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The real environmental crisis why poverty not affluence is
the environment s number one enemy 1st Edition Jack M.
Hollander Digital Instant Download
Author(s): Jack M. Hollander
ISBN(s): 9781417510641, 1417510641
Edition: 1
File Details: PDF, 6.17 MB
Year: 2003
Language: english
THE REAL ENVIRONMENTAL CRISIS
JACK M. HOLLANDER

THE REAL
ENVIRONMENTAL
CRISIS
Why Poverty,
Not Affluence,
Is the Environment’s
Number One Enemy

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS

Berkeley Los Angeles London
University of California Press
Berkeley and Los Angeles, California

University of California Press, Ltd.

London, England

© 2003 by the Regents of the University of California

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hollander, Jack M.
The real environmental crisis : why poverty, not affluence, is the
environment’s number one enemy / Jack M. Hollander
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-520-23788-9
1. Poverty. 2. Sustainable development. 3. Environmental degrada-
tion—Economic aspects. 4. Environmental policy—Economic aspects.
I. Title.
hc79.e5 h648 2003
333.7—dc21 2002027171

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992(R 1997) (Permanence of Paper).∞
To Sharon, who inspires me, and so many others,

with the beauty of her music,

her intellect, and her spirit.

CONTENTS

List of Illustrations ix
Preface xi
Introduction: A Crisis of Pessimism 1

11. A WORLD APART 19

12. SIX BILLION AND COUNTING 28
13. CAN THE EARTH FEED EVERYONE? 38
14. FISH TALES 55
15. IS THE EARTH WARMING? 66
16. WATER, WATER EVERYWHERE 90
17. THE AIR WE BREATHE 106
18. FOSSIL FUELS–CULPRIT OR GENIE? 124
19. SOLAR POWER TO THE PEOPLE 142
10. NUKES TO THE RESCUE? 156
11. WHEELS 165
12. DON’T HARM THE PATIENT 179
13. CHOICES 192

Notes 203
Index 229
About the Author 237
ILLUSTRATIONS

11. Cartoon from That’s Life by Mike Twohy xiii

12. Number of undernourished people in selected countries, as
percent of total population 20
13. United Nations Global Population Projections (1940–2060) 32
14. Relationship between Fertility Rates and Gross National
Product, for Selected Countries (1996) 33
15. Historical Relationship between Fertility and Per-Capita
Income in Sweden (1800–2000) 35
16. Historical Trends of Infant Mortality and Fertility in Sweden
(1750–1955) 36
17. Increases in Major Crop Yields in Developing Countries 42
18. Status of the World’s Major Fish Stocks (1990s) 57
19. How the Greenhouse Effect Works 69
10. Global Atmospheric CO2 Concentration (1965–1996) 71
11. Historical Global Temperature Trends over the Last Eight
Hundred Thousand Years 72
12. Global surface air temperatures (1880–2000) 73
13. Historical Trend of U.S. Fossil-Fuel Use (1850–2000) 74
14. Per-Capita Annual Freshwater Availability, Selected Countries 93
15. Trend in Total U.S. Water Use (1900–1995) 99
16. Trend in Per-Capita U.S. Water Use (1940–1997) 100
17. Trends in U.S. Air-Pollutant Emissions (1900–1995) 112

ix
x | ILLUSTRATIONS

18. Improvements in Urban Air Quality (1988–1997) 113

19. Dynamics of U.S. Wood, Coal, and Oil Use (1700 to
the Present) 133
20. Average Crude-Oil Prices (1948–1998) 136
21. Cumulative World Oil Use and Trends of Oil Reserves
and Resources 137
PREFACE

The draft of this book was completed barely a month before the tragic
events of September 11, 2001, thrust an entirely new set of problems and
priorities onto the world stage. Although little has changed in the issues
that motivated me to write the book—the impacts of poverty and affluence
on the environment and the public’s misunderstandings about resource and
environmental issues—people’s perceptions of these issues shifted dra-
matically, perhaps irreversibly, on September 11. Suddenly we in the afflu-
ent countries felt less insulated from the worldwide tragedy of poverty,
and we now understand more clearly that poverty is a root cause, though
certainly not the only cause, of the hopelessness and humiliation that
beget acts of violence against fellow humans. This book makes the case
that poverty is also linked to violence against the environment and that a
global transition from poverty to affluence is essential to bringing about
an environmentally sustainable world.
Not all environmentalists agree with this position. Some believe that the
opposite is true, that the transition from poverty to affluence spells doom
for the environment. Indeed, a huge gulf in worldview separates environ-
mentalists, myself included, who are optimistic about the future of the
environment from others who see only a bleak environmental future for
our earth. For decades the public has been exposed mostly to the pessimistic
view, a view fueled by a constant stream of bad news and doomsday pre-
dictions about resources and the environment emanating from individuals,
environmental groups, and the media. No doubt, a certain level of con-
sciousness raising by scientists and environmental groups is essential to
develop and maintain people’s sensitivity to environmental problems. But
there is a big difference between advising caution on a slippery road and

xi
xii | PREFACE

crying “fire” in a crowded theater. We’ve had too much of the latter, in the
name of environmentalism.
Ever since the earliest days of the environmental movement, the envi-
ronmental community has been deeply polarized. On one hand, many in
the science and technology research community—physicists, chemists, biol-
ogists, economists, engineers, and others—enthusiastically joined new inter-
disciplinary groupings to study environmental problems. They were an
optimistic lot and carried out the work with a strong sense of purpose and
a belief that environmental problems can be solved. Some quite important
new ideas for mitigation of air and water pollution, efficient use of energy,
renewable energy supply sources, and technologies for clean burning of
fossil fuels have been generated by these research efforts in many univer-
sities and laboratories worldwide. They contributed, and continue to con-
tribute, significantly to a growing body of environmental knowledge and
to an informed basis for government policy.
But the social and technological optimism that characterized this seg-
ment of the environmental movement was challenged by a very different
kind of environmentalism, one whose philosophy embraced a strong anti-
technology perspective and a distinctly pessimistic view of the future.
Environmental radicalism helped catalyze the Green political parties in
Europe and is now becoming a significant political force in the United
States. This movement opposed nuclear electricity generation early on and,
more recently, the use of traditional fossil fuels. Environmental extremism
has permeated many of the world’s mainline conservation organizations.
The doomsday rhetoric of the environmental extreme has been willingly
amplified by the media, well aware of the public’s almost insatiable appetite
for bad news.
Where there are strong differences in viewpoints among experts—cer-
tainly the case in environmental matters—which experts can one believe?
Even among the purest of scientists there are no pure viewpoints, uncol-
ored by ambitions, associations, political pressures, social pressures, finan-
cial pressures. So one finds a wide spectrum of environmental viewpoints
ranging from the doomsday pessimists to the Pollyannish optimists. Most
environmental professionals do not subscribe to either extreme but hold
highly nuanced and contingent views of these complex subjects. Yet
among the nonexpert public the dominant impression is clearly pes-
simistic, as the result mostly of media exaggeration. This book was written
for that nonexpert public, to provide an antidote to the ubiquitous envi-
ronmental exaggeration and to argue that extreme pessimism about the
 PREFACE | xiii

Figure 1. Cartoon from That’s Life, by Mike Twohy.

environment is not justified by science, by economics, by demographics, or

by history.
Psychologists tell us that nonexperts, in pondering which experts to
believe, tend to regard the credibility of the messenger to be as important
as the message itself, perhaps even more important. Whatever credibility I
can claim in writing of these issues comes from three decades of involve-
ment in environmental science and policy, mostly in academic settings.
These varied experiences have given me the opportunity to participate in
and to observe countless discussions and reviews of environment and
resource issues, with little encumbrance by institutional or corporate alle-
giances. They also led to my concern about the increasing influence of
environmental pessimism, and to my decision to attempt the presentation
of a more balanced and optimistic picture in this book.
Although I bear sole responsibility for the content of this book, includ-
ing whatever errors I may have committed, many colleagues and friends
have helped me by reading and offering comments on the whole or parts
xiv | PREFACE

of the manuscript. My thanks go to Bruce Ames, Harvey Brooks, Duncan

Brown, Sydney Cameron, Joel Darmstadter, Freeman Dyson, Allan Hol-
lander, Michael Lederer, Richard Lindzen, Sharon Mann, Richard Muller,
Tihomir Novakov, John Rasmussen, Bertram Raven, Fred Singer, and Marci
Li Wong. I owe a special debt to my editor at the University of California
Press, Doris Kretschmer, for her wise guidance throughout the preparation
of the manuscript. And I thank Mike Twohy for permission to reproduce
his cartoon, which so well captures one of the book’s main themes.
INTRODUCTION: A Crisis of Pessimism

Can you remember a day when you opened your morning newspaper
without finding a dramatic and disturbing story about some environmen-
tal crisis that’s either here already or lurks just around the corner? That
would be a rare day. On one day the story may be about global warming;
on the next it may be about overpopulation or air pollution or resource
depletion or species extinction or sea-level rise or nuclear waste or toxic
substances in our food and water. Especially jarring is the implication
in most of these stories that you and I are the enemy—that our affluent
lifestyles are chiefly responsible for upsetting nature’s balance; polluting
our cities, skies, and oceans; and squandering the natural resources that
sustain us. Unless we change our thoughtless and wasteful ways, we are
reminded, the earth will become a very inhospitable place for ourselves
and our progeny.
Such media reportage reflects the pervasive pessimism about the future
that has become the hallmark of today’s environmental orthodoxy. Its
central theme is that the affluent society, by its very nature, is the pol-
luting society—the richer we become, the more we consume the earth’s
scarce resources, the more we overcrowd the planet, the more we pollute
the earth’s precious land, air, and water. The clear implication of this view-
point is that the earth was a better place before humans were around to
despoil it.
Some people, even some environmental scientists, genuinely subscribe
to this gloomy picture of the earth’s future. I do not hold that they are
necessarily uninformed, or naive, or unprofessional, or captive to special
interests. But they are indeed pessimistic. I am more optimistic about the
earth’s environmental future, and I believe there is plenty of evidence to
1
2 | INTRODUCTION

support an optimistic, though not cornucopian, view of the environmental

future. This book presents such an optimistic perspective.
In my judgment, people are not the enemy of the environment. Nor is
affluence the enemy. Affluence does not inevitably foster environmental
degradation. Rather, affluence fosters environmentalism. As people become
more affluent, most become increasingly sensitive to the health and beauty
of their environment. And gaining affluence helps provide the economic
means to protect and enhance the environment. Of course, affluence alone
does not guarantee a better environment. A sense of social responsibility is
also required. Political will is also required. But affluence is a key ingredi-
ent for ensuring a livable and sustainable environment for the future.1
The real enemy of the environment is poverty—the tragedy of bil-
lions of the world’s inhabitants who face hunger, disease, and ignorance
each day of their lives. Poverty is the environmental villain; poor people
are its victims. Impoverished people often do plunder their resources, pol-
lute their environment, and overcrowd their habitats. They do these things
not out of willful neglect but only out of the need to survive. They are
well aware of the environmental amenities that affluent people enjoy, but
they also know that for them the journey to a better environment will be
long and that their immediate goal must be to escape from the clutches of
poverty. They cannot navigate this long journey without assistance—
assistance from generous institutions, nations, and individuals and from
sincere and effective policies of their own governments.
For the affluent nations to assist people in the developing world is
socially responsible and morally right. But from an environmental per-
spective the issue is more than ethical. It is pragmatic as well, since the
environmental self-interests of the affluent would be well served by the
eradication of poverty. This idea disturbs those who fear that people emerg-
ing from poverty will inevitably become “wasteful” consumers like our-
selves and will only exacerbate the globe’s environmental damage as they
pursue the trappings of the good life. The fear is understandable, but the
conclusion is wrong. Without doubt, people tasting affluence will embrace
consumerism and become proud owners of property, vehicles, comput-
ers, cell phones, and the like. But they will also pursue education, good
health, and leisure for themselves and their families. And they will become
environmentalists.
Environmentalists are made, not born. In the industrial countries envi-
ronmentalism arose as a reaction to the negative impacts of early industri-
alization and economic growth. On the way from subsistence to affluence,
people developed a greater sense of social responsibility and had more time
 INTRODUCTION | 3

and energy to reflect about environmental quality. They had experienced

environmental deterioration firsthand, and they demanded improvement.
One of the great success stories of the recent half-century is, in fact, the
remarkable progress the industrial societies have made, during a period
of robust economic growth, in reversing the negative environmental
impacts of industrialization. In the United States the air is cleaner and the
drinking water purer than at any time in five decades; the food supply is
more abundant and safer than ever before; the forested area is the high-
est in three hundred years; most rivers and lakes are clean again; and,
largely because of technological innovation and the information revolu-
tion, industry, buildings, and transportation systems are more energy- and
resource-efficient than at any time in the past. This is not to say that
the resource/environment situation in the United States is near perfect or
even totally satisfactory—of course it is not. Much more needs to be done.
But undeniably, the improvements have been remarkable. They have come
about in a variety of ways—through government regulation, through tax-
ation, through financial incentives, through community actions. Most
important, these environmental improvements cannot be credited solely
to government, environmental organizations, or lobbyists, though each
has played an important role. Rather, they have come about because the
majority of citizens in this and every other democratic affluent society
demands a clean and livable environment. Does this imply that the afflu-
ent have achieved an improved environment in their own lands by export-
ing their pollution to the lands of the poor? That has rarely been the case.
(See the discussion of exporting pollution in Chapter 7.)
As the industrial societies continue to make steady progress in reclaim-
ing their environment, they are now laying the foundation for a postin-
dustrial future that is globally sustainable. Some elements of this foundation
already exist everywhere—people’s technological ingenuity, creativity in
finding solutions to emerging problems, political will to get the job done.
Other elements of this foundation do not yet exist or are weak. The central
argument of this book is that the essential prerequisites for a sustainable
environmental future are a global transition from poverty to affluence,
coupled with a transition to freedom and democracy. Although evidence
in support of this argument could be organized in a variety of ways, I have
chosen to do so in the context of specific resource and environmental
issues of major importance. It hardly needs saying that any argument
about the future is cloaked in uncertainty, and my arguments in this book
are no exception. Yet they will have served a useful purpose if they add to
public understanding of the poverty–environment connection, as well as
4 | INTRODUCTION

contributing to the lively and purposeful debate among environmentalists

about the issues covered in the book.
My optimism about the environmental future is at odds with the envi-
ronmental orthodoxy as practiced by most environmental organizations
and the media, and especially reflected in the increasing stridency of their
doomsday predictions of the environmental future. There is a double irony
here. First, so bleak an outlook has arisen during the very period in which
the affluent societies have been making their greatest environmental and
economic gains; and second, the citizenry in the affluent countries over-
whelmingly support a clean environment and are becoming increasingly
alienated by the hyperbolic excesses committed in the name of environ-
mentalism. Although the root causes of today’s environmental pessimism
are complex and intertwined with other social issues, some of the major
contributing factors, as well as the paradoxes, are illuminated by a glimpse
at the environmental history of the United States.

