Bhutan -- A Pathway to Solve Climate Change

Roscommon/Crawford Chapter

Bhutan

In a recent blog, we discussed the book, The Future We Choose, which spoke of opportunities for mitigating climate change . This blog suggests a model that we might emulate as we find our way forward from our nation’s current problems. The model is a most unlikely one, it comes from a small nation in the far east with a king. You may be shocked at their wisdom. 

Bhutan, officially known as the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked country in South Asia. Located in the Eastern Himalayas, it is situated on the ancient Silk Road between Tibet, India and China. A small nation, Bhutan reports a total population of just under a million people with a land mass of 14, 824 square miles (less than ½ the size of lower Michigan). In 2008, Bhutan transitioned from an absolute monarchy to a constitutional monarchy and promptly created their National Assembly, a bicameral parliament of the Bhutanese democracy. For the last few years, Bhutan has the distinction of being known as the earth’s only nation known to have a negative carbon footprint, i.e., the nation consumes more carbon dioxide than it gives off. The nation produces slightly more than two million tons of carbon dioxide a year, and the immense forest covering 72% of the country acts as a carbon sink, absorbing more than four million tons of carbon dioxide, nearly twice what the nation emits.

The country's landscape ranges from lush subtropical plains in the south to the sub-alpine Himalayan mountains in the north, where are peaks 23,000 feet high. Gangkhar Puensum is Bhutan's highest peak at more than 24,000 feet and may also be the highest unclimbed mountain in the world. The nation fosters ecotourism based on the stunning beauty of the mountains and valleys and the diversity of its wildlife that roam the land. The government is a parliamentary democracy; the head of state is the King of Bhutan, known as the "Dragon King." Bhutan maintains diplomatic relations with 52 countries and the European Union.

In South Asia, Bhutan ranks first in economic freedom, ease of doing business, and is known as the least corrupt country in the region. It continues to be ranked as an undeveloped country, but expects to graduate from this status by 2023. Since the nation is blessed with many fast running waters, they are used to produce more hydroelectricity than the nation can use, allowing sales of excess energy to their neighboring nations.

Bhutan's economy is based on agriculture, forestry, tourism and the sale of hydroelectric power. Agriculture provides the main livelihood for 55.4 percent of the population. According to the Swiss-based International Union for Conservation of Nature, Bhutan is viewed as a model for proactive initiatives. The Kingdom has received international acclaim for its commitment to biodiversity as reflected in their decision to maintain at least 60% of their land under forest cover, and to designate more than 40% of its territory as national parks, reserves and other protected areas. Most recently, the nation identified a further nine percent of its land area as biodiversity corridors linking their protected areas. Now, all of Bhutan's protected land is connected through a vast network of biological corridors, allowing animals to migrate freely throughout the country. 

Environmental conservation has been placed at the core of the nation's development strategy, the middle path. Their nation has made work on climate change and nature national goals. The Bhutan Institute of Conservation and Environment, in partnerships with schools and nature clubs across Bhutan, employs a combination of weather data collection and citizen science to help understand climate change. In its second year of implementation, their project has succeeded in mainstreaming plant phenology observation and climate change as study topics in their high-school environmental science curriculum. 

Bhutan is also notable for pioneering the concept of Gross National Happiness while their financial goals measured by Gross National Product, falls to secondary importance. Gross National Happiness has become part of their constitution and is a guiding philosophy as the government implements technology changes. The government of Bhutan collects data to measure the happiness and well-being of their population as The United Nations urges. 

The United Nations publishes an annual World Happiness Report. It contains various articles and rankings of national happiness based on respondent ratings of their own lives, which the report also correlates with various life factors. As of March 2020, Finland was ranked the happiest country in the world three times in a row. 

It seems to me there is much to learn by looking at other nations, even tiny ones headed by a king who seems to have the interests of the earth, his people, and wild animals foremost in mind. Perhaps our national leaders would do well to consider the ideas that he is pursuing since it is clear that we need to expand our focus on things of the earth beyond mere financial goals.