FOR those used to seeing environment and development as being fundamentally in conflict with each other, Amartya Sen has now offered a fresh perspective. Addressing the Third Future Environmental Trends Conference in Bangalore on Saturday, Mr Sen argued that this “extraordinarily confrontational view is ... fundamentally erroneous and misconceived”.

Much of his argument on the environment and development being interdependent is built into his conceptualisation of these terms. Since he sees development as freedom, all elements that improve that freedom are components of development. The freedom to have access to good air and clean water can only be provided by the environment. Even as environmentalists would cheer this concept, the way he perceives the environment could leave some of their extreme fringe somewhat unhappy. Amartya Sen insists that protecting the environment is not just a matter of leaving nature as it is. He believes there are parts of the environment, like the smallpox virus, that are better destroyed. He looks at the environment largely in terms of what it does to humans. He does, of course, take a broad view of what is in human interests, which he believes includes the protection of endangered species.