For most social scientists and especially for economists, Kerala is unexplored human territory. In its most significant reference to Kerala, the Scientific American labeled Kerala a mystery inside an enigma. (Wallich) Scholars from within the Indian enigma applying western social sciences should, of course, explain the mystery. Unfortunately both Indian and western social scientists are invested in not explaining Kerala. (Douthwaite)
Nevertheless, the bare elements
of the Kerala mystery can easily be displayed in comparisons of the relative
amounts of Earth resources controlled and the degrees of well-being created
using these resources. Well-being is loosely defined in the literature.
(Dodds, Ger) Accordingly
we must specify that well-being refers to
aggregate measures of human life expectancy, educational levels, infant
mortality, and birth rates as well as many less measurable aspects of human
life.
The values in the above graph are estimates of current data. For the Whole Earth, the control of Earth resources and degree of human well-being are scaled at half of the sustainable potential. This scaling establishes a base for comparisons of these values among smaller entities. The estimates for North America are displayed above for reader orientation showing a large amount of resources per capita controlled in North America associated with a large degree of human well-being. India is shown with its small per capita control of Earth resources and small degree of well-being.
The information presented
in the above bar charts fits our common sense interpretation. That is,
Earth resources are used by humans to create their well-being.
And the use of larger amounts of Earth resources in North America is shown
in association a larger degree of well-being in North America. Accordingly
within our common sense understanding, the use of smaller amounts of Earth
resources per capita in India is associated with smaller shares of human
well being.
In this bar chart we can
see beyond a comparison of North America with Kerala into a comparison
of sustainable human behavior and unsustainable
behavior. Sustainable human behavior in the twenty-first century requires
both limited resources use and limited numbers of humans. Human numbers
are limited in both in North America and in Kerala to zero population growth,
that is, total fertility rates of
less than two. The high well-being in both places causes the low birth
rates. The unlimited consumption of the North American population cannot,
however, be found to be sustainable.
This chart begs the sustainability question, "Why is North American resource use so large? Complex historical, and economic explanations are possible. Such explanations may be reduced to a simple answer, however. Large amounts of Earth resources are controlled in North America. North Americans do not limit their use of Earth resources because they do not have to. On the other side of this coin, the citizens of Kerala (as in all India) limit their use of Earth resources because they do have to.