THE BIRTH OF ENVIRONMENTALISM

In its early years, the United States retained the continent’s historically
agrarian character, with a largely pastoral and wooded landscape from “sea
to shining sea.” By the mid-nineteenth century industrialization was sweep-
ing the country, and a growing population, mostly recent immigrants, was
enjoying unprecedented economic opportunities provided by the new man-
ufacturing culture. But along with the gains from industrialization, people
living and working in nineteenth-century urban areas of the United States
and Britain were also experiencing signs of environmental deterioration.
Cities were becoming overcrowded, skies and rivers were becoming pol-
luted, and urban dwellers increasingly faced the twin killers of respiratory
and intestinal diseases from air and water pollution.
Yet it was rural, not urban, pollution that stimulated the awakening of
an American environmental movement. The first American “environmen-
talists” were an elite group of amateur naturalists who were disturbed by
the changes to the pristine rural environment accompanying the country’s
industrial development—leveling of forests, overrunning of open spaces,
invading of wilderness areas. Among the most idealistic of these natural-
ists was John Muir, who worked tirelessly for the total preservation of
wilderness areas and old forests, mostly in the mountainous areas of the
far West, with the hope that future generations would be able to expe-
rience the grandeur of these precious natural resources just as he experi-
enced them. The first head of the Sierra Club (1892), Muir has rightly been
 INTRODUCTION | 5

called “the father of the national park system.” Equally dedicated but often
at loggerheads with Muir was America’s first professional forester, Gif-
ford Pinchot, who believed not in hands-off preservation but in the sus-
tainable use of natural resources through wise management. Becoming
the leader of the utilitarian wing of the conservation movement, Pinchot
was appointed the first head of the U.S. Forest Service (1905) by President
Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt was a strong and consistent ally of the con-
servationists, though his dedication to preserving the habitats of wild ani-
mals was due at least partly to his passion for hunting them. Drawing
on the leadership of such individuals, some of the world’s foremost envi-
ronmental organizations, including the Sierra Club and the World Wildlife
Fund, were formed, and they played a critical role during those early decades
in winning public support for nature conservation.
In contrast to their early sensitivity about the rural environment, Amer-
icans generally tolerated urban pollution for another half-century. Not only
was urban pollution initially perceived as an inevitable by-product of indus-
trial production, but in the twentieth century’s first two decades pollution
became a symbol, at least among the working classes, of growing prosper-
ity and an abundance of jobs. And during the Great Depression years of
the 1930s, when massive unemployment returned and poverty became a
fact of life for millions of Americans, chimney smoke and soot from still-
operating industries became an even more welcome urban sight. Smoke in
the air meant food on the table, at least for those who had jobs.
With the coming of World War II, the economic situation abruptly
improved, but the environment did not. The wartime economy generated
enormous production increases, full employment, and even higher levels
of air and water pollution. After the war, the return to peacetime production
brought an unprecedented surge of affluence and a seemingly insatiable
demand for homes, automobiles, and other consumer products that had
been unavailable in wartime. The pollution, unfortunately, only worsened.
But soon another kind of demand was stirring. Along with the new afflu-
ence and consumer demand, a heightened level of environmental aware-
ness gradually evolved among the general public. This had no precedent in
the earlier conservation movement, which was largely confined to a rural
elite. The burgeoning postwar American middle class wanted their cities
and neighborhoods to reflect their new affluence, to be attractive and
healthy places to live. By the 1950s high levels of urban pollution that
had been tolerated before and during the war became unacceptable to more
and more Americans. By then it was no longer a laughing matter when
the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland burst into flames because its surface was
6 | INTRODUCTION

covered with industrial debris and slime. Or when the skies over Los
Angeles became so smoggy that one could “see” the air but not the ground.
Or when residents of an upstate New York community discovered that
their homes had been knowingly built over an old industrial waste dump
and were being threatened by leakage of toxic materials. The desire to find
environmental quality at an affordable price was in fact one of the main
stimuli for the exodus of millions of Americans from decaying core cities
to the newly developing, still pristine suburbs.
All over the country, people began demanding cleaner air, water, and
land. By the start of the 1970s both federal and state governments responded
to the public’s voice by creating new executive agencies dedicated to envi-
ronmental protection.2 A stream of environmental mandates and regula-
tions soon emanated from these agencies and the legislatures, beginning a
trend toward ever tighter environmental controls that continues to this
day. Also proliferating during this period were nongovernmental organi-
zations (NGOs) that focused on environmental issues, such as the Natural
Resources Defense Council and the Environmental Defense Fund, which
collectively soon constituted a powerful political force. These NGOs were
influential in stimulating, often through legal actions, many government
policies and regulations that were to play an essential role in reducing pol-
lution. It is important to keep in mind that these environmental responses
were not forced on people. Overwhelmingly, Americans have supported
both government regulations and private initiatives to improve the envi-
ronment. And organized environmental activism was by no means con-
fined to the United States. Similar activities and initiatives were occurring
in all the industrial countries of the noncommunist world, as a result of
which thousands of environmental interest groups and NGOs function
throughout the world today.

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE

Besides public awareness, other developments occurred in the 1960s and

1970s that were to have profound effects on the young environmental
movement. Important among these was the growing role of science. The
new environmental sciences brought about a major change in the way peo-
ple thought about environmental problems, shifting their focus from large
and visible entities to extremely small and invisible entities. Previously,
in the movement’s early decades, public attention had been drawn mostly
to nature’s grandest creations—oceans, mountains, forests, lakes. One did
not need scientific training to experience the beauty and grandeur of these
 INTRODUCTION | 7

natural wonders, and most anyone could also recognize the unsightliness
of oil-covered lakes, smog-filled skies, and logging-disfigured forests. Ear-
lier, such unsightliness had been perceived only as assaults on esthetic
sensitivities, not as threats to health. That was to change as environmental
science soon pointed to potential connections between pollution and risks
to health.
Advances in analytical techniques allowed environmental chemists to
detect minuscule amounts of foreign substances in air, water, and food,
down to the parts-per-million or even parts-per-billion level. Such tiny con-
centrations usually cannot be seen, tasted, or otherwise perceived directly.
Although some trace-level contaminants were introduced by newly devel-
oped industrial processes and chemicals, many trace-level substances have
always been present in food and the environment as the result of natural
processes. Although most environmental chemists were appropriately cir-
cumspect in describing their findings, environmental writers and the media
increasingly sensationalized the issue of trace contaminants, labeling them
as “toxins” whatever their amount or origin and drawing alarming con-
nections between trace pollutants and a variety of adverse human health
conditions and diseases. In most cases little or no credible evidence has
been found linking trace contaminants to adverse health effects at the very
low doses typically encountered,3 yet these connections have become an
indelible part of the public’s environmental consciousness and fears.
During this period, environmental scientists generally enjoyed con-
siderable public confidence, and many became influential in the budding
environmental movement. A prime example of this influence was biologist
Rachel Carson’s enormously popular book Silent Spring, eloquently warn-
ing of potential harm to humans and animals from trace residues of the
pesticide DDT.4 Although published in 1962, Silent Spring remains a lead-
ing icon of the contemporary environmental movement.
In the years following World War II, prior to Carson’s criticism of pes-
ticide use, the pesticide DDT had been widely used in the industrial coun-
tries and to a lesser extent in developing countries. In 1970 a report by the
U.S. National Academy of Sciences stated, “To only a few chemicals does
man owe as great a debt as to DDT. . . . In little more than two decades,
DDT has prevented five hundred million human deaths, due to malaria,
that otherwise would have been inevitable.”5 So great was the influence
of Silent Spring, however, that the use of DDT in the United States was
banned by the Environmental Protection Agency in 1972,6 and similar bans
were invoked in other industrial countries. Since then there have been
continuing efforts by environmental groups to extend the ban of DDT to
8 | INTRODUCTION

developing countries. Such a ban would expose hundreds of millions of

people, especially children, to grave risks of illness and death from malaria.
Because of the interventions of many scientists, however, these efforts
have thus far not been successful.7
Other claims made by Carson have been controversial, as well. For
example, her claim that DDT is a human carcinogen has not been sub-
stantiated.8 Some scientists also disputed her claims that DDT caused thin-
ning in bird-egg shells and population declines in brown pelicans, bald
eagles, and peregrine falcons.9 Observers documented that the great pere-
grine decline in the eastern United States occurred long before any DDT
was present in the environment,10 and a British study concluded that “there
is no close correlation between the decline in population of predatory birds,
particularly the peregrine falcon and the sparrow hawk, and the use of
DDT.”11

THE ENVIRONMENTAL LEGACY OF VIETNAM

Although the influence of science on the environmental movement

remained strong during the 1960s and 1970s, the influence of politics
became even stronger. This was the era of the Vietnam War, a time when
distrust of government, always endemic in the American psyche, reached
new heights.12 In this period, during which the environmental mantra
“small is beautiful” became popular,13 people’s distrust extended beyond
government to almost all large institutions. In particular, major technol-
ogy corporations were increasingly perceived as remote and unresponsive,
essentially enemies of the people. During the so-called energy crisis of the
1970s the distrust was directed especially against the major oil companies,
which the media portrayed as largely responsible for the gasoline short-
ages accompanying the 1973 Arab oil producers’ boycott.14 Another target
of distrust was the large electric utilities, which at that time were heavily
engaged in constructing power plants, including nuclear power plants, to
meet the nation’s rapidly growing use of electricity.
A major victim of the public’s loss of trust was the institution of science
and technology itself. In the years following World War II, Americans had
generally viewed science and scientists with awe because of the crucial
roles they had played in the Allied victory (for example, the development
of radar, which played a key role in Great Britain’s survival in 1940, and
the atomic bomb, which brought about an early end to the Pacific War in
1945). As a result, U.S. scientists were blessed with unprecedented increases
 INTRODUCTION | 9

in government support for their research during the 1950s and early
1960s. But awe gave way to distrust during the Vietnam period. A prime
target of this enmity was the scientific establishment generally but partic-
ularly the nuclear power establishment, which in that day came to sym-
bolize the perceived excesses of science and technology. An example of this
distrust was the 1979 hit film The China Syndrome, portraying nuclear
industry executives as villains responsible for a fictional nuclear reactor
accident with mass fatalities. Almost coincident with the release of this
film, the accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant happened; despite
hysterical media reporting, no injuries or fatalities actually resulted.
It is somewhat paradoxical that the public’s confidence in environmen-
tal science grew rapidly during the 1960s and 1970s, a period during which
the environmental scientists were bringing mostly bad news yet during
which confidence in the larger scientific establishment eroded rapidly, even
though science and technology were continuing to enhance the quality
of people’s lives. The public’s growing antipathy to the Vietnam War and
technology’s role in that conflict were probably major factors in creating
this anomaly.

