How miserable that we are having to ‘purchase’ oxygen ‘manufactured’ by machines!
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- Harshad Tulpule
It seems that very soon we will have to remove a statement in science textbook that ‘plants produce oxygen’. Recently, the first Oxygen bar was opened in Delhi where people go inside, breath for few minutes and pay the bill. “Economists” might welcome this new start-up initiative as it adds value to GDP. In fact, it’s our big misfortune that we are required to ‘pay’ for clean breath!
‘Oxy Pure Oxygen Bar’, founded by Aryavir Kumar and Margarita Kuritsyna offers its customers 15 minute breathing sessions with pure oxygen that costs anything between Rs. 299 and Rs. 499. In the bar, pure oxygen is obtained from air, up to 90% through an oxygen concentrator machine. There is a wide range of flavors available as well, such as eucalyptus, lavender, vanilla, peppermint, spearmint, cinnamon, lemongrass, orange, cherry and more.
This bar is getting a huge response since its establishment as clean air has become the rarest of the rare in Delhi. On Nov 16, Delhi was shrouded in a pale yellow haze as an official air quality index ranged between ‘very poor’ to ‘severe’ levels of up to 470 on a scale reaching 500 at several monitoring centres. Business minded people have very well succeeded in the ‘encashment of pollution’. In fact, this picture evidences a big ecological tragedy.
Big flaw in modern economics: Nature’s free services to humans are not counted in GDP
The phenomenon of opening of oxygen bar unfolds a big battle - the battle between economics and ecology. Almost all countries in the world (except Bhutan) have accepted GDP (Gross Domestic Product) as their indicator of economic development and all are rushing for faster GDP growth. GDP is nothing but the summation of market value of all goods and services produced in a country at a particular point of time. However, GDP considers the ‘market value’ of those goods which are ‘produced’ by humans. Value of natural resources (air, water, sunlight, soil, forests, etc) is not counted in GDP until they are freely available to all.
Natural resources have zero intrinsic value. For example, when a tree is standing as it is, it has zero value in GDP despite it provides ecological services such as oxygen, shadow, groundwater restoration, food to animals, etc. But, when we cut that tree and manufacture a chair, it adds Rs. 2000 (or whatever) value to GDP. the loss of ecological services of the plant is simply neglected. Thus GDP growth necessitates the depletion of natural resources.
When natural resources are abundantly available, they are freely available to all. But as they become scarce, they get market value which goes on increasing as the resource becomes more and more scarce. Now, people have to buy them from the market which is affordable to few rich people. In previous times, water was freely available to everyone, but now, due to its scarcity, we have to spend around 30 rupees for one litre of drinking water.
Similar is the case of Oxygen. Oxygen is the biggest service that trees provide to human beings. It is estimated that on an average, one tree produces around 260 pounds of oxygen in a year. No economist has yet tried to calculate the value of this tremendous ecological service of nature. When clean air was abundantly available, nobody realised its value and today, when it has become scarce due to skyrocketed pollution and reckless deforestation, it has got market value.
What is the Future? Future is clear... With the “inevitable” increase in pollution, clean air will become more and more scarce...It will open new investment opportunities to capitalist businessmen...Thousands of such oxygen bars will be opened everywhere...It will multiply country’s GDP...Oxygen will be available only to those who have enough money in their pocket...and others...will simply die!...Modern economics doesn't care for them!Do we really want oxygen manufactured by machines? Or free clean air maintained by nature?