of agribusiness, such as palm oil and rubber plantations. There are also smaller, illegal logging operations whose lumber is smuggled across the border. The widespread clear-cutting—both legal and illegal—has led mass displacement of communities.

Gold, silver, tin and jade mining operations are also rampant, and more recently rare earth metals have been mined, all with no regard for the environment. The toxic processes used poison the surrounding area, displacing many communities.

Greed and lawlessness in post-coup Myanmar exacerbates the problems now being faced by those in the country, but may even give rise to more far-reaching implications, since this destructive cycle in Myanmar impacts worldwide climate change.  For example, Myanmar is home to some of the largest contiguous rain forests in Southeast Asia, so their destruction would have a domino effect for both climate change, and also species extinctions.  

Hill describes his outlook on the future as bleak. “I don't know when a breaking point or a critical point will come… But unless something changes quickly, I'm sure we'll reach it, probably sooner than we expect.”