Asian leaders, many of whom still have to confront the politics of mass poverty, are single-minded in their pursuit of wealth. Their eagerness for votes makes them reluctant to charge the full costs of such services as supplying water and building urban transport systems, which in turn makes the adoption of expensive, environment-friendly technologies rare. Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi declared in 1972 that poverty is the biggest polluter, and Asian leaders generally believe that the West is pushing environmental concerns only to stifle the economic aspirations of the poor.

Even in a democratic country like India, pollution is not an important election issue. But Asia has shown that relatively dictatorial governments can sometimes perform environmental miracles. Two of Asia's major achievements--the cleanliness of Singapore and the reforestation of two-thirds of South Korea in the 1960s and '70s--were both recorded under authoritarian regimes. On the other hand, India has spawned impressive community-based efforts in which local villagers were empowered for the first time to manage their own village environment, working on such things as reforestation and soil conservation. As the ecological crisis grows, Asians will likely find their own ways to deal with it. And they will reflect the diversity of Asia's cultures and systems of governance. But it is unlikely that most Asian nations will stem the crisis before it begins to stare people in the face. And successes, for a long time, will be far fewer than failures.

The trouble is that politicians all over the world continue to give greater importance to economy than to ecology. The result is that most Asian countries feel they are being unfairly asked to share the economic burden of conservation even though such global problems as climate change and ozone depletion are largely Western creations. What particularly galls Asian countries is that while the U.S. is the world's most important user of the products of tropical biodiversity--seeds, medicinal herbs and biopesticides--it has not signed the biodiversity convention forged at the Earth Summit and has not developed any mechanism to compensate local communities where raw materials for useful products are discovered. Nor has the U.S. hiked its low energy prices.

Global attitudes would change greatly if nations like the U.S. showed green leadership back home. Asians may join international programs to protect the environment, but only with reluctance. Facing growing problems at home, they will see global concerns as another burden. That means Asia's environmentalists have a very tough task ahead.

Anil Agarwal is director of the Centre for Science and Environment in New Delhi