TRANSFORMATION TO PESSIMISM

The Vietnam period also saw the beginnings of change in the image of
environmentalism, from champion of nature’s grandeur and source of
optimism and vision to its current sense of doom and gloom about the
earth’s future. In the new environmental politics, “pro-environment” has
become increasingly identified with anti-technology attitudes and, espe-
cially, with antinuclear politics. Starting in Europe, opposition to nuclear-
generated electricity has long been a principal plank in the platforms of
the Green political parties. And the U.S. Green Party’s 2000 platform called
for “early retirement of nuclear power reactors”; a national shift away
from “corporate industrial farming,” which it labeled as “biodevastation”;
and rejection of agreements encouraging trade liberalization, such as the
World Trade Organization, which it portrays as “run by corporate interests
unaccountable to public input or even legal challenge.”15
The media have played a major role in encouraging the growth of
environmental pessimism and technophobia by focusing on worst-case,
doomsday scenarios in reporting environmental subjects and consistently
underplaying the remarkable progress being made by the affluent societies
in enhancing the quality of the environment.
10 | INTRODUCTION

The real enemies of environmental progress are poverty and tyranny,

not technology or global markets. On the contrary, technological inno-
vation enabled by affluence and freedom has been a major source of the
environmental progress already made by the industrial societies, and the
global penetration of innovative technologies will most likely be a crucial
ingredient for achieving a future sustainable environment throughout the
world. Unfortunately, the reality of environmental progress and promise
is obscured by the doomsday rhetoric propounded in recent years by many
environmental groups and amplified by the media. Here are a few examples:
In a 1998 advertisement, the respected World Wildlife Fund tells us
that “forests are being cleared. Oceans overfished. Toxic chemicals are
everywhere. Not just individual plants and animals, but entire ecosys-
tems are in danger of disappearing forever. And we will all suffer from
these losses. Fewer than 500 days remain in this century, and the fate
of the planet rests on choices we make today” (full-page advertisement
in New York Times, August 21, 1998).
And the venerable Sierra Club claims that “the human race is engaged
in the largest and most dangerous experiment in history—an exper-
iment to see what will happen to our health and the health of the
planet when we change our atmosphere and our climate. . . . The rapid
buildup of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in our atmos-
phere is the source of the problem. By burning ever increasing quan-
tities of coal, oil and gas we are choking our planet in a cloud of this
pollution. If we don’t begin to act now to curb global warming, our
children will live in a world where the climate will be far less hos-
pitable than it is today” (Sierra Club global warming Internet web
site, www.sierraclub.org/globalwarming, March 1999).
The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) warns “all humanity of
what lies ahead. A great change in our stewardship of the earth and
the life on it is required if vast human misery is to be avoided and our
global home on this planet is not be irretrievably mutilated. The envi-
ronment is suffering critical stress. . . . Our massive tampering with the
world’s interdependent web of life, coupled with the environmental
damage inflicted by deforestation, species loss and climate change,
could trigger widespread adverse effects, including unpredictable col-
lapses of critical biological systems whose interactions and dynamics
we only imperfectly understand. . . . The earth is finite. Its ability to
absorb wastes and destructive effluent is finite. Its ability to provide
food and energy is finite. Its ability to provide for growing numbers
 INTRODUCTION | 11

of people is finite. And we are fast approaching many of the earth’s

limits. No more than one or a few decades remain before the chance
to avert the threats we now confront will be lost and the prospects for
humanity immeasurably diminished” (“World Scientists’ Warning
to Humanity,” issued by the UCS on November 18, 1992, available
at www.ucsusa.org/about/warning.html).

Typical of today’s environmental pessimism, these doomsday pronounce-

ments contain grains of truth embedded in a sea of exaggeration. Without
jumping ahead into the details of the scientific subjects they encompass,
which is the task of subsequent chapters, I assert here that such broad-
brush statements mislead the public and, in some instances, are scientifi-
cally inaccurate. For example, they usually represent environmental quality
as rapidly deteriorating, which is not the case. They usually represent the
earth’s productive capacity as rapidly diminishing, which is not the case.
They usually represent population growth as a global threat, which is not
the case. And they usually represent global warming as definitely linked to
human activities, which has not been established. Countering such envi-
ronmental pessimism with a factual basis for environmental optimism is
one of the objectives of this book.

OPTIMISM, NOT INACTION

Please do not misunderstand me. Espousing optimism about the environ-

ment does not imply being complacent or sweeping environmental prob-
lems under the rug. On the contrary, optimism implies a “can do” attitude
that makes success in dealing with such problems more likely. Despair and
inaction are more likely to arise from pessimism about the future than
from optimism. Nor does environmental optimism equate with denial. Of
course, real environmental concerns are still with us. They always have
been, and they always will be. As long as humans, imperfect species that
we are, live together in this increasingly interdependent global village,
there will be problems arising from people’s activities and interactions, as
well as risks arising from human adventures and technological innova-
tions. The environment is no exception. Although, obviously, not all envi-
ronmental problems are caused by human activities, humans everywhere
bear a collective responsibility to care for this planet as best we can, on the
basis of the scientific knowledge we have.
Without question, environmental organizations and the media have
played a historically important role in bringing important information
12 | INTRODUCTION

about the environment to public attention. They should continue to do

so. But performing the role of environmental watchdog does not confer
license to exaggerate, mislead, or strike fear in the hearts of a largely
supportive public earnestly looking for information and guidance. Sci-
entists, specialist organizations (whether representing environmental or
other interests), and the media have a collective responsibility not to cross
the line separating truth, however well or poorly known, from self-serving
rhetoric. Unfortunately, by exaggerating many environmental problems
far out of proportion to the actual or potential threats they may pose to
society’s future, the purveyors of doomsday rhetoric create a climate of
confusion and fear about the environment among a citizenry inadequately
equipped with the scientific background needed to calibrate such rhetoric.
How could people not become fearful about global warming, for exam-
ple, when they are bombarded incessantly with alarming and simplistic
predictions of global catastrophe from climate change that is purportedly
caused by human activities? In truth, climate change is a dynamic natural
phenomenon that has been occurring ever since the earth was formed mil-
lions of years ago, and the extent of human culpability for perturbing this
natural system is far from established. Climate science is so extraordinar-
ily complex that not even leading climate scientists profess to understand
climate change fully. One thing that climate scientists do understand, how-
ever, is that current predictions of future climate are based almost entirely
on computer simulations. Although simulations are a widely used tool in
science research generally and are essential for meteorologists’ short-term
weather predictions, they do not provide an adequate basis for the cata-
strophic generalizations about future climate often made by environmen-
tal organizations and the media. In any case, for most of us it is difficult
to distinguish between solid empirical evidence and speculation based on
highly uncertain computer models.
Environmental exaggeration also emanates on occasion from political
leaders. For example, in his book Earth in the Balance, former vice-president
Al Gore states that climate change is “the most serious threat we’ve ever
faced,” and “Our insatiable drive to rummage deep beneath the surface
of the earth, remove all of the coal, petroleum, and other fossil fuels we
can find, then burn them as quickly as they are found—in the process fill-
ing the atmosphere with carbon dioxide and other pollutants—is a will-
ful expansion of our dysfunctional civilization into vulnerable parts of the
natural world.”16 In contrast to the book’s extreme rhetoric, Gore’s actual
voting record on environmental issues in the Senate was centrist.17
 INTRODUCTION | 13

With environmental matters, as with most others, informed discussion

is the key to effective decision making in a democratic society. Extreme
rhetoric serves less to catalyze rational discussion of issues than it does to
polarize people’s views and create fear and confusion about the environ-
ment. Some scientists argue (usually in private18) that creating fears about
environmental risks is an effective antidote to public apathy and compla-
cency and that the public’s environmental fears can take credit for much
of their support for environmental actions. I take issue with that view
and prefer to believe that a truthfully informed public is more likely than
a fearful public to be supportive of meaningful responses. I would place my
bets that the wisest public choices about the environment will come about
from disciplined presentations by scientists, and others, of research results
and from contending interpretations unembellished by exaggerations and
doomsday scenarios.
When individuals and the media in the affluent countries characterize
as imminent threats such issues as overpopulation, resource exhaustion,
and global warming, they cause more than fear: they cause actual harm
by diverting people’s attention and, more important, their resources from
critical global problems that cry out for solution, especially the prolifera-
tion of weapons of mass destruction and the world’s most formidable and
pervasive environmental problem—poverty.

ENVIRONMENT OF THE POOR

People living in poverty perceive the environment very differently from

the affluent. To the world’s poor—several billion people—the principal envi-
ronmental problems are local, not global. They are not the stuff of media
headlines or complicated scientific theories. They are mundane, pervasive,
and painfully obvious:
. hunger—chronic undernourishment of a billion children and adults
caused not only by scarcity of food resources but by poverty, war, and
government tyranny and incompetence.
. contaminated water supplies—a major cause of chronic disease
and mortality in the third world.
. diseases—rampant in the poorest countries. Most could be readily
eradicated by modern medicine, while others, including the AIDS epi-
demic in Africa, could be mitigated by effective public health pro-
grams and drug treatments available to the affluent.
14 | INTRODUCTION

. scarcity—insufficient local supplies of fuelwood and other resources,

owing not to intrinsic scarcity but to generations of overexploitation
and underreplenishment as part of the constant struggle for survival.
. lack of education and social inequality, especially of women
—lack of education resulting in high birthrates and increasing the dif-
ficulty for families to escape from the dungeons of poverty.

Although these deplorable environmental conditions can be attributed

partly to poverty itself, the governments of many poor countries must share
responsibility. Many government development policies have been con-
ceived out of selfishness, incompetence, or maliciousness, and some have
either failed to help the poor or even worsened their plight. And the very
resources upon which the poor depend have in some cases been plundered
through corrupt government policies. Worse yet, the constant scourge of
wars between and within the world’s poorest nations, as well as between rich
and poor nations, has enormously exacerbated the inherent ills of poverty.
The challenges for overcoming global poverty are immense and can-
not be overstated. How then can this writer be optimistic about the envi-
ronmental future, given that poverty and a degraded environment are so
inextricably intertwined? My optimism arises from several strongly held
convictions.

First, my conviction that there is an absolute human obligation, increas-

ingly recognized by people everywhere, that the world must lift its
poor out of poverty. In spite of the ubiquitous forces of selfishness,
ignorance, and tyranny working to perpetuate poverty and inequality,
progress is being made—halting and slow but real nonetheless. In
developing countries, a child born today can expect to live eight years
longer than one born thirty years ago. Five times more rural families
have access to safe water, and average incomes have almost doubled.
Second, my conviction that the vicious and self-perpetuating cycle that
connects poverty and environmental degradation can best be broken
by attacking and eliminating the source of the problem—poverty.
Third, my conviction, based on history and science, that affluence and
freedom are friends to the environment, indeed, that the road to afflu-
ence and freedom provides the only practical pathway to achieving a
sustainable future environment.

These convictions provide the motivation and intellectual foundation for

this book.
 INTRODUCTION | 15

With history as our guide, we can be confident that today’s poor peo-
ples, as they begin climbing the economic ladder and enjoying some meas-
ures of freedom, will attend first to basic personal and family problems of
sustenance and health, just as yesterday’s poor did. With the increase of
freedom and affluence—both are crucial—people are then likely to become
motivated and increasingly able to apply the necessary political will, eco-
nomic resources, and technological ingenuity to address environmental
issues more broadly.19
Despite much rhetoric to the contrary, there is no inherent conflict
between a healthy economy and environmental quality; actually they go
hand in hand. Is it not persuasive that for decades the robust economic
growth of the affluent societies has coincided with their continuing envi-
ronmental improvement? For the future, a major key to environmental
quality, for both the emerging and industrial economies, will be develop-
ment and use of innovative technologies that are both economically attrac-
tive and environmentally friendly. Fortunately, today’s developing societies
hold a tremendous advantage over yesterday’s. They do not need to tread
through the entire learning experience in each technology area; instead
they can “leapfrog” over the pathways (and mistakes) of the industrial pio-
neers and jump straightaway to the environmentally kinder and smarter
technologies of the twenty-first century.
There is also little basis for the fear that worldwide economic develop-
ment will bring about massive environmental deterioration from the newly
affluent becoming unrestrained consumers imitating the technology-
oriented ways of the rich. In this century consumerism can increasingly
mean replacing old and polluting technologies with new, resource-efficient
and environmentally friendly technologies. Technological innovation and
economic efficiency—the major keys to environmental quality—can be
expected to take root increasingly in the developing nations as they make
the transition to democracy and affluence. Supported by new technologies
and management arrangements, agriculture, fishing, and manufacturing
in the developing world have the potential eventually to become resource
efficient and environmentally sustainable. As our knowledge increases, an
increasing awareness of the importance of healthy ecosystems—a critical
factor to achieving a sustainable environment—can be expected to develop
among people everywhere. Gradually, both the poor and the rich will reduce
the unwise use of forests and other natural resources, as all people progress
toward affluence and democratic choice.
Nor is the fear justified that development will bring with it unsustain-
able exploitation of energy resources. Although it is clear that economic
16 | INTRODUCTION

growth will bring about substantial increases in demand for energy serv-
ices (such as transportation, heating, lighting, and information processing),
the growth in actual energy-resource consumption can be considerably
reduced by efficiency gains of the technologies supplying both energy and
energy services. (For example, compact fluorescent lightbulbs, still in their
infancy in terms of technical development and consumer acceptance, use
only a quarter as much electricity as standard incandescent bulbs.) The
amounts of fossil fuels consumed will continue to increase for several
decades because of technological inertia, but in the longer term cleaner and
more efficient energy technologies will become economically accessible
in the developing world, and these have the potential to reduce greatly
the pollution problems traditionally associated with fossil fuel burning.
Another example: millions more vehicles will be on the roads in the devel-
oping countries, but they will be tomorrow’s high-tech low polluters rather
than yesterday’s low-tech high polluters.

SUSTAINABILITY WITH AFFLUENCE

The core message of this book is that an environmentally sustainable

future is within reach for the entire world provided that affluence and
democracy replace poverty and tyranny as the dominant human condition.
People who have the means to support investments in a healthy environ-
ment, and the freedom to do so, can be trusted to make wise environmental
choices provided they are honestly informed about the costs and benefits of
available options in relation to other social choices that they constantly
make. But in a democracy all sides must be heard. Unfortunately it is dif-
ficult today for voices of environmental optimism to be heard over the
cacophony of pessimism and fear mongering emanating from some envi-
ronmental groups and the media. In the name of environmentalism, their
pessimistic and divisive exaggerations have become increasingly alienat-
ing and may even be counterproductive to the achievement of long-term
environmental goals. Many thoughtful citizens in the industrial countries,
genuinely supportive of environmental quality but bewildered about the
actual state of the environment, have grown suspicious of all environmen-
tal politics, whether emanating from the left or the right, and now increas-
ingly distrust the disparate pronouncements even of environmental experts.
Equally disturbing, policy makers in the international donor community
increasingly turn away from important science-based projects—for exam-
ple, research in genetically modified agricultural products—for fear of
antagonizing powerful environmental lobbying groups.20
 INTRODUCTION | 17

Whereas there were once grounds for confidence that the self-interests
of environmental groups coincided with the public interest, today the exag-
gerations and doomsaying can be seen as self-serving marketing devices,
in the same way that the public-relations exaggerations of private indus-
try are understood as marketing devices. In order for that confidence to be
restored, the environmental rhetoric needs to be muted, the political polar-
ization needs to be diminished, and civility needs to be restored to the
environmental dialogue. The public, overwhelmingly supportive of envi-
ronmental goals, has the right to expect the highest standards of integrity
from its environmental representatives—whether in government, indus-
try, academia, or interest groups—in defining and explaining the world’s
environmental challenges.
This book argues that optimism about the environmental future is
warranted by what we do know, even though there is much that we do
not know. This optimism is based partly on the historical record of environ-
mental improvement and current research, but even more, it recognizes
the promise of sustained technological innovation catalyzed by human
ingenuity in an increasingly affluent and democratic world.
Today, as part of the natural forces of history, the world is continuing
its march toward a global society. Globalization will play a major role in
bringing increased affluence and democratic choice to billions of people. The
core issues of this book are not about globalization or the global economy,
for example, questions relating to the comparative incomes and working
conditions of workers in the developing countries today. I take it as a given
that in this century family incomes in most of the developing world will
continue to move upward, as they are now doing,21 even though the rate of
improvement in particular times and places will appear slow and erratic.
The core debate is about the effects of affluence on the environment.
The debate can be framed around my proposition that affluence promotes
true environmentalism, versus the orthodox view that affluence promotes
a mindless consumerism that irreparably damages the environment. Obvi-
ously, neither proposition can be scientifically “proved” since each refers to
the future, but the preponderance of evidence favors the notion of a posi-
tive link between affluence and environmental quality. And the evidence
also shows that we are not dealing here with a global zero-sum game,
where environmental improvement in one place (rich countries) would
mean a deterioration in another place (poor countries).
In the following chapters, evidence bearing on the nature of the affluence–
environment link is presented and analyzed. For the most part the dis-
cussions focus on individual environmental and resource issues that are
18 | INTRODUCTION

recognized as critically important to the attainment of a sustainable envi-

ronment. The major issues are explored in the context of the following
supporting themes:
. Poverty is the world’s most critical environmental problem. Reducing
poverty throughout the world should be a top priority for environ-
mentalists. Human development should include not only freedom of
economic choices but also freedom of democratic choices.
. Affluence and the technological innovation it enables are among the
most important ingredients for achieving a future sustainable global
environment.
 1
A WORLD APART

Nearly everyone cares about the environment. But what exactly is “the
environment”? That depends on how and where you live. If you are an
American, you may occasionally ponder the media’s claims that last year’s
hot summer was a precursor of catastrophic global warming, but in any
case you probably perceive such environmental scenarios as somewhat
esoteric and remote from your daily life. If you are a welder in a Chinese
bicycle factory, in contrast, you are fully aware of the serious water and air
pollution that China’s rapid industrialization has brought to your region,
but you probably accept the pollution with forbearance because the bicycle
factory provides a steady job that enables you to support your family. Yet
if you are a subsistence farmer in sub-Saharan Africa living on the brink of
starvation, you probably think of the environment as nature’s fickle pre-
serve—the land and animals that in good years barely keep you and your
family alive and in bad years bring starvation and disease. The environ-
ment of the rich and the environment of the poor are indeed a world apart.
Life on the brink of starvation has in fact been the fate of the vast
majority of humans throughout history. To people living in such poverty,
the environment has always had only one meaning and purpose: it is the
source of the food and shelter needed to survive and reproduce. Yet even at
the start of the twenty-first century, the most affluent ever, the environ-
ment of the poor still does not provide sufficient food for them. Their
hunger is not a transitory condition—it is chronic, debilitating, and deadly,
blighting the lives of all who are affected.
Approximately one billion people—one in every six people on earth—
do not have enough to eat. Almost two-thirds of these chronically under-
nourished people (525 million) live in Asia and the Pacific. India alone has
19
20 | A WORLD APART

Burundi
Eritrea
Haiti
Congo
Ethiopia
Kenya
Tanzania
Rwanda
Zimbabwe
Uganda
Nepal
Vietnam
India
Pakistan
Colombia
China
Nigeria
Indonesia
Egypt

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

PERCENT UNDERNOURISHED

Figure 2. Number of undernourished people in selected countries (1999).

Data are from United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization, The State
of Food Insecurity in the World.

more undernourished (204 million) than all of sub-Saharan Africa, where

180 million go hungry. China is a close third, with 164 million hungry
people.1 Every year over 6 million children under the age of five die world-
wide, almost 3 million in India alone. Over half of these deaths are caused
by inadequate nutrition. At least two billion people suffer from vitamin
and mineral deficiencies. If all the world’s undernourished people were
gathered together, the population of that “hungry continent” would exceed
that of every continent except Asia.

AN ODYSSEY OF POVERTY

In his book Earth Odyssey, reporter Mark Hertsgaard eloquently describes

the environment of the world’s poorest. Having briefly shared life in 1991
with the Dinka tribe of sub-Saharan Africa, he writes: “The Dinka are a
living reminder of the enormous environmental challenges human beings
 A WORLD APART | 21

have faced on this planet since our emergence as a species untold thou-
sands of years ago. At the end of the twentieth century, the Dinka are still
living the way that virtually all of us used to live—as hunter-gatherers and
small-scale agriculturalists on the edge of survival.”2
The Dinka had been subsistence farmers in southern Sudan, one of the
poorest places on earth. In the 1980s their already marginal existence was
further eroded by a civil war that ravaged their homeland and forced them
to flee their villages. Trekking two hundred miles into Ethiopia, they found
shelter and survived for a time in a United Nations relief camp. But in May
1991 a violent coup in Ethiopia forced them to flee again, this time back
into Sudan just ahead of their attackers. The Dinka’s immediate plight was
compounded by the chronic drought conditions that have plagued Africa
for centuries. In this 1991 episode many of their numbers, especially the
children, died of starvation, dehydration, and disease.
Hertsgaard tells us that

the Dinka do not have the luxury of worrying about the environmental
dangers of the twenty-first century, even though they are likely to suf-
fer disproportionately from them: they have enough problems simply
surviving from one day to the next. And the environment is no abstrac-
tion to them, as it is to so many people in the United States, Europe,
and the rest of the wealthy, industrialized world. The Dinka experience
the natural world directly, unmediated by electricity, running water,
refrigeration, antibiotics, motor vehicles, and other modern technologi-
cal marvels. Wildlife is the leopard that attacks their cattle or children,
not something seen in books or at the zoo. And weather is no mere irri-
tant to be neutralized with raincoats or central heating; it is an omnipo-
tent unpredictable force whose whims determine whether there is
enough food to eat.

Sub-Saharan Africa is the world’s basket case of poverty, sometimes

described as “the hopeless continent.”3 And the new millennium has not
brought new hope to this region, only more despair. It is still the only place
where hunger continues to increase in both the number and percentage of
the population, reaching 180 million and 80 percent in 1990. Almost half
the population lives on less than $1 a day. Child mortality before age five
is the world’s highest, and overall life expectancy for males, 44.8 years, is
the world’s lowest.4 The “healthy life expectancy” of a baby born in Sierra
Leone (in 1999) is only 25.9 years.5 The school enrollment rate actually
decreased during the 1980s in half the region’s countries. Malnutrition is
not declining, and one-third of children suffer from stunted growth. On
22 | A WORLD APART

average, the number of children per mother has barely declined in forty
years and is still more than six, the highest of all the world’s regions.6
How does it happen that the extreme poverty of sub-Saharan Africa
stubbornly persists in an ever more affluent world? To what extent do
environmental factors contribute to such poverty? And how does the
poverty itself impact on the environment?
Nature has dealt an unkind hand to sub-Saharan Africa. The heat is
intense and debilitating. The soils are typically poor and difficult to farm
sustainably. The rainy seasons can be extremely variable, with recurrent
floods in some places (e.g., Mozambique) and persistent drought in others
(e.g., Ethiopia). The climate encourages insect-borne diseases such as malaria
and dengue fever. Although most organized groups elsewhere in the world
were historically able to cope with environmental hardships (the early
Scandinavians, for example, adapted well to their long and cold winters), in
Africa the environmental difficulties have been so severe that survival
rather than development has remained life’s main goal for many groups.
Yet nature’s extremes, formidable as they are, do not alone explain the
legacy of poverty and famine that still corrodes the environment of mil-
lions of Africans. Just as important are the centuries of slave trade and
European colonialism (the latter ending only a generation ago), which
sapped the land of its people and undermined its communities, institu-
tions, and values and left an almost total vacuum of indigenous leadership
and democratic tradition. While in recent times droughts and crop failures
certainly have contributed to the region’s chronic famines, civil strife is the
source of many human disasters, the victims of which are mostly innocent
civilians rather than combatants. The callous policies of many nondemoc-
ratic sub-Saharan regimes have also contributed to the environmental dete-
rioration and social breakdowns, including unemployment and inequitable
food distribution, that cause famines. All these factors have contributed to
the region’s enduring legacy of poverty.
Under such conditions, it is hardly surprising that environmental con-
cerns considered important to many in the affluent nations, such as global
warming and ozone depletion, are far off the radar screens of people liv-
ing in the world’s poorest places. If you happen to belong to the Dinka
tribe, you probably have concerns of a much more immediate sort—for
example, fear that your children may not survive even the next few weeks
because they have been deprived of food, shelter, or medicine owing to
bad weather or a new round of political repression. Despite international
environmental festivities such as Earth Day and the many United Nations
conferences aimed at impressing third-world countries with the impor-
 A WORLD APART | 23

tance of the North’s environmental concerns, a genuine interest in these

high-profile issues has not arisen in the developing world. Most of these
countries are still in the first phase of their development, struggling to
overcome the immediate challenges of survival. Although their peoples
must depend on use of trees, soils, and water for survival, they have few
incentives for conserving these resources because they neither own them
nor benefit from their conservation. Under such conditions, people are not
likely to show an interest in the environmental issues of the affluent until
they themselves begin to taste the fruits of affluence.

THE SECOND PHASE OF DEVELOPMENT

In contrast to the prevailing situation in parts of sub-Saharan Africa, a

number of developing countries elsewhere have passed beyond the sur-
vival barrier into the second phase of development—that of building a
decent standard of living for their citizens through industrialization and
modernization. On the Asian continent China and India are the largest and
most visible of the “phase two” countries; Brazil is a good example in Latin
America. A visitor to China will experience an environmental situation
typically very different and less extreme than that of sub-Saharan Africa,
yet one that is rife with environmental problems and equally revealing of
the connection between poverty and the environment.
The economy of China is developing with breathtaking speed, and the
same can be said of China’s environmental landscape. Only two decades
after the end of the economically and socially disastrous “Great Leap For-
ward” program imposed by Mao Zedong, China’s major cities, such as Bei-
jing, Shanghai, and Chongqing, have undergone amazing transformations,
joining the ranks of the world’s largest and most advanced metropolises.
High-rise apartments, commercial centers, and industrial complexes pro-
liferate endlessly; urban parks and green belts abound; and the automobile
and freeway have become a fixture of the new cities. Among the urban
populace, the growing business and professional classes are stylish, urbane,
and consumerist, indistinguishable in many ways from their counterparts
in London, New York, or Milan.
But China’s urban environmental changes have also had a serious
downside. Along with the proliferation of upscale buildings and shops,
miserable shanty towns are rapidly appearing, housing the rural poor who
flock to the big cities to try to improve their economic condition. But the
most glaring environmental problem is the extremely high levels of air
pollution from coal burning found in China’s major cities. Visibility in
24 | A WORLD APART

some cities approaches zero during bouts of the most intense air pollu-
tion. Visitors to the capital city, Beijing, often develop bronchial inflamma-
tions after only a few days, especially if their visits come in late autumn
or winter. Chinese citizens argue cynically about which city has the most
polluted air, Beijing, or Chongqing in the south, or Benxi in the north. The
air in these cities often contains levels of sulfur dioxide and respirable
particles reaching ten times the maximum safe levels recommended by
the World Health Organization—a truly unhealthy situation that can per-
sist for days or weeks at a time. Compare this with the situation in Los
Angeles, once one of America’s most air-polluted cities, where the sulfur
dioxide concentrations now remain well below the WHO and U.S. safe
levels.7
Regardless of which city captures the dubious distinction of being
China’s most polluted, the causes of pollution are similar in all of them—
rapid industrialization, skyrocketing electricity use, and almost total depend-
ence on coal for electricity generation. Beginning in the 1980s, the growth
in China’s electricity use has been among the world’s fastest, doubling
approximately each decade, which reflects Chinese citizens’ increasing abil-
ity to afford the benefits of adequate lighting and modern electric appli-
ances. It is no wonder that coal is the major fuel for electricity production,
since coal is China’s most abundant energy resource and coal production
already exceeds that of the United States.
Historically, coal has been the world’s dirtiest fuel, and coal burning the
world’s leading source of air pollution. But this connection is no longer
inevitable. Today, burning coal for electricity generation need not produce
high levels of air pollution if state-of-the-art technologies are used for
cleaning (“scrubbing”) the exhaust stacks of the generating plants, a prac-
tice common (and legally required for new plants) in the United States
and many other industrial countries. The problem is that China has rarely
employed these advanced technologies, because they are so expensive to
install and operate. For China at its present stage of development, achiev-
ing cleaner air (or other environmental benefits) has generally been of
lower priority in allocating scarce financial resources than raising people’s
living standards by, for example, subsidizing traditional coal use to provide
more and cheaper electricity.
In China, high levels of environmental pollution are found not only in
the cities but also in many rural areas. Unlike the case in Africa, a great
deal of industrial activity takes place in rural China. Thousands upon
thousands of factories, from garage-sized plants to large industrial com-
plexes, employ millions of skilled and unskilled workers, including our
 A WORLD APART | 25

bicycle factory welder. The pollution sometimes takes the form of river
contamination so severe that the waters become sickeningly unfit for con-
sumption, yet such water is often used for drinking with only minimal
if any purification. Rural water pollution in China is probably even less
tractable than urban air pollution. The rural population not only is gen-
erally poor and uneducated, with little understanding of the health risks
to which people may be exposed, but also is geographically very scattered
and lacks influence with the environmental authorities. Even more unfor-
tunate is that the rural working poor tend to accept their polluted environ-
ment as a symbol of, and a small price to pay for, the benefits of those
millions of factory jobs.
There is growing evidence that this situation is changing, however, as
both the Chinese economy and the Chinese people’s environmental con-
sciousness continue their fast-paced growth. Air-pollution control regu-
lations are being enacted, and enforcement is being taken more seriously.
In Beijing, clean-coal technologies are being installed and millions of tons
of industrial coal are being replaced by natural gas. And now, galvanized
by China’s being awarded the 2008 Olympic games, the government is
making earnest commitments to accelerate its clean-air programs. Given
China’s size and global importance, its environmental awareness, follow-
ing on the heels of its increasing affluence, is a major reason for optimism
about the world’s environmental future.

DEVELOPMENT AS FREEDOM

Whether in sub-Saharan Africa, China, or elsewhere, chronic poverty

deprives huge numbers of people of the incentives and economic means to
care for and nourish their natural environment. Yet being poor is only one
element of people’s blighted relationship to the environment. According to
economist and Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, poverty needs to be under-
stood in broader terms than only the lack of monetary income. Sen argues
that poverty should be characterized fundamentally in terms of the depri-
vation of basic freedoms, rather than merely low incomes.8 In his view,
development not only has the economic dimension with which it is usually
understood but, more important, requires the removal of the “unfreedoms”
endured by most people in underdeveloped countries. Besides poverty,
these unfreedoms include deprivation of health care, lack of sanitation,
exclusion from education (especially of women), exclusion from market
activities, and above all, tyrannical regimes associated with systematic dep-
rivation of political liberty and basic civil rights.
26 | A WORLD APART

Development, in Sen’s view, must include the freedom of democratic

choices as well as the freedom of economic choices. Without such free-
doms, people lack the opportunity for education, public debate, and dis-
cussion, which make possible rational choices about quality-of-life issues,
including the environment, as well as rational choices about their own
families or their government. It follows that environmental improvement
requires not only a measure of economic power for individuals but also the
broader freedoms of individuals to set priorities for themselves, their fam-
ilies, and their society. Such freedoms also nourish the development of
social values and environmental ethics going beyond the bounds of gov-
ernment regulations and market rules. These values and ethics are essen-
tial for developing a healthy and sustainable environment.
I have argued above that countries and people in the earliest stage of
development tend to have little interest in environmental issues as typi-
cally understood in the industrial countries, such as acid rain or global
warming. In the subsistence phase, sheer survival amidst historically
hostile environments has usually been the main challenge of their lives.
This is not to say that poor societies do not have respect for their own
environment—Native American nations, for example, generally have a
profoundly spiritual relationship with their natural environment (though
it has often been abused by outside forces). I have also noted that countries
and people in the second phase of development, such as China, are quite
aware of the collateral environmental deterioration occurring along with
their industrialization and modernization. Yet in countries such as China,
not only is domestic investment capital scarce, but also social priorities,
including environmental quality, are set mostly by government rather
than popular choice. Investments aimed at cleaning the environment typi-
cally have not reached the top of the government’s priority scale, because
other social investments (e.g., in energy production, housing, education,
and industrial production for consumption and exports) have been seen as
providing far greater benefits. As mentioned above, this situation is chang-
ing as China’s economy rapidly grows.

ENVIRONMENTAL SEA CHANGE TO AFFLUENCE

A central thesis of this book is that the transition from the second phase to
the third phase of a nation’s development normally brings with it both a
sea change in environmental consciousness and the political and economic
means to care for and sustain a sound environment. In the Introduction,
I traced briefly the environmental history of the United States and showed
 A WORLD APART | 27

how this change took place as the country gained affluence following
World War II. And it has just been mentioned that the same change is now
happening in China—though decades will pass before the environmental
improvements reach Western proportions. Of course I cannot assert cate-
gorically that people everywhere will automatically become protective of
their environment as they become affluent, for that would stress my crys-
tal ball beyond its capacity. Short of predicting the future, however, I cite
the historical fact that a fundamental behavioral change toward environ-
mental consciousness did take place in Western societies and Japan in the
late twentieth century and is now beginning in China. I see no reason why
we should not expect this to happen worldwide in the future.
In any case there is no mystery about the traditional connection
between affluence and the environment. People of means have always
sought to live amidst beautiful surroundings, regardless of the squalor that
may have been nearby. And for most of history, it was relatively easy for
the rich to isolate themselves from the environments of the poor by using
fences, rivers, and other trappings of physical separation. Those eigh-
teenth-century country estates of England were indeed magnificent exam-
ples of environmental isolation. But with the coming of industrialization,
the rich had no possibility to fence themselves off from the flow of pol-
luted air. Blackened with the coal smoke from the factories of London
and Birmingham, that foul air was destined to be inhaled by rich and poor
alike. One may surmise that the current concept of the environment as a
collective resource, shared by all and the responsibility of all, was born at
least partly out of that experience.
In this book I journey to those worlds apart—the environment of the
poor and the environment of the rich. The journey allows us to look at the
major environmental issues from both perspectives and provides evidence
to support the argument that the most critical transition in the develop-
ment of a sustainable future environment is the transition from poverty to
affluence. This transition will obviously require at least several genera-
tions. Less obvious but no less important is the challenge to the global
community to develop short-term environmental priorities that enhance
the probability of long-term success as poverty is gradually reduced.
 2
SIX BILLION AND COUNTING

Sometimes it seems that the world is just too full of people. Who has not
fretted about overpopulation when pushing through teeming masses in
a crowded third-world city? Or when trapped in a rush-hour sea of auto-
mobiles spewing exhaust gases from their powerful engines yet barely
moving?
The specter of overpopulation has been a central theme of environmen-
tal pessimism for decades. Yet it is not only a recent concern; people have
worried about overpopulation for centuries and have often speculated
about how many people the earth can actually sustain. In a recent schol-
arly analysis, biologist Joel Cohen reviewed estimates of the earth’s carry-
ing capacity that range all the way from one billion people on the low side
(which the earth surpassed years ago) to one thousand billion on the high
side. (The present global population is six billion.) Cohen rejects the notion
that this question can have a unique answer because a variety of evolving
technical, sociopolitical, and economic factors, including lifestyle choices,
will determine the bounds of the earth’s population in any period.1 The
more important question may not be how many people could inhabit the
earth but rather how many people are likely to inhabit the earth.

POPULATION GROWTH—GOOD OR BAD?

Demographic studies have become increasingly sophisticated, yet popula-

tion growth remains one of the most controversial environmental issues.
Opinions span the range from extreme optimism to extreme pessimism.
The most optimistic view (detractors call it “cornucopian”) holds that pop-

28
 SIX BILLION AND COUNTING | 29

ulation growth is a blessing for humankind because each new person has
the potential to become another Mozart, Rembrandt, or Einstein, uniquely
capable of innovation and creativity. As far back as 1682, William Petty
expressed the idea that “it is more likely that one ingenious curious man
may rather be found among 4 million than 400 persons.”2 In this view,
those who would halt population growth seriously undervalue the future
contributions of people yet unborn.
In recent years the most persistent advocate of population growth’s
benefits was economist Julian L. Simon, who emphasized that the main con-
tribution additional persons make to society is new knowledge, not only
the kinds of knowledge provided by geniuses but also those provided by
ordinary ingenious people.3 And the more people, the better, according to
Simon: more people create more knowledge and a demand for yet more
knowledge. As Soichiro Honda, founder of the automobile company, put it,
“Where 100 people think, there are 100 powers; if 1,000 people think, there
are 1,000 powers.”4
Of course, rich nations have a clear advantage over poor in putting
those “1,000 powers” to work. In the rich nations, most people are given
the tools of education so they can contribute to and make use of the grow-
ing stock of technological knowledge, which propels continuing increases
in productivity and wealth. Lacking education and often freedom and
opportunity, even the brightest individuals in poor nations are hindered
from attaining and using the knowledge of which they are capable. Yet
genius has a way of thriving in spite of severe handicaps, as witness the
accomplishments of Beethoven, Helen Keller, and in our day, Stephen
Hawking.
Simon correctly noted that people, especially experts, constantly under-
estimate the mind-boggling discoveries yet to be made. A stunning exam-
ple of expert misjudgment is the 1943 remark attributed to Thomas J.
Watson, then chairperson of IBM Corporation: “I think there is a world
market for about five computers.”5 That might indeed have been the com-
puter’s destiny had not individuals been born into the world who invented
the transistor and the integrated circuit, which allowed computers to become
smaller, faster, and cheaper.

THE MALTHUSIANS

At the pessimistic extreme of the population debate is the notion that

population growth is a terrible scourge upon humankind. This belief holds
that global population will continue to grow until it is unsustainable,
30 | SIX BILLION AND COUNTING

eventually crashing with disastrous consequences, including resource

exhaustion and widespread famine and disease. The doomsday view of pop-
ulation growth originated in large part from the early pronouncements of
the nineteenth-century English cleric Thomas Malthus, who believed that
if people’s natural procreational tendencies went unchecked, they would
multiply to the point where the earth’s food resources could no longer sus-
tain them.6 Malthus was convinced that populations tend to increase at a
geometric rate (1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, etc.), whereas available food resources
grow only at a linear rate (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, etc.). He foresaw mass starva-
tion followed by a horrendous population collapse when demand for food
inevitably outstripped food supply. Less imaginative but no less pessimistic
was the Italian economist Giammaria Ortes, who believed that the human
population would grow until people over the entire earth’s surface would
be “crammed together like dried herrings in a barrel.”7
Malthus and Ortes were both terribly wrong. But we shouldn’t be too
harsh in judging the doomsday prophets of those days, because they had
no way of knowing that the social and economic forces that had always
propelled humans to have large families were about to change radically.
They could not foresee that medical science and sanitation, mainly through
the control of infectious diseases, would soon free families from the time-
less burden of bearing large numbers of children so that a few might sur-
vive to support them in old age. They also could not foresee the immense
contributions that the technological revolution would soon make in increas-
ing the efficiency of production in every area, including food. In fact, con-
stantly advancing agricultural technologies allowed food resources (and
the overall economy as well) to keep well ahead of population growth,
increasing at a much faster rate than Malthus and others of his day
believed possible. (In his later years Malthus changed his mind and with-
drew his earlier doomsday prediction, yet it remains solidly associated with
his name.)
In recent times the pessimistic view of population growth has been
championed by biologist Paul Ehrlich, in a series of works beginning with
his 1968 book The Population Bomb, in which he predicted that global
overpopulation would cause massive famines as early as the 1970s.8 Fortu-
nately, famines of such magnitude never occurred.
Yet in 1968, fear about global overpopulation was not entirely without
basis. Demographic studies then available showed that during the twenti-
eth century population growth had in fact been extremely rapid by histor-
ical measures. From the year 1000 it took about five hundred years for the
world’s population to double; from the year 1500 it took about three hun-
Discovering Diverse Content Through
Random Scribd Documents
»Caramba!” riep de lepero op sarcastischen toon, »wat zij zal
zeggen? Wees welkom, alma mia (beste vriend) dat is klaar, carai!
Gij zijt toch geen kind, don Martial, om voor een vrouwenblik te
beven? De gelegenheid heeft slechts drie haren, in de liefde zoowel
als in den oorlog; men moet haar aangrijpen als zij zich voordoet, of
men loopt gevaar dat zij nooit weêrkomt.”

De Mexicaan naderde den lepero tot hij hem bijna aanraakte, en

staarde hem diep in de groene kattenoogen.

»Cuchares,” zeide hij met eene zware nadrukkelijke stem, »ik verlaat
mij op u. Gij kent mij; ik heb u zoo menigmaal geholpen maar als gij
nu mijn vertrouwen teleurstelt, dood ik u als een coyote.”

De Tigrero sprak deze woorden op zulk een toon van stille woede,
dat de lepero, die zeer wel wist met welk een man hij te doen had,
tegen wil en dank bleek werd en beefde als een riet.

»Ik ben in alles tot uw dienst, don Martial,” antwoordde hij met eene
stem die hij vruchteloos poogde ferm te houden; »wat er ook
gebeure, gij kunt op mij rekenen: wat moet ik voor u doen?”

»Niets, wachten, opletten en bij het minste geluid dat u als onraad
voorkomt of bij den eersten zweem van vijand dien gij in de
duisternis ziet mij onmiddellijk waarschuwen.”

»Reken op mij, doe uwe zaken; ik ben stom en doof, en zal

gedurende uwe afwezigheid voor u waken als een zoon voor zijnen
vader.”

»Goed!” riep de Tigrero.

Hij trad eenige stappen terug, maakte de reata los die om zijn
middel geslagen was, hield haar in de rechterhand gereed, sloeg de
oogen op, berekende den afstand en toen de reata eenige malen
met kracht boven zijn hoofd slingerende wierp hij haar naar het
balkon van doña Anita.

De strik hechtte zich aan een der ijzeren punten der balustrade en
bleef stevig vast zitten.

»Denk om uwe belofte!” zei de Tigrero zich tot Cuchares wendende.

»Ga uw gang,” antwoordde deze terwijl hij tegen den muur aan de
overzijde post vatte en de beenen over elkander kruiste, »ik sta borg
voor alles.”

De Mexicaan nam genoegen of scheen althans genoegen te nemen

met deze verzekering; hij greep de reata, en van zijne plaats
opspringende als een van die panters die hij zoo vaak had vervolgd
in de savane, palmde hij zich met de vuisten naar boven en bereikte
na eenige seconden het balkon. [57]

Hij stapte over de balustrade en naderde het venster.

Doña Anita zat in halfliggende houding op haar armstoel te slapen.

Het arme kind, bleek en ontdaan, de oogen door tranen gezwollen,

was eindelijk overmeesterd door den slaap die zijne rechten op
jeugdige en krachtvolle naturen nimmer verliest. Hare marmerbleeke
wangen vertoonden nog de sporen der pas geweende tranen.
Martial begluurde met verteederden blik zijne beminde, zonder haar
te durven naderen. Zoo in haar slaap verrast, kwam het meisje hem
bekoorlijker voor dan ooit, een aureool van reinheid en onschuld
scheen te zweven boven haar hoofd, als om hare rust heilig en
onschendbaar te bewaken.

Na eene lange en onverzaadbare beschouwing, besloot de Tigrero

eindelijk nader te treden.
Het venster, dat slechts op een kier stond, daar Anita zeker niet
gedacht had op die wijze in te slapen, week terug voor den minsten
stoot van don Martial; hij deed nog een stap en stond in de
slaapkamer van doña Anita.

De indruk van dit vertrek, waar alles zoo kalm, zoo maagdelijk rein
en ordelijk was, boezemde den Tigrero een ongewoon gevoel van
eerbied in, zijn hart klopte in zijne borst als of het zou barsten, en in
zijne hartstochtelijke opwinding tusschen liefde en vrees waggelde
hij voort en zonk op de knieën naast zijne beminde.

Het meisje opende de oogen.

»O!” riep zij, toen zij don Martial zag, »Gode zij dank die u te mijner
hulpe zendt.”

De Tigrero keek tot haar op, met vochtigen blik en hijgende borst.

Maar plotseling rees Anita overeind, zij kwam tot bezinning en

daarmede tot de schuchtere vrees die alle vrouwen is aangeboren.

»Ga heen!” riep zij terwijl zij zich in den versten hoek der kamer
terugtrok, »ga heen, caballero. Hoe komt gij hier? wie heeft u bij mij
ingeleid? Antwoord, antwoord mij dadelijk!”

De Tigrero boog deemoedig het hoofd.

»God alleen heeft mij hier gebracht, señorita,” riep hij met een
nauwelijks hoorbare stem, »zooals gij zelf hebt gezegd, señorita. O!
vergeef mij dat ik u aldus heb durven verrassen. Ik heb een groven
misslag begaan, dat weet ik; maar een ongeluk bedreigt u, dat heb
ik gevoeld en geraden; gij zijt alleen, zonder hulp en ik kwam hier
om het u te zeggen; señorita, ik ben wel zeer gering en zeer
onwaard u te dienen, doch gij hebt een trouw en vastberaden hart
noodig, dat bied ik u aan; neem mijn bloed, neem mijn leven, ik zou
mij gelukkig achten voor u te mogen sterven. In ’s hemels naam,
señorita, in naam van al wat u lief is op de wereld! wijs mijn verzoek
niet van de hand; mijn arm en mijn hart zijn tot uwe beschikking.”

Deze woorden werden met eene door hartstocht bewogen stem

uitgesproken, [58]terwijl don Martial midden in de kamer geknield
lag, met de handen gevouwen en de oogen op doña Anita gericht,
met een smachtenden blik, waarin zijne gansche ziel zich uitdrukte.

Doña Anita keek den jongman wederkeerig strak aan, als om zich
van zijne oprechte bedoeling te verzekeren, en zonder het hoofd af
te wenden naderde zij hem langzaam, aarzelend en bevend, tegen
wil en dank. Toen zij dicht bij hem kwam stond zij een oogenblik
besluiteloos, maar legde hem eindelijk hare kleine blanke hand op
de schouders en bracht haar gelaat zoo dicht bij het zijne dat hij
haar frisschen adem op zijn voorhoofd voelde en hare
geparfumeerde lokken zijne wangen streelden.

»Gij bemint mij dus, don Martial?” vroeg zij met een welluidende
stem.

»O!” prevelde de jongman schier tot waanzinnigheid verliefd door

deze zoete gewaarwording.

De Mexicaansche boog zich over den Tigrero en raakte met hare

rozenlippen zijn klam voorhoofd.

»Welaan,” zeide zij, oogenblikkelijk terugspringende als eene

verschrikte hinde, terwijl een purperen blos hare wangen kleurde uit
schaamte over den stap dien zij had gewaagd, »nu moogt gij mij
verdedigen, don Martial, want voor God, die ons ziet en hoort, ben ik
uwe vrouw.”
De Tigrero vloog op als geëlectriseerd door dezen gloeienden kus.
Met een fier voorhoofd en tintelenden blik, sloot hij het meisje in
zijne armen, leidde haar in een hoek van de kamer naar een zilveren
statuet van de heilige Maagd, voor hetwelk eene welriekende lamp
brandde.

»Kniel, señora!” zeide hij met bezielde stem terwijl hij zelf de knie
reeds boog.

Doña Anita gehoorzaamde.

»Heilige Mater dolorosa!” hervatte don Martial, »Nuestra Señora de

la Soledad, troosteres der bedroefden. Gij die de harten beproeft, gij
ziet de reinheid onzer wenschen en de heiligheid onzer liefde. In
uwe tegenwoordigheid neem ik doña Anita de Torres tot vrouwe. Ik
zweer haar te zullen verdedigen en beschermen tegen en voor allen,
met mijn goed en leven in den strijd dien ik heden aanga voor het
heil van haar die ik bemin en die ik van heden af beschouw als mijne
echte en deugdelijke bruid.”

Na deze gelofte met eene duidelijke en krachtvolle stem te hebben

uitgesproken, wendde de Tigrero zich naar het meisje.

»Nu is het uwe beurt, señorita,” zeide hij.

Doña Anita vouwde de handen en sloeg de oogen vol tranen op naar

het heilige beeld.

»Nuestra Señora de la Soledad,” stamelde zij met eene diepe, door

aandoening geschokte stem, »gij, mijne eenige beschermster van
den dag mijner geboorte af, gij weet of ik u getrouw was, ik zweer
dat [59]alles wat deze man heeft gezegd waarheid is; ik neem hem
tot echtgenoot voor u, en zal nooit een anderen nemen.”

Zij stonden op.

Doña Anita trok den Tigrero naar het balkon.

»Vertrek!” zeide zij, »de vrouw van don Martial moet niet verdacht
worden: vertrek, mijn echtgenoot en mijn broeder; de man aan wien
men mij wil overleveren heet de graaf de Lhorailles. Morgen eer de
zon opgaat, gaan wij waarschijnlijk op reis naar zijne hacienda.”

»En hij?”

»Is dezen nacht reeds vertrokken.”

»Waarheen?”

»Dat weet ik niet?”

»Ik zal hem dooden?”

»Tot weerziens, don Martial, tot weerziens!”

»Tot weerziens! doña Anita, houd moed, ik waak over u.”

En na haar een kus op het voorhoofd te hebben gedrukt, stapte hij

over de balustrade, greep de reata en liet zich in de straat afglijden.

»Helaas! helaas!” murmelde zij met een gesmoorden zucht, »wat

heb ik gedaan! … Heilige Maagd, gij alleen kunt mij den moed
wedergeven die mij ontzinkt!”

Zij liet het gordijn neder dat voor het venster hing en keerde terug
om voor het Madonnabeeld te knielen, maar deinsde oogenblikkelijk
achterwaarts met een uitroep van schrik.

Op twee passen afstand stond don Sylva de Torres met gefronste

wenkbrauwen en een streng gelaat.
»Doña Anita, mijne dochter,” zeide hij met een langzame, hortende
stem, »ik heb alles gezien en gehoord; spaar dus, verzoek ik u, eene
nuttelooze ontkenning.”

»Vader!.…” stamelde het arme kind met een gebroken stem.

»Zwijg!” hervatte don Sylva, »het is thans drie ure. Wij vertrekken
met zonsopgang, en binnen veertien dagen wordt gij de vrouw van
den graaf don Gaëtano de Lhorailles.”

Zonder er verder een woord bij te voegen stapte hij langzaam de

kamer uit en sloot de deur achter zich toe.

Alleen achtergebleven, stond doña Anita in gebogen houding bij de

deur als om te luisteren, zij wierp een verwilderden blik om zich
heen, deed eenige wankelende stappen voorwaarts, sloeg de beide
handen krampachtig naar de benauwde toegeschroefde keel, gaf
een verscheurenden gil en stortte op den vloer neder.

Zij lag in onmacht. [60]

Gemeenzame term onder het volk in Mexico, voor omhalsbrengen. ↑

1
[Inhoud]
VII.
 EEN TWEEGEVECHT.
Het was omtrent acht ure des avonds toen de graaf de Lhorailles de
woning van don Sylva de Torres verliet. De feria de Plata was toen in
haar vollen luister: de straten van Guaymas waren met eene vroolijk
woelende menigte bedekt: aan alle kanten verhief zich het gejuich,
gezang en gelach; stapels goud blonken op de monté-tafels, en
verspreidden hun geelachtigen verleidelijken gloed in het heldere
schijnsel der talrijke aan alle deuren en vensters schitterende
lichten; hier en daar hoorde men de vihuelas en jarabes strijken en
tokkelen uit de met drinkers en dansers opgevulde pulquerias. De
graaf werkte zich met schouders en ellebogen zoo snel mogelijk door
de dichte groepen die hem ieder oogenblik den doortocht
versperden; maar zijn pas gehouden gesprek met don Sylva had
hem in een te gelukkige luim gebracht dan dat hij er aan zou
gedacht hebben om boos te worden over de tallooze stooten die hij
ieder oogenblik ontving.

Eindelijk, na ontelbare moeielijkheden en met verlies van dubbel ja

driemaal zooveel tijd als hij onder andere omstandigheden noodig
zou hebben gehad, gelukte het hem tegen tien uren des avonds zijn
logement te bereiken.

Hij had bijna een uur noodig gehad om ongeveer zes honderd
passen ver te gaan.

In de meson komende, ging de graaf onmiddellijk naar de corral om

zijn paard te verzorgen, dat hij twee schoven alfalfa (spurrie) gaf; na
vervolgens te hebben last gegeven dat men hem ten een ure
wekken zou, zoo hij, dat wel niet waarschijnlijk was, nog niet op
mocht zijn, begaf hij zich naar zijn cuarto (kamer) ten einde eenige
uren rust te nemen.

De graaf was voornemens ten een ure des morgens te vertrekken,

om de hitte van den dag te vermijden en meer op zijn gemak te
reizen.

Bovendien, na zijn gewichtig onderhoud met don Sylva, verlangde

de edele avonturier zeer om alleen te zijn, ten einde nog eens het
geluk te overdenken dat hem in den afgeloopen avond was te beurt
gevallen en zulk eene schoone toekomst beloofde.

Sedert zijne komst in Amerika had de graaf de Lhorailles—om hier

een gemeenzame uitdrukking te bezigen—met ongehoord geluk
gespeeld; alles liep hem mede, alles kwam zijne wenschen en
plannen te gemoet; binnen weinige maanden stond de balans van
zijn fortuin als volgt: het bezit van eene kolonie, onder de gunstigste
vooruitzichten gegrondvest en bereid, op den weg van vooruitgang
en bloei; daarbij in het volle genot zijner nationaliteit, met volkomen
vrijheid van handelen, onafhankelijk en meester van alle partijen,
was hij in dienst bij het Mexicaansch gouvernement, als kapitein
[61]eener vrij-kompagnie van honderd vijftig man, hem geheel
toegedaan en met wier behulp hij alles, zelfs de buitensporigste
ondernemingen, zoo al niet uitvoeren dan ten minste wagen kon;
ten slotte op het punt van te huwen met de eenige dochter van een
man, die zooveel hij kon nagaan twintig maal millionair moest zijn,
en wat de zaak zeker niet erger maakte, zijne aanstaande bruid was
eene allerbekoorlijkste vrouw: ziedaar in korte trekken de stand van
zijn tegenwoordig fortuin.

Ongelukkig of gelukkig, al naar het oogpunt waaruit de lezer verkiest

onzen held te bezien, had de voorspoedige man geen gevoel of hart
meer voor iets: geblaseerd door de bedwelmende buitensporigheden
van het leven in Parijs, klopte zijn boezem niet meer onder de
afwisselingen van vreugde, droefheid of vrees; alles in hem was
gestorven. Zoo was hij juist de man om te slagen in het land waar
het toeval hem geworpen had. In den grooten levensstrijd door hem
in Amerika begonnen, had hij een groot voordeel op zijne
mededingers, namelijk dat hij zich nooit door zijne hartstochten liet
regeeren en, dank zijne onverstoorbare koelbloedigheid, in staat was
om telkens de strikken te verijdelen die gedurig voor zijne voeten
gespannen werden en waarover hij wist te triomfeeren zonder dat
hij het zelf scheen te gevoelen.

Na het boven gezegde zal het niet noodig zijn er bij te voegen dat
hij de vrouw wier hand hij zocht, niet beminde; was zij jong en
schoon, zooveel te beter; maar al ware zij oud en leelijk geweest,
zou hij haar toch genomen hebben. Wat kon het hem schelen? hij
zocht in dit huwelijk niets anders dan eene schitterende en
benijdenswaardige partij.

Kortom, bij den graaf de Lhorailles was alles berekening.

Maar neen, wij vergissen ons in een enkel opzicht, de graaf de

Lhorailles had ééne zwakke zijde, hij was eerzuchtig.

Deze drift, een der hevigste roerselen die het menschelijk hart in
beweging brengen, was misschien het eenige dat den graaf aan de
maatschappij verbond.

Die eerzucht was bij hem, vooral sedert de laatste maanden, tot zulk
eene hoogte ontwikkeld dat hij er alles voor zou hebben opgeofferd.

Maar wat was nu het doel van zijne eerzucht? wat was de eigenlijke
droom zijner toekomst?

Deze vraag zullen wij den lezer later waarschijnlijk tot in de kleinste
bijzonderheden kunnen beantwoorden.
De graaf, na zich ontkleed te hebben, ging naar bed, dat wil zeggen,
wikkelde zich in zijn zarape en strekte zich op de brits, of liever het
raam met lederen overtrek, dat in gansch Mexico dienen moet om
onze bedden te vervangen, een meubel dat in Europa geheel
onbekend is.

Nauwelijks was hij gaan liggen of hij sliep in met de gerustheid

[62]van een ijverig werkzaam man, voor wien ieder uur kostbaar is
en die, daar hij slechts over weinige oogenblikken te beschikken
heeft, zich haast om ze waar te nemen en slaapt, zoo als de
Spanjaarden zeggen: a pierna suelta, hetgeen wij zouden kunnen
vertalen door slapen »met gesloten vuisten.”

Ten één ure des morgens, gelijk hij zich beloofd had, werd de graaf
wakker, hij stak de eenige cebo aan die hem tot verlichting diende,
bracht zijn toilet een weinig in orde, bekeek met zorg zijne pistolen
en zijne karabijn, voelde of zijn zwaard wel vlug uit de scheede ging,
en na de verdere voor iederen reiziger die op zijne veiligheid bedacht
is onvermijdelijke voorzorgen, opende hij de deur der cuarto en
begaf zich regelrecht naar de corral.

Zijn paard vrat nog volmondig en lustig zijn laatste hapje spurrie; de
graaf gaf het een maat haver toe, die het met een zacht gehinnik
genoot; vervolgens legde hij zijn viervoetigen vriend den zadel op.

In Mexico zal geen echt ruiter, tot welke klasse der maatschappij hij
ook behoort, ooit aan anderen toevertrouwen om zijn paard te
verzorgen, want in deze nog half wilde streken van Mexico hangt het
lijfsbehoud van den ruiter grootendeels af van de kracht en vlugheid
van zijn paard.

De deur der herberg stond slechts op de klink, om den reizigers

vrijheid te laten van komen of gaan naar verkiezing, zonder iemand
anders in huis te verontrusten.
De graaf stak een sigaar op, steeg in den zadel en reed in
gestrekten draf den weg op van Guaymas naar de Rancho.

Niets is aangenamer dan het reizen in Mexico bij nacht of in den

vroegen morgen. De aarde, door de nachtelijke koelte met
overvloedigen dauw besproeid, wasemt er de verkwikkendste en
welriekendste geuren, wier heilzame invloed aan het lichaam al zijne
kracht en aan den geest al zijne helderheid geeft.

De maan, die weldra onder zou gaan, verlengde met haar bijna
horizontaal invallend licht de schaduw der hier en daar langs den
weg staande boomen, en gaf hun in de nachtelijke duisternis het
aanzien van spoken.

De donkerblauwe hemel was met een talloos heir van tintelende

sterren bezaaid, te midden waarvan het Zuidelijk Kruis, aan hetwelk
de Indianen den naam van Poron Chayké hebben gegeven,
schitterde met onverdoofbaren glans. De wind schuifelde zacht door
de takken, tusschen welke de blauwe nachtuil nu en dan zijn
melodisch maar klagend gezang hooren liet, en waarmede zich in de
diepten der wildernis het ernstig gebrul van puma en cougouar, of
het hortend gemauw van panter en boschkat vermengde, of het
schorre geblaf der op buit loerende coyotes.

Bij zijn vertrek van Guaymas had de graaf zijn paard sterk aangezet,
maar in weerwil van zich zelven, door den onweerstaanbaren
[63]indruk van dezen verrukkelijken herfstnacht medegesleept,
vertraagde hij ongemerkt den pas van zijn paard en gaf zich van
lieverlede over aan den vollen stroom der gedachten, die gedurig in
zijn brein opkwamen en hem weldra deden zinken in zoete
mijmeringen.

De afstammeling van een oud en hooghartig Fransch geslacht, hier

in de woestijn alleen, liet in zijn geest den verdwenen luister van zijn
sedert lang verduisterden naam voorbijgaan en zijn hart zwol van
vreugd en van trots bij de gedachte, dat voor hem wellicht de taak
was weggelegd, om, zoo niet den roem zijner voorzaten te
herstellen, ten minste ditmaal voor altijd het fortuin zijner familie te
vestigen, dat hij tot hiertoe zoozeer veronachtzaamd, althans zoo
slecht had weten te bewaren.

De grond, dien hij nu betrad, moest hem honderdvoudig teruggeven

wat hij zoo dwaselijk verloren en verkwist had; het oogenblik was
gekomen, waarop hij eindelijk vrij van alle banden de plannen zijner
toekomst zou verwezenlijken, die hij zoo lang in zijn hoofd had
ontworpen.

Zoo reed hij stapvoets voort, midden in de wildernis en zoodanig in

zijne eigene beschouwingen verdiept, dat hij geen acht sloeg op
hetgeen er rondom hem gebeurde.

De sterren aan den hemel begonnen te verbleeken en de een na de

ander te verdwijnen. De dageraad teekende reeds een witte streep
aan den uitersten horizont, die zich van lieverlede kleurde met
roodachtige tinten; met de aannadering van den dag, werd de lucht
koeler en frisscher, terwijl de graaf door het koude gevoel van den
rijkelijk gevallen dauw der woestijn zoo te zeggen uit zijne
sluimering gewekt, huiverend de plooien van zijn zarape om zijne
schouders trok en zijn paard op nieuw in galop zette, met een
verstoorden blik op den veranderden hemel en een wreveligen
uitroep:

»O! ik zal slagen, in weerwil van alles!”

Verwaten uitdaging, op welke de hemel onmiddellijk scheen te willen

antwoorden.
Ofschoon de dag op het punt stond van aan te breken, was het alsof
juist daarom de nacht, in zijne worsteling met de
ochtendschemering, des te duisterder wilde worden, gelijk dit
trouwens na het ondergaan der volle maan meermalen gebeurt,
gedurende de weinige minuten die de verschijning der zon
voorafgingen.

De eerste huizen der rancho van San José begonnen zich reeds in de
verte te vertoonen en hunne witte gevels in den dikken morgennevel
op te steken, toen de graaf op eens kort achter zich op de keien van
den weg den haastigen hoefslag van verscheidene paarden hoorde
klinken, of althans meende te hooren weergalmen.

In Amerika, bij nacht en op een eenzamen weg, is de ontmoeting

van menschen altijd, of ten minste bijna altijd een teeken van
dreigend gevaar.

De graaf bleef staan om te luisteren, het geluid naderde snel. [64]

De Franschman was dapper, dit had hij bij menige gelegenheid

getoond; intusschen gevoelde hij weinig lust om ergens op weg
onverhoeds overvallen en wellicht jammerlijk vermoord te worden.

Hij keek in het rond, om zich te vergewissen hoeveel kans er was

om zich te redden, in geval de aankomende ruiters vijanden
mochten zijn.

Het terrein was geheel kaal en effen, geen enkele boom, of kuil, of
heuvel achter welke hij zich zou kunnen verschansen.

Op twee honderd passen afstands verhieven zich, zooals wij reeds

gezegd hebben, de eerste huizen der Rancho.

De graaf nam dadelijk zijn besluit. Hij gaf zijn paard de sporen en
reed in vliegenden galop in de richting van San José.
Het bleek weldra dat de vreemdelingen zijn voornemen hadden
geraden, want ook zij versnelden den gang hunner paarden
merkelijk.

Zoo verliepen een paar minuten, terwijl het gedruisch van den galop
al meer en meer duidelijk werd.

De Franschman begreep dus dat het op hem gemunt was, en dat de

vreemde ruiters, wie zij ook wezen mochten, hem zochten in te
halen.

Hij wierp een blik achterwaarts, en bemerkte in de donkere verte

twee schaduwen, die recht op hem aanhielden en in onbeteugelde
vaart naderden.

Intusschen had de graaf de Rancho bereikt; door de nabijheid der

huizen gerustgesteld en niet gaarne voor een wellicht ingebeeld
gevaar willende vluchten, wendde hij zijn paard plotseling om en
posteerde zich dwars in de straat met een pistool in iedere hand.

De vreemdelingen renden aan met onverpoosde snelheid; weldra

waren zij geen twintig passen meer van den graaf verwijderd.

»Wie daar?” riep hij met een luide en ferme stem.

De onbekenden antwoordden niet, maar schenen nog harder door te

zetten.

»Wie daar?” herhaalde de graaf, »houdt op, of ik schiet.”

Hij sprak dit op zulk een beslisten toon en met een zoo
onverschrokken houding, dat de onbekenden, na een oogenblik
aarzelens bleven staan.

Zij waren met hun beiden.

De dag, die meer en meer begon aan te breken, veroorloofde den
graaf hen volkomen te onderscheiden. Zij waren gekleed als
Mexicanen, maar vreemd voor dit land, waar de bandieten zich
weinig bekommeren hun gelaat te vertoonen, waren zij gemaskerd.

»Heila! bazen,” riep de graaf, »wat beduidt die hardnekkige

vervolging?”

»Dat is waarschijnlijk omdat wij u gaarne wilden inhalen,”

antwoordde eene holle stem sarcastisch.

»Hebt gij het dan op mij gemunt?”

»Ja, zoo gij de vreemdeling zijt die zich de graaf de Lhorailles

noemt.” [65]

»Juist; ik ben de graaf de Lhorailles,” zeide hij onverschrokken.

»Goed, dan hebben wij elkander een woordje te zeggen.”

»Daar heb ik niets tegen, al moet ik uit uw voorkomen opmaken dat

gij bandieten zijt; zoo het u misschien om mijn beurs te doen is,
neemt die en gaat uws weegs, ik heb niet veel tijd.”

»Uw beurs moogt gij behouden, caballero: het is uw leven, niet uw

geld dat wij u willen ontnemen.”

»Ah zoo! dat is hier dan eene aanranding vooraf en een moord
daarna?”

»Niet geraden: wij stellen u een eerlijken strijd voor.”

»Hm! een eerlijken strijd,” riep de graaf, »van twee tegen een, dat is
mijns inziens toch wel een weinig ongelijk.”
»Daarin zoudt gij gelijk hebben, wanneer het zoo was,” antwoordde
degene die tot dusver het woord had gedaan, »maar mijn kameraad
is hier alleen om het gevecht aan te zien, niet om er deel aan te
nemen.”

De graaf bedacht zich een oogenblik.

»Pardi!” riep hij ten slotte, »het is wel een raar avontuur! een duël in
Mexico en met een Mexicaan!.…. dat is tot hiertoe nog nooit gezien.”

»Dat is waar, caballero, maar er is een begin voor alles.”

»Al scherts genoeg; ik heb er niets tegen om te strijden en hoop u

te bewijzen dat ik wel durf; maar eer ik uw voorstel aanneem, zou ik
gaarne weten waarom gij mij noodzaakt met u te vechten.”

»Waartoe zou dat dienen?”

»Waartoe zou dat dienen? Caspita! omdat ik het weten wil. Gij
begrijpt wel, dat ik hier mijn tijd niet kan verspillen met al de
slechthoofden den hals te breken die mij op weg ontmoeten en
goedvinden om zich met mij te meten.”

»Laat het u dan voldoende zijn te weten dat ik u haat.”

»Caramba! daar was ik genoegzaam zeker van, maar dewijl gij er op

staat om uw aangezicht voor mij te bedekken, zou ik u toch gaarne
eenmaal willen herkennen.”

»Al woorden genoeg,” hervatte de onbekende, »de tijd vliegt heen;

wij hebben reeds veel te lang geredekaveld.”

»Welnu, meester, als het er zoo mede gelegen is, houd u dan gereed
ik zeg u vooruit, dat ik voornemens ben op u beiden te schieten: een
Franschman is niet verlegen om twee Mexicaansche bandieten het
hoofd te bieden.”

»Zoo als gij goedvindt,”

»Voorwaarts!”

»Voorwaarts!”

De drie ruiters spoorden hunne paarden en reden op elkander in;

toen zij elkander ontmoetten schoten zij hunne pistolen op elkander
af, daarop trokken zij hunne sabels.

De strijd was kort, maar hevig; een der onbekenden, licht gewond,
[66]werd door zijn paard weggevoerd en verdween in een wolk van
stof. De graaf, even door een kogel geraakt, voelde zijn woede ten
top gestegen en verdubbelde zijne pogingen om zijn vijand meester
te worden of althans buiten gevecht te stellen; maar hij had met een
moeielijken tegenstander te doen, een man van verbazende
behendigheid en in kracht ten minste met hem gelijk.

Hij zag zijne oogen als gloeiende kolen schitteren door de gaten van
zijn masker, terwijl hij met ongelooflijke snelheid om hem heen reed
en zijn paard de stoutste sprongen en wendingen deed maken, hem
gedurig aanvallende, nu met de spits en dan met het scherp van zijn
sabel, en tegelijk zorg dragende dat hij buiten het bereik der slagen
van zijn tegenpartij bleef.

De graaf verspilde tegen zijn onvermoeiden vijand zijn kracht te

vergeefs; zijne bewegingen begonnen aan vaardigheid en juistheid
te verliezen, zijn gezicht werd beneveld, het zweet gudste van zijne
slapen. De aanvallen zijner stilzwijgende tegenpartij daarentegen
werden des te sneller; de uitslag van den strijd was niet meer te
betwijfelen, toen de Franschman plotseling een strik op zijne
schouders voelde, en eer hij er aan dacht om er zich van te ontdoen,
zoo onzacht uit den zadel gerukt en op den grond werd geworpen,
dat hij bijna bewusteloos bleef liggen, zonder zich te kunnen
bewegen.

Den tweeden onbekende was het, na een dollen rit van eenige
minuten, eindelijk gelukt zijn paard weder meester te worden; en
toen met allen spoed naar de plaats van het gevecht terug gereden,
zonder dat de twee verbitterde kampioenen door de hitte des strijds
zijne tegenwoordigheid opmerkten, had hij het noodig geoordeeld
den strijd te doen eindigen en zijn reata nemende had hij den graaf
gelasseerd.

Zoodra de onbekende zijn vijand zag vallen, steeg hij van zijn paard
en liep naar hem toe.

Zijne eerste zorg was den Franschman van den strik te bevrijden, die
hem bijna worgde, vervolgens poogde hij hem weer tot bewustzijn
te brengen, hetgeen niet veel tijd vorderde.

»Ha!” riep de graaf met een bitteren glimlach, terwijl hij opstond en
de armen op de borst kruiste, »durft gij dat een eerlijken strijd
noemen?”

»Gij alleen hebt de schuld van hetgeen er gebeurd is,” antwoordde

de andere, »daar gij mijne voorstellen niet hebt willen aannemen.”

De Franschman verwaardigde zich niet hierover te redeneeren, hij

vergenoegde zich met verachtelijk de schouders op te halen.

»Uw leven heb ik gewonnen,” vervolgde zijn weerpartij.

»Ja, door een schelmstuk; maar wat kan het mij schelen! vermoord
mij en maak er een eind aan.”
»Ik wil u niet dooden.”

»Wat wilt gij dan?”

»U een raad geven.” [67]

»Mij?”

»Ja, u.”

De graaf grinnikte.

»Gij zijt een gek, waarde heer.”

»Niet zoo erg als gij denkt. Luister aandachtig naar hetgeen ik u te
zeggen heb.”

»Zoo ik hopen mocht daardoor des te eerder van uwe

tegenwoordigheid ontslagen te worden, zou ik het doen.”

»Hoor dan, señor conde de Lhorailles, uwe komst hier te lande heeft
twee personen in ’t ongeluk gestort.”

»Loop heen, gij houdt mij voor den gek.”

»Ik spreek in vollen ernst. Don Sylva de Torres heeft u de hand

zijner dochter beloofd.”

»Wat gaat u dat aan?”

»Antwoord.”

»Het is zoo, waarom zoude ik het loochenen?”

»Doña Anita bemint u niet.”

»Hoe kunt gij dat weten?” riep de graaf met een schamperen lach.

»Ik weet het, en ik weet bovendien dat zij een ander bemint.”

»Welnu en wat nog meer?”

»En dat die andere haar bemint.”

»Des te gekker voor hem, want ik zal haar nooit afstaan, dat zweer
ik u.”

»Gij hebt ongelijk, señor conde, gij zult haar afstaan, of gij sterft.”

»Het een zoo min als het ander!” riep de onstuimige Franschman,
die thans van zijn val geheel hersteld was. »Ik herzeg u dat ik Anita
zal huwen. Bemint zij mij niet, hetgeen ik echter betwijfel, welnu dat
is een ongeluk; ik hoop dat zij later te mijnen opzichte wel van
meening zal veranderen; ik wil dat huwelijk, en niemand is in staat
het te verhinderen.”

De gemaskerde had hem met de hevigste ontroering aangehoord,

zijne oogen fonkelden van woede, hij stampvoette van spijt; het
gelukte hem echter zijn gevoel te overmeesteren en hij antwoordde
met eene kalme en bedaarde stem:

»Zie wel toe wat gij doet, caballero; ik heb gezworen u te

waarschuwen, en ik waarschuw u eerlijk en trouw, de Hemel geve
dat mijne woorden in uw hart weerklank vinden en dat gij den raad
volgen zult dien ik u geef!.… De eerste keer dat het lot ons weer bij
elkander brengt, moet een van ons beiden sterven.”

»Ik zal de noodige voorzorgen nemen, wees daar gerust op;

intusschen doet gij verkeerd dat gij de tegenwoordige gelegenheid
niet waarneemt om mij te dooden; want die zult gij nooit terug
vinden.”
De twee gemaskerden waren weder te paard gestegen.

«Graaf de Lhorailles,» zei de eene, «wees op uw hoede.» Bladz.

67.
»Graaf de Lhorailles,” zei de eene, zich nogmaals tot den
Franschman wendende, »wees op uwe hoede, ik heb op u een groot
voordeel; [68]ik ken u en gij kent mij niet, het zal mij dus altijd
gemakkelijk zijn u te bereiken, als ik dat wil. Wij Mexicanen zijn van
Indiaansch en Spaansch bloed, wij zijn vurig in het haten, wees
gewaarschuwd!”

Na eene beleefde buiging voor den graaf barstte hij los in een
spotachtigen schaterlach, gaf zijn paard de sporen en vertrok in
duizelingwekkende vaart, gevolgd door zijn zwijgenden kameraad.

De graaf oogde hem na met een peinzenden blik tot zij in de

schemering verdwenen waren; hij schudde eenige malen het hoofd
als of hij er de sombere gedachten wilde wegschudden die hem
tegen wil en dank bestormden; toen raapte hij zijn sabel en hier en
daar verstrooide pistolen op, nam zijn paard bij den teugel en stapte
langzaam naar de pulqueria in welker nabijheid de strijd was
voorgevallen.

Het licht dat door de slecht gevoegde planken der deur scheen en
het gezang en gelach, dat hij daar binnen hoorde deden hem
veronderstellen, dat hij in de herberg nog wel een tijdelijk
nachtverblijf zou vinden.

»Hm!” mompelde hij half overluid terwijl hij voorttrad, »de bandiet
heeft gelijk, hij kent mij, en ik zal hem onmogelijk weer kunnen
vinden. Vive Dios! daar heb ik mij een mooien haat op den hals
gehaald! Bah!” vervolgde hij, »wat geef ik er om! Ik was al te
gelukkig, ik had een vijand noodig. Bij mijn ziel! laat men doen wat
men wil, al zou de duivel zelf tegen mij samenspannen, zweer ik, dat
niets mij bewegen zal de hand van doña Anita af te staan,”

Op dit oogenblik bevond hij zich voor de pulqueria, waar hij op de

deur klopte.
Van nature niet zeer geduldig en bovendien vergramd door hetgeen
hem overkomen was en door den vreeselijken kamp dien hij had
moeten verduren, was de graaf op het punt van zijne bedreiging uit
te voeren en de deur aan spaanders te breken toen zij eindelijk
geopend werd.

»Valge me dios?” riep hij verbolgen, »laat gij de menschen voor uw

huis vermoorden zonder hun te hulp te komen.”

»Zoo!” riep de pulquero levendig met zekere nieuwsgierigheid, »is er

iemand vermoord?”

»Neen, Goddank!” hervatte de graaf, »maar het scheelde weinig, of

ik was dood.”

»O!” riep de pulquero onverschillig, »als men zich wilde storen aan
allen die bij nacht om hulp roepen, dan zou men de handen vol
hebben, en daarbij, als de politie er achter komt, heeft men er maar
last van.”

De graaf haalde de schouders op en trad binnen, met zijn paard aan

den toom achter zich; terwijl de deur onmiddellijk gesloten werd.

De graaf de Lhorailles wist nog niet dat al wie in Mexico een lijk
opneemt, of zich tegen den moordenaar civiele partij stelt, verplicht
[69]is om de kosten van het gerecht, die soms enorm hoog loopen te
betalen, en ten slotte toch geen verhaal of recht voor het slachtoffer
kan krijgen.

Men is in geheel Mexico hiervan zoo vast overtuigd, dat als er een
manslag plaats heeft, iedereen zich uit de voeten maakt zonder het
slachtoffer hulp te verlenen, daar dit, ingeval er de dood op volgt,
voor hem die er zich mede bemoeid heeft de grootste
onaangenaamheden veroorzaakt.
In Sonora doet men nog erger, zoodra er een oploop is, en een
doode valt, sluit iedereen zijne deur.
[Inhoud]
VIII.
 HET VERTREK.
Zoo als don Sylva de Torres aan zijne dochter gezegd had, was
tegen zonsopgang alles gereed om te vertrekken.

In Mexico en bovenal in Sonora, waar de wegen gewoonlijk het

beste zijn, als zij ten eenenmale ontbreken, gaat het reizen geheel
anders dan in Europa.

Daar zijn geen openbare vracht- of postdiensten, geen

pleisterplaatsen of paardenposterijen, veel min spoorwegen. Eene
reis van eenige dagen kost oneindig veel zorg en beweging, men is
dan verplicht alles bij zich te hebben, daar men niet zeker is iets
onder weg te zullen vinden: bedden, tenten, levensmiddelen en
water wel het meest; alles moet op muilezels gepakt en weggesleept
worden; zonder deze voorzorgen, zou men gevaar loopen van
honger of dorst om te komen of onder den blooten hemel te moeten
overnachten.

Daarbij moet men zich van een aanzienlijk, goed gewapend geleide
voorzien, om den aanval van wilde beesten niet slechts, maar ook
der Indianen en vooral der struikroovers af te weren, daar het dank
zij de regeeringloosheid van dat ongelukkige land op alle wegen van
Mexico van wemelt.

Diensvolgens zal de lezer gemakkelijk begrijpen, dat don Sylva

reikhalzend verlangde om Guaymas zoodra mogelijk te verlaten,
toen, zoo als wij gezegd hebben, in den vroegen morgen alles voor
zijn vertrek gereed was.

De opene plaats voor het huis had veel van eene groote
pleisterplaats; vijftien muildieren met pakken en balen beladen